The Palace (Chateau Book 4) Read online

  Worked in my office. Went on distribution checks. Slept beside her every night without really being present.

  She knew my thoughts were heavy but didn’t ask about them.

  I sat behind my desk and looked at my computer, but I didn’t read a single word because my mind was elsewhere. Magnus was at the forefront of my mind, a concern I’d never thought I would have. He’d never challenged me like that. Never disobeyed an order. Never deviated from the path.

  Did he mean what he said?

  Or had he said it in anger?

  “Everything okay?”

  My eyes shifted to Melanie on the couch.

  “You make that face when you’re upset, and you’ve had that face for days now.”

  I knew her better than she knew herself. And apparently, she knew me in the same way. I closed my laptop and sat across from her on the other couch. My hand moved through my short hair then down the back of my neck, massaging the tension in the muscles.

  “What did Magnus say to you?” she whispered.

  I dropped my hand and didn’t give an answer.

  But she already knew. “Fender—”

  “My relationship with my brother has never been strained like this. Even when we were sleeping beside a dumpster, it was never this bad. We robbed innocent people together and never questioned it. And now…I feel like I’ve lost him.”

  Her eyes softened like wilted flowers.

  “It’s the one thing I thought I would never lose.”

  “You could never lose him,” she said gently. “But he wouldn’t be a good brother if he weren’t pushing you to be better than what you are now.”

  I looked away.

  “You may believe in different things, but your loyalty to each other will never die.”

  She hadn’t heard the conversation. She hadn’t felt the shift under my feet. She hadn’t heard the change in his tone.

  “Isn’t your relationship with your brother more important than this?” she whispered.

  I looked at her again.

  “Isn’t your existing family more important than the one you lost?”

  Silence.

  “Remember, it’s not just Magnus anymore. It’s me. And as much as you don’t want it to be…it’s Raven too. We’re a family now. Let the past go. Embrace the future—with us.” She pleaded with her eyes, begged me to do what I was incapable of doing.

  My phone vibrated in my pocket, but I ignored it.

  “It’s never too late to do the right thing.”

  I looked away, seriously considering her words. My father was decomposed somewhere in the ocean. If his remains were found, they would never be identified. He tried to wipe us out of existence, but we survived, and now he was the one forgotten. My surname was powerful. My lineage was preserved. I got revenge for us. And I could continue to make that family grow…with the woman I loved.

  My phone rang again.

  This time, I didn’t ignore it. I sighed and dug my phone out of my pocket. “Quoi?”

  Nathan spoke over the line. “Magnus a arrêté la Neige Rouge.”

  In silence, I processed the words he’d just said to me.

  “Quels sont vos ordres?”

  I felt so much rage. It started in my stomach then exploded everywhere. I pictured my brother in my mind, pictured him betraying everything I’d worked toward. He made his claim, and I was foolish for calling his bluff. It wasn’t his actions that infuriated me. It was his disloyalty. He’d betrayed me several times, and I forgave him because he was my kin. But now, he spat on my mercy. “Je suis en route.” I hung up.

  Melanie’s eyes were wide because she knew something had happened. “What’s going on?”

  I shoved the phone into my pocket and rose to my feet. “Magnus banned the Red Snow. And now I’m going to the camp to kill him.”

  The anger never faded.

  It was high the entire drive, the whole horse ride.

  Melanie tried to talk me out of my decision, but her words fell on deaf ears. This level of fury was the only thing that could make me forget her existence. It was as if she wasn’t there at all. Her tears, her pleas, her kisses, literally meant nothing to me.

  There was only one thing I cared about.

  Magnus.

  I rode into the camp and dropped down from my horse. The reins were thrown to one of the guards. My boots hit the dirt, and my knife was suddenly heavy in my pocket. When I set eyes on him, I wasn’t sure what I would do.

  If I would slit his throat right on the spot.

  Or stab him in the gut and watch him bleed to death.

  Magnus emerged from behind a cabin—and walked right toward me.

  With his head held high and a strong posture that lacked apology, he approached me. Eyes cold like winter, shoulders tense in preparation for a fight, a jaw so tight that it was obvious he was clenching his teeth.

  The men watched.

  Magnus stopped in front of me, waiting for his fate, ready to accept the consequences of his actions.

  There was so much rage that I couldn’t suppress it. It erupted over my features, made my teeth hurt because they ground together like pepper in a grinder. My eyes were so wide with fury that the sockets actually hurt. He hadn’t just betrayed me. He’d humiliated me. Again.

  And I was done being humiliated.

  He held my gaze, arms by his sides, and waited.

  I wanted to reach for that knife and slice his throat right then and there. Watch him collapse. Watch him grip his throat and gasp for the air that would never reach his lungs. But I didn’t.

  I couldn’t. “If you want to have children someday, don’t fuck with me.” I would castrate his remaining testicle right then and there if it wouldn’t make him sterile. But I’d already taken one, and taking another would affect my lineage as well as his. The only reason I had an ounce of mercy was because of the blood that ran in his veins.

  There was no apology.

  He didn’t drop his gaze like the last time he’d betrayed me.

  He had the audacity not to look ashamed.

