Chapter 225: Say That Again To My Face
Two men were cutting through Lunaris Keep in parallel.
One was a king looking for the infirmary while the other was a prince looking for a reckoning.
Sterling: This keep really has no security at all. A strike team is sweeping the halls and no one gives a damn.
Ryker: We could literally be assassins.
Two wrong turns. One dead end. Finally, Maddox decided to ask for directions.
First attempt: a stammering, terrified wolf gave directions so fucked that landed them in the kitchen.
Ryker: Should I help or is this too entertaining?
Sterling: Don’t you dare.
Second attempt: a wolf gave crystal clear directions and they ended up in a fucking storage room.
Maddox: This Keep makes no goddamn sense.
Ryker: It’s a rectangle.
Maddox: Say that again and I’ll make you one.
Ryker: ...I don’t even know what that means but I believe the threat.
While Maddox was lost in a gaslighting rectangle, Cassian knew exactly where he was going.
One of those problems was funny.
Neither was aware of the other.
DOMINO 16: THE SUNK COST STRIKES BACK
LUNARIS KEEP - 7:25 PM
Hallway blades. Decorative. Every castle has them.
Tradition, they say. Also the dumbest fucking security feature imaginable if you think about it for even one second.
Genius, really. Especially when your cast-out son is hauling ass down the hallway with zero fucks left to give.
Men with nothing to lose move fast.
Up the stairs. Through the dungeon door. Into a hallway where a mounted blade sat there like a dare, and Cassian had never met a dare he didn’t fuck.
Lungs on fire. Face worse. Every step tore at the scar tissue and he burned that shit the way a furnace burns trash, bodies, and bad decisions.
He ran like the six words still banging around his head might fall behind if he just moved fast enough. They didn’t. So he aimed them forward at the bastard who’d said them.
Ten yards. Eight.
Daddy’s back was a clean straight line, walking like he’d already moved on. Cassian hadn’t. Cassian was just warming the fuck up.
He caught Renwick’s shoulder mid-stride. Full grip. Yanked the bastard around to face him. His blade found his father’s throat before the spin was even halfway done.
Steel on skin. Son versus father. Six inches apart.
Cassian’s burn was close enough for Renwick to smell. Cooked flesh and the metallic ghost of dragon fire. His father breathed it deep and didn’t give a single shit.
For a moment, neither of them moved.
Cassian looked at Renwick like the man who’d just put him in the ground, while the Alpha King looked at his son like the out-of-control fire he’d been dumb enough to start.
Cassian broke the silence first as a tear fell down burned flesh.
"Say it again to my face."
"You’re not my heir. You’re not my legacy. You are the product of a marriage I regret, carrying the blood of a woman I never loved, with the temperament of a man I would never follow and the judgment of a boy I stopped trusting years ago."
Renwick’s pulse was visible in his throat but his voice was smooth.
"Are you going to kill me, Cassian?"
Cassian’s breathing went ragged as the blade pressed until Renwick’s skin dimpled white around the edge.
"Because if you are, this is sloppy."
"You think I won’t?"
"No. You don’t want to kill me. You’re a dog that bit the hand that fed it and now you’re standing there with blood on your teeth waiting for the hand to pet you anyway. You want me to show you that this matters. It doesn’t. You don’t."
Cassian’s blade bit deeper. A bead of blood ran down Renwick’s collar.
"I held your borders. I held your alliances. I held your Keep while you were gone. For three years."
"You maintained it. Maintaining is not running. And then you burned it all down in one night because she looks like the woman who replaced your mother. That’s not leadership, Cassian. That’s a tantrum with a title. You won’t kill me."
"You sound sure. I have nothing left to lose, remember?"
"I am sure. Because killing me requires a plan for what comes after. Lower the blade and I’ll give you one chance to salvage this."
Cassian’s whole body was vibrating. "Salvage what? You just disowned me."
"I told you what you are right now. I didn’t say it was permanent. Sunk costs can be restructured. Assets can be revalued. But not like this. This is a boy with a blade. I need a man with a plan. Which one are you, Cassian? Because the next ten seconds are going to decide your entire future and you’re spending them crying."
"You are afraid after all," Cassian snapped, his voice ice cold. "You and I both know you don’t mean that."
"Fine. You kill me and then what? You sit on a throne with a burned face, a dead father, and every elder in this Keep testifying that you drew first blood. You’d last six weeks. Maybe eight if Draven felt generous. Then they’d bury you next to me and neither of us gets a legacy. Congratulations. You’ve planned a murder with no exit strategy. Just like everything else you’ve done this week."
"False. I know how to run a damn kingdom. Sons take over for their fathers all the time. I’ll manage."
"Maybe. It doesn’t change the fact that you’re the worst investment I’ve ever made. You wanted me to say it to your face? There it is. Every word. Now do something about it or get out of my sight, because I am done pretending you were ever going to be enough."
DOMINO 17: ASKING THE STABBED GUY FOR DIRECTIONS
LUNARIS KEEP - 7:25 PM
Ryker watched his king ask for directions, go the wrong way, come back, ask again, go the wrong way again, and finally find the infirmary by what appeared to be dumb luck.
As soon as he got there the universe, which had been fucking with him all day, delivered one more.
"Gone to Greyhall Crossing," Maddox repeated. He almost laughed.
"Was there a man with the princess? My brother Kael."
"You’re Kael’s..." Tyler’s eyes went as wide as saucers. "Yes. He saved our keep last night. He’s a hero. But he was stabbed and didn’t go with her."
A Luminari healer walked in on the word ’stabbed’ and stopped like he’d hit a wall. "Where is he?"
"The East Tower. He’s been there since dawn," Tyler replied.
"I have no one on my register in the east tower."
The color drained from Tyler’s face. "Our healer was supposed to check on him—"
Beta Draven cut Tyler off mid-word.
"The healer was passed out in the corridor. The old man is at his limit, I’m afraid." He looked at Maddox. "You’ll have to forgive my son. He has not been conscious most of the day. Follow me."