Chapter 0004

*Kieran*

I can still feel the sharp rips in the skin of my back where that fucking cat sunk it’s claws in, and my hands ache from the scratches that forced me to let it go before I ripped it in half. I don’t know what the fuck is happening in this place, but something is wrong, and I don’t like it.

I rush past Nessa and her cronies where they still stand in the hall. One of them calls out to me, but I wave a dismissive hand. I don’t give a fuck if Nessa Winters is bleeding to death all over the Goddessdamn marble floor. What I do care about is my stupid sister getting herself into trouble again. How many times does she have to be told to stop fucking with Nessa? Last time, I thought Mother was going to break her legs. She came pretty damn close. Mother and her fucking fireplace poker. Thank the Goddess she never turned that on me or any of my other siblings.

Why is it okay that she beats the living shit out of Blanca then?

I don’t have an answer for that. It’s just always been that way. My parents have always treated her like garbage, except for the few times they’ve put a nice dress on her and made her stand with us on the platform to wave at the people below the balcony. The rest of the time, she’s treated worse than trash by them. By everybody.

By me.

A spark of electricity washes over me again, but I refuse to acknowledge it. That woman has gone too far this time. She’s been down there talking to Blake, finding out about his magic, and I don’t like it. Father told me a long time ago to keep an eye on her. She’s my twin, older than me by a few hours. She could try to claim the throne.

My throne.

“Where are you off to in such a hurry?” My best friend and will-be Beta, Taner, asks as he falls into step beside me. Thankfully, he’s walking on what will now be considered my “good” side and can’t see my fucking eye.

“Nowhere,” I tell him. “My room.”

“Did you hear about the Haze? It’s moving in so fast, it’ll be here before the full moon. It’s wild. Of course, nothing will happen until the moon is full, but it’s kind of crazy not to be able to see anything more than a few yards away.”

He continues to babble on about the fucking weather as I storm down the hallway. I fully intend to go to my room, but with Taner refusing to shut the fuck up, I storm right past the hallway. I have another idea of where to go.

Taner moves in front of me before I reach the dungeon door. “Hey, your room’s that way. Oh, fuck. What the hell happened to your eye?”

“Move, Taner. I have important matters to attend to.” I try to sidestep him, but he moves in front of me, fascinated with the condition of my face.

“Looks like a Goddessdamn bird tried to fucking peck your eyeball right out of your skull!” He chuckles, the mop of blond hair on his head dancing around as he does so.

“Get the fuck out of my way, asshole.” I push him aside, throw open the door, and take the steps two at a time. It’s dark down here and smells like body odor and shit. I have no idea why anyone would want to come down here, especially not a princess.

Not that we’ve ever treated Blanca like she’s a princess.

Thoughts of what happened between us in the hallway come to mind again. What the fuck was that? Something about being so close to her stirred my wolf in a way that I’ve never experienced before. Rather than squeezing her throat so tight she couldn’t breathe, I just stood there, staring into her black eyes.

They aren’t black, though. I noticed then that they have little flecks of silver and blue in them. They’re actually quite beautiful. My sister is beautiful.

“What the actual fuck?”

I say it aloud this time. My mind is all kinds of fucked up. I don’t know if it’s the Haze, the animal attacks, or the idea that there’s a psychotic magician living in our basement, but I need to seriously get a hold on myself.

“Your Majesty?” one of the guards says as I briskly walk by him. I don’t acknowledge his existence as I make my way down the dark corridor to Blake’s cell. He’s leaning against the far wall, his tattered clothes even more a mess since he was given a lashing earlier. I can hear the blood dripping on the stone floor. He doesn’t turn to face me, but I know he senses my presence, and I can assume he knows it’s me.

“Whatever the fuck you did… whoever the fuck you are… you need to leave Blanca alone. Life is already awful for her, if you haven’t noticed. If you continue to play your mind games with her, you’re going to end up getting her beaten–to death.”

He’s quiet for so long I think maybe his ears are ringing so loudly from the punishment that he can’t hear me, but then he speaks, in a low growl of a voice. “I have done nothing. But I find it amusing that you, of all people, pretend to care what happens to her.”

“What the fuck is that supposed to mean?” I grab hold of the bars between us and shake them. Certainly, I have never been kind to my sister, but I haven’t beaten her like my mother has or locked her up without food or water for days like my father has.

He turns slowly, and I can see not only did they give him the lash, but his eyes are swollen to slits, dried blood caking his crooked nose and lips. “You have done nothing to help her, and that makes you just as guilty as the others.”

A squawking sound at the windows has me turning my head up. Four large ravens sit there on the sill, staring down at me. I want to dare the bastards to come at me so I can shift into my wolf and rip them in half, but my conversation with Blake is more important.

“It’s never been my place to question the king and queen–her own parents.” I feel weak speaking the words, knowing they aren’t the truth. As a child, I could’ve done nothing to help Blanca, but we are twenty-one years old now. In the last several years, I could’ve done something.

I could’ve done anything.

Blake wheels around to face me, and even though he should be weak from the punishment, he stalks toward me on steady legs. “You may think you know who I am, boy. But you don’t. Your father has filled your head so full of lies, you wouldn’t know the truth if it tried to peck your eyes out. This haze that’s accumulating right now will change everything for you, and when it clears, I hope your eyes are no longer blinded to the truth.”

“What the fuck are you–”

He interrupts me. “None are so blind as those who choose not to see!” Behind him, the birds begin to squawk. He takes another step toward me. “If something sounds false, looks false, and feels false, Prince Kieran, how can it be the truth?”

“Hey! Get away from the prince!” I hear a guard shout as Blake is practically nose to nose with me through the cell bars.

I want to reach between them, grab his throat, and squeeze as hard as I can. I want to feel the life evaporate from him, to leave my father’s mortal enemy that he captured on the battlefield over twenty years ago nothing but a rotting carcass lying on the floor of this dungy, Goddess-forsaken dungeon.

But this close to him, even in the dim light casting shadows from the lantern on the wall, I can see his eyes. They’re black like obsidian, deep, pools laced with insanity–and power.

But that’s not what catches my attention.

Dancing around in that black pool of nothingness, I see something familiar, something that sends a bolt of shock down my spine.

Little flecks of silver and blue.