Page 145 of The Fallen Fae King

How could I have made such a poor impression on people who are important to Lazarus?

I carefully place down the crown and crawl toward them.

Yara protectively crouches in front of Ahm.

“He’s fine, Yara,” Ahm says. “He’s Laz’s twin, yeah? And we love Laz, so we shall love his brother too, as family. He can join our pack.”

“We don’t know him.” Yara bares her fangs. “I swore my loyalty to Laz. But should I swear it to his brother?”

“How long have you been kept captive here?” I ask, while my heart aches at how easily Ahm claimed me as his pack.

“Years.” Yara’s voice is hollow.

“Then you may not know that I am also your King.”

“Fuck.” Yara’s expression floods with alarm.

“Have mercy, Your Majesty.” Ahm gasps with pain, attempting to pull himself into a kneeling position before me, despite his injured leg.

“Stop,” I command. They both freeze. “In here, I am not your King but Laz’s brother. You have my loyalty and devotion. I swear to protect you in his place as your family. I am honored to meet you. I always hoped that my brother would escape the Void Cult and experience even one day of love and happiness.” I reach to grasp both of their hands. “Thank you for giving Laz that.”

“Maybe you are more like Laz than we thought,” Yara admits.

I drop their hands, and my lips curl up at the side to show my fangs. “Oh, my dears, I am nothing like Laz. I am a leader of armies. A killer. He may have offered you hope, but I can offer you revenge and my fangs in the throats of all those who have hurt you.”

Yara yanks at the silver shackles that bind me, and I hiss in pain. “But not your claws.”

“I can still fight, and I won’t be bound forever.”

“That’s what we thought.”

I narrow my eyes. “Where is my brother? By the Shadow Devils, it is like being torn apart in the abyss not to know. Good or bad is better than this not knowing.”

Yara shoves herself to her feet, pacing the cell. “But we’re in the dark too. Ahm and I aren’t anything special like a king. We grew up in the same farming village next to the River Tenebris, where we were worshiped as dark gods by the Shadow Humans. But we wanted more — adventure — like the stupid cunts that we were. I was the worst because I convinced my younger friend to follow me into signing up to join the army. So, we’re just members of the Eternals. Rank and file. We’re not officers. Then in one skirmish on the borderlands we were taken prisoner.”

“The dragons don’t take prisoners.” I stand up as well, ignoring the agony from the welts on my back. “They slaughter everybody.”

“Then what are we?” Ahm groans, as he readjusts the bloody leather that is wound around his wound. “Ghosts?”

“Maximinus sometimes takes prisoners because he’s running magical experiments.” Yara shudders. “You don’t want to know the details, unless you wish to have nightmares.” I don’t need to. My tutor used fae prisoners in the same way. “It was that old bastard who took Laz from the cell. He never returned him. We thought…”

…he was dead.

She doesn’t need to say the words. Her grief is thick in the air and screams them.

I clench my fists.

I knew not to trust Maximinus. He took my brother in like he was saving him, when in fact he locked him up in this cell for years and then stole him away somewhere to experiment on him.

He never intended to lead me to my brother. He only wanted to trap me into serving him as an assassin, as once I had to serve Nebet.

But what if Lazarus is still alive? What if Maximinus is still holding him alive somewhere?

“Has anyone returned from these experiments?” I demand.

Yara hesitates, before nodding. “But not when they’ve been gone for this long.”

Ahm gestures at his outfit. “The dragons also kidnap soldiers because the Guild likes to test their techniques. The dragons usually took poor captives like us because there is no one to miss us. Fang Born nobles would have been searched for.”