Page 142 of The Fallen Fae King

I wet over my dry lips. “Tell me.”

Maximinus’ eyes glitter like he knows that he has caught me. “The funny thing is that KalaKant believed that your brother was the docile twin, while you were the strong one. But you remained under the control of those who trained you, while Lazarus never did. He behaved because he was told that it was the only way to keep you alive, but as soon as he heard that you’d become King, he ran.”

My throat is tight. “I don’t believe you.”

Maximinus gives a cruel laugh. “Why? Did you believe that your brother was a good little sacrifice? Happy to throw himself into the Void?”

I had.

I’d been prepared to sacrifice myself.

Pride rises in me that Lazarus valued himself enough not to.

Yet is any of this true? I can’t trust Maximinus. I don’t trust the Void Devil, however, who claimed that my twin died either.

Hope still surges through me.

What if Lazarus is alive?

“You told him to run to Draca Kingdom apparently,” Maximinus replies. “You insisted that he would be safe here. He wanted to seek help for you.”

My breathing picks up. “Please, is he here? Is he all right? Where…?”

“If you’d made an oath to serve me, then I would have told you. Too late.” Maximinus wanders to the base of the steps. “When you think about it, I suppose it makes it your fault that he came here. I welcomed him in, of course. He was so sweet and innocent after all that time hidden away by the Void Cult. He didn’t know that he should set up protections or deals to stop himself from being hurt. But I was generous enough to promise to bring his brother to the Shadow Court.” He gestures at me. “I didn’t say that you’d be here as a guest, rather than a captive. But that can change. You’ll learn that to a vampire, rather than a fae pet, I can be kind. I can reward, rather than punish. Take up my offer. I’ll give you some time to think about where your allegiances should lie. I’m the one who saved your brother, while Aurelius…”

“What?” I rasp.

I won’t believe a word that Maximinus has said until I see my brother with my own eyes.

I won’t bind myself to serve Aurelius’ enemy.

But what if after more than a decade without seeing Lazarus, the other half of my soul, I finally get to see him?

My eyes burn with the tears that I am holding back.

“Hmm.” Maximinus mounts the first step. “Maybe the problem is that you’re being kept in solitary. It would be better to give you some company and remind you what it feels like not to live as an outcast. It may encourage you to remember what it felt like to grow up with your twin, and why you should be fighting harder to get him back.”

When he disappears up the steps, I burn my hand, slamming it into the bars.

“Where’s Laz?” I roar, unable to hold back the tears. “Where, you venomous serpent?”

Maximinus’ voice drifts back to me. “And you boasted that dragons didn’t know how to break you.”

CHAPTER TWENTY

Guild of Assassins, Shadow Court

Lanlin

“Laz…where are you?” I whisper. “Can you hear me?”

Lazarus. Lazarus. Lazarus.

I reach out through my connection to my twin, but I can’t feel anything, only a darkness deeper than the Void.

If he’s alive, why can’t I sense him? Why haven’t I been able to for months?

I huddle in the far corner of the freezing cell, resting my forehead against the wall.