  He stared at me head on and spoke words I never thought he’d say. “You don’t want to fuck with me either, brother.”

  I inhaled a sharp breath, his words audible for everyone to hear.

  Couldn’t believe it.

  He’d crossed a line.

  I had to kill him.

  Had to.

  I would lose all the respect of my men if I didn’t.

  He needed to be forced to the ground so I could machete his fucking head off the way I did to the Renaldi brothers.

  But I didn’t.

  And if I didn’t walk away right now, I might.

  I walked past him—even though it was the hardest thing I’d ever had to do.

  Magnus never came to my cabin.

  He didn’t approach me at all.

  There was no apology. No groveling. No shame.

  I’d given him more time, but it was becoming very clear to me that he wouldn’t cave.

  He’d humiliated me so deeply that I couldn’t show my face to my men, not unless I had a response to clean the stain that he’d forced on me. The power had been taken from me, which had never happened in my adult life before I gave it to Melanie. But Magnus stripped it from me.

  Fucking took it.

  I had to do something.

  I left my cabin and marched to the clearing. It wasn’t Friday, but I didn’t need it to be Friday to do what I was about to do. “Alix, pick the weakest three.”

  Alix turned to me, his face covered by a hood, but his expression somehow visible.

  “Now.”

  He didn’t hesitate before he left to change in his cabin.

  Nathan lit the torches around the clearing, the sun disappearing over the horizon the moment the last one was lit.

  The women all knew what the torches meant.

  Red Snow.

  Alix returned, in his executioner gear, ready to claim the lives of three people.

>   One by one, he grabbed them.

  They screamed. They begged. They cried.

  I felt nothing.

  I felt nothing after my own blood betrayed me.

  The one person I trusted more than anyone stabbed me in the fucking back.

  Magnus must have heard the screams because he came running, heading right for Alix. “What the fuck are you doing? I made my stance on this perfectly clear.”

  Alix turned around and left the women on the ground. The mask covered the bottom half of his face, but the shine in his eyes showed his hidden smile. “I don’t take orders from you, asshole.”

  I stepped behind Magnus and waited for him to turn around.

  Magnus pulled out his knife from his pocket and held it at the ready. “Let them go, or I’ll cut off your balls, your lips, and your nose.”

  Alix wasn’t scared because he had a more formidable foe on his side. He looked behind Magnus, right at me.

  My brother stilled—because he knew.

  He slowly turned around and met my look, a hint of surprise there, as if he actually believed there was a chance Alix was the one behind this. His faith infuriated me.

  My concentrated stare was full of anger and disappointment. The betrayal stung—and it would always sting. Magnus had forced me to do this because I had no other option. “Because of your foolishness, I will take three lives instead of one. The women can thank you for that.”

  He shook his head slightly, still in disbelief. The women and guards stared at us as the torches flickered. His eyes remained on me as if there was no one else there, and when he spoke, it was just for me to hear. “You’re better than this.”

  Nothing would dim my anger. Nothing. “Sorry to disappoint you, brother.”

  He flinched at my cruelty. “It doesn’t have to be this way.”

  “Yes, it does.” I looked past him and nodded at Alix, telling him to continue with the butchering.

  With lightning speed, Magnus punched Alix so hard in the back of the head that he fell to the ground and didn’t get up again. There must have been so much adrenaline in his veins to numb the pain, because his knuckles slammed into the hardest skull I’d ever seen. He turned back to me and stared me down, now as his enemy.

  The two other guards standing with the women didn’t move forward, having seen their enormous comrade collapse on the ground from a single hit.

  Magnus held his ground and didn’t back down. “I’m not going to let this happen.”

  He officially severed all loyalty to me. I was the one who saved his life. He wouldn’t even be here right now if it weren’t for me. But he seemed to have forgotten that. He seemed to have forgotten the night I got jumped trying to get enough money to get him to the doctor when he was sick. “You’re weak.”

  “And you’re deranged.”

  “Step aside, Magnus. I mean it.” The threat was unmistakable. It was a showdown—and I would come out the victor.

  “Or what?” he challenged. “You’re going to kill me?” He echoed the same question I’d asked of him, calling my bluff publicly, saying it loudly so everyone could hear. He put me on the spot, pushed me to the brink.

  My anger increased tenfold. I’d never wanted to kill someone I loved, but now I actually wanted to. I wanted to bury him in the graveyard where our family rested in eternal peace. He betrayed me—so he was dead to me anyway.

  “The only way you’re gonna stop me is by killing me. So, I suggest you pull out your knife and do it.”

  The line was drawn in the sand.

  He left me no choice.

  I had to do it.

  All eyes were on me.

  It was so quiet that the torches sounded like an inferno.

  To do nothing would permanently humiliate me. It would damage my power. It would ruin everything I’d built.

  But all I did was stare.

  He knew I couldn’t do it. He fucking knew it. “We can do this another way. I promise you.”

  My eyes remained focused with hatred.

  He stepped closer to me, lowering his voice. “Don’t be like Father. Be like Mother.”

