Evil Twin

“Are you looking for anything in particular?” she whispered.

“More beasts. None yet.” He gestured ahead. “Sunlight.”

Spilling onto the floor through an open chamber door. Yet they were near the heart of the keep. “The castle must be built around a courtyard.”

“If there is one, we’ll keep the horses there.”

He stepped into the sunlight and went still, staring through the open door. He drew Echo tight up against his side.

She looked in. A throne room.

And it wasn’t empty.

A tall, dark-haired man in luxurious robes idled on a sofa next to a table laden with bowls of fruit. A crown sat atop disheveled hair, as if he hadn’t bothered to comb it, and despite the quality, his clothes seemed in disrepair.

As if he’d lived alone for some time and hadn’t bothered much with his appearance.

He glanced up, brows arching—his expression one of utter unconcern, despite the sword in Bane’s hand.

Then a smile split his face and he sat forward. “Tamas, my friend!” His gaze moved to Echo and his brows pulled together for a moment before he added, “And…Sapphira, is it? You’ve grown up since I last visited Phaira.”

She clutched Bane’s hand tight. So tight. Then widened her eyes and asked breathily, “King Harmon?”

“Just so.” With a laugh, he rose to his feet. “Most visitors to the city aren’t brave enough to pass my beasts—but I ought to have known that either Gocea or Phaira would think this kingdom ripe for the taking and venture farther than any others. Well, come in and see for yourself that a king still sits on Crolum’s throne.” His smile tightened and left his eyes. “And then you’ll be on your way, I trust?”

My beasts.

A dark sorcerer.

“Yes,” Echo nodded, feeling faint. “I think we will return to the north quite soon.”

10

Bane

This was not going as he’d planned.

First he tried to put out the venom’s fire, so he would not lose control again…but that fire couldn’t be dampened. He could shove the agony and the emotion down, though—deep down, so that he would not try to force his heart upon her again. So that he could show her that he wasn’t ruled by the burning in his blood. It was a constant battle, fighting against himself—but he would do it. So she wouldn’t be afraid.

Yet Echo had still retreated from him. Withdrawing into herself, though he was dull and cold, and nothing to be afraid of.

Then they’d reached the city, and he’d planned to recapture the hope of their new home. But first came that message from Tamas—offering her another home she’d wanted—followed by the beasts at every turn.

Crolum’s royal city likely seemed not so appealing when they might be torn apart in the streets.

But then, he’d planned to explore the castle with her, a fine fortress to begin a life as husband and wife.

Instead they’d found a dark sorcerer. And Bane had discovered that he’d already broken one promise to Echo—a promise to give her a kingdom and make her a queen.

Then Echo had said she planned to return north. And didn’t seem to notice that Bane’s heart had shredded.

Now she was pretending to be Sapphira, holding out her hands to Harmon and smiling at him. Bane could barely bite back his growl when the sorcerer grasped her fingers, clasping their hands in a welcoming greeting before he led her to a chair at the table.

When Harmon settled back onto his sofa, Bane took the chair beside her—then reached for her hand to clasp in his. They were in the same room with a dark sorcerer. He would not leave her side for even a moment.

She had to know what Harmon was. Echo was too clever not to realize. Likely she was planning to escape as quickly as possible.

But first, they had to play nice.

Echo was much better at it than Bane was. With that wide-eyed vapid wonder, she exclaimed, “It’s so astonishing that we found you here! How did you possibly survive the scourge?”

“Inside a stone chamber with a heavy door,” he replied easily. “That is how my guards survived, as well. Some