Page 164 of The Mercy of Dawn

But Bron’s body was there, just feet from her.

Void of the abundance of life it usually held.

Nausea, and anger, and a maelstrom of feelings she didn’t even understand swept through her as she staggered to her feet and wiped at her face. Cyril looked up at Dion, at the hollow darkness in his eyes, and mustered up a single, anguished word.

“How?”

Her uncle half-shrugged and shook his head. “We don’t know. The guards found his body by the gates at shift change.”

“You don’t know?” she choked out in total disbelief. “Where were you?! Where was Ren? And Tyr! Why—”

“Choose your words very. Fucking. Carefully.”

Dion spoke through gritted teeth and leveled her with a stare so cold, so seething, that Cyril took a step away.

He pointed at the door.

“Out. You don’t get to be in here if you’re going to act like a child.”

Cyril was already backing up, her feet moving entirely of their own volition, and she didn’t stop until she hit the door.

She barely heard what Dion said, with the way her ears rang and muffled everything around her.

She needed out.

She needed air.

She needed quiet and dark, and for her skin to stop feeling so fucking tight.

She needed—

The light in the hallway was blinding.

There were so many people there now, and their unreadable faces felt smothering.

She couldn’t fucking breathe.

Mikael, flanked by his parents, reached for her. “Cyril…”

She pushed past the three of them, clawing the prince’s hand off her arm. She pushed past Ren and Tyr, past the gathering group of guards, and Astor and Reyna at the end of the hall.

“Cyril, wait a second!” Mikael shouted after her, but Cyril just ran.

Chapter 39

“This doesn’t feel right, Mika,” Runa said, her wariness plain.

Mikael leaned against the wall and sighed. A housekeeper standing between them dug a keyring from her apron and started sorting through its contents.

“I’m not worried about right anymore.”

No one else was in the residential wing, at least, as they broke into Cyril’s room.

With a key.

In their own home.

His mother still couldn’t look past how ridiculous it sounded.