  The mention of her was a wound that no one could see. Because, of everyone I’d lost, I missed her the most. Croissants on Christmas morning. The sight of her in the first row at my symphony concerts. Listening to her sing as she drove us to school in the morning. She was the most innocent person who’d ever lived—and she was murdered.

  Magnus must have known he’d hit me hard because he pressed harder. “Let’s stop disappointing her more than we already have. Come on, Fender.”

  I refused to be swayed. I refused to give up my hatred. My vengeance was all I had left. “We’ve already talked about this. It’s too late.”

  He shook his head. “It’s never too late. Stop this.”

  The silence lasted forever. I didn’t pull out my weapon or order the guards to continue the slaughter. I didn’t move against him either. I didn’t kill him where he stood. With a defeated voice, I spoke. “You win, Magnus.”

  Magnus couldn’t control his reaction. Relief rippled across his face like a pond once a stone had been thrown into it. Affection came soon afterward.

  I shattered it. “For now. When your rotation is finished, you’ll be discharged from your service. You will never return here—and I will run this camp as I see fit.”

  His eyes fell as a new level of disappointment hit him like a ton of bricks.

  “You called my bluff and won.” I nodded to the guards to release the crying women and put out the torches. I’d allowed my brother to humiliate me publicly because killing him was something I just couldn’t do. So, I had to do something else instead. Something deep. Something permanent. “I won’t kill you. But we aren’t brothers anymore. When you leave…I don’t want to see you again.”

  Hurt moved into his features, as if what I said was just as bad as a knife to his stomach. Now he was the one who looked betrayed. I didn’t take his life, but I took our relationship—and that was just as bad.

  I spoke to my brother one last time in this life. “You’re dead to me.”

  Days passed.

  Once that final conversation happened, I didn’t think about my brother again.

  He didn’t exist.

  When he left the camp, it would be over.

  I wouldn’t have a brother anymore.

  My decision spared some of my humiliation, but not nearly enough. And that wasn’t the only reason why I did it.

  I did it because I wanted to.

  I watched the TV in the dark, my thoughts drifting to Melanie. Now that my brother had been exiled from my life, it would complicate my relationship with her. She’d want to see her sister, and I wouldn’t be there in order to avoid Magnus. But she wouldn’t leave me.

  I knew that.

  She was the only family I would have left.

  Magnus’s voice was audible on the other side of the door, talking to Eric. He overpowered Eric and entered the cabin, sharp hostility in his eyes. His anger hadn’t abated over the course of the last few days.

  Neither had mine.

  I turned off the TV and stared him down.

  He stared back.

  “Say what you want to say so you can leave.”

  His eyes narrowed at my coldness. “I’ve never been disloyal to you—”

  “Bullshit.”

  He stepped closer. “I haven’t. I would take a knife for you in a heartbeat. I would hang for your crimes. I would do anything for you—”

  “Clearly not.”

  His hands tightened into fists before he dropped into the chair across from me. “The reason this camp has been untouched is because I’m here. I’m your eyes and ears when you’re elsewhere. You trust me, and without me, this place will go to shit. You fucking know it.”

  “And it hasn’t already?” I gave him a cold look.

  “No. It’s being remodeled, which we needed—”

  “Wasn’t it remodeled when your little cunt burned it t
o the ground?”

  His eyes immediately flashed in anger. “Let’s not forget that your fiancée burned it down too. Let’s not forget that she killed the executioner. The woman you’ve vowed to love your entire life feels the same way I do. You’re the only one who feels otherwise. So, stop being stubborn.”

  I grabbed my scotch and took a drink. “It has nothing to do with stubbornness.”

  “It has everything to do with it. I’m not leaving my post. I will continue to work here since I need to watch your back because no one else will do it. I have no problem with what we do for a living. I feel no remorse for putting drugs on the street. I feel no remorse for killing men who deserve death. But I can’t do it at the expense of the innocent—not anymore.”

  “That’s only been a concern to you since your dick got wet.”

  “Fuck you. It’s always been a concern to me. But I admit loving a prisoner has definitely put me over the edge.”

  I would never understand his fascination. She wasn’t worthy of love.

  “Fender, we just need to change this aspect of the camp. That’s all.”

  “We’ve talked about this. It doesn’t work—”

  “Then we make it work.”

  I shook my head slightly. “If it were feasible, I would do it. I won’t sit here and say the killing of those girls is justified. It’s wrong. Irrevocably wrong. But I have other priorities that are more important to me.”

  Magnus shook his head. “There is no priority more important than innocent lives.”

  I looked away, annoyed with this conversation.

  “I’m not gonna let this go, Fender. You can banish me from the camp, but I’m going to get back in here just the way I got into your cabin.”

  I turned back to him, eyes narrowed. “Are you threatening me?”

  He held my gaze without flinching. “I’m warning you.”

  “Sounds like the same thing to me.”

  “Trust me, you would know if I were threatening you.”

  I shook my head. “Don’t make me do it when I don’t want to.”

  “But you do want to stop killing the girls.”

  “No, I’m not talking about that.” Both of my hands tightened into fists. “I’m talking about you. If you keep opposing me, you’ll leave me no choice. Don’t put me in that position.”