Page 186 of Heir of Broken Souls

Right now, I don’t trust anyone but you, he admits.

My gaze tracks to the library door where the rest of his court wait for us. With a simple dip of my chin Knox slides his hands in mine and leads me out of the library.

Before he shuts the door, I turn at the last second. For some reason, I have the deepest urge to commit everything about this room to memory.

And so I do just that.

Knox sighs deeply. “Let’s go back to Lenox and make plans.” Without another word he pulls me down the hallway, silent as we descend the stairs.

* * *

The house feels far more sinister than earlier. Now knowing who lived here, no wonder dark magic clings to the very walls. They were practicing for…years? Centuries?

I halt suddenly. “Should we maybe search the castle again? Look for something that will tell us their plans?”

“We already searched this place top to bottom. We would have came across their plans by now.”

The steady steps of everyone following behind Knox and I ring out in rhythm to my slow heartbeat.

I think I’m numb.

I know I should be feeling large emotions, should be crying perhaps, but…I just feel nothing. A void lives in my heart where I should feel everything that we’ve learned, the repercussions of it, and yet there’s nothing.

The same can’t be said for Knox. He’s marching and walking as he did before, but along the bridge, there’s a man who is being crippled by pain.

It doesn’t take us long to make our way back to the mirror portal. We peer within and see Lenox anxiously pacing before it, with his hand wrapped around a sword.

Knox moves to step forward, but I whip out a hand, wrapping it around his bicep to stop him. “Wait.”

Turning, I walk back toward the castle, ignoring the eyes I can feel on my back.

All I see before me is the beginning of our end. The place where a monster was truly created, where one festered and schemed.

Where the man who took everything from me found a safe haven.

The thought flashes across my mind, and then I’m lifting my hands and whispering, “You’re not the only one who can take away the things people love.”

With a sinister smirk, golden fire engulfs the castle, burning as bright as a star. Everything burns, turning into nothing but ash.

As I feel Knox come to stand beside me, the hatred that has been in my heart for months breaks free. “He took everything from me. It’s about time someone started returning the favor.”

Chapter69

Knox

Asick sort of satisfaction fills my veins as Delilah and I stand side by side, watching as she burns our enemy’s home to the ground. Yet nothing will soothe the ache in my chest after seeing my parents’ faces today for the first time in decades. They were significantly younger in the memory than when they passed, so much so I wonder when the trial occurred.

Delilah spins on her heel, her palm resting on the dagger strapped to her hip. It’s jarring to witness her without the dragon pommel sword at her back. Shaking off my desolate thoughts and locking away the emotions that rose to the surface at seeing memories of my parents and the crippling failure at once again putting my innocent people in harm’s way, I trail after Delilah. Becoming the king everyone needs in this moment.

On the other side of the mirror portal, Lenox, with a thousand emotions swirling in his gaze, comes to an abrupt halt as we approach. He peers through the mirror with longing.

“Gods, can we hurry up and put him out of his misery?” Harlow snaps.

I wave my hand with a flourish. “Go on then, no one is stopping you.”

She straightens suddenly. “I’m not going first.”

Delilah rolls her eyes before marching forward. “Gods, Harlow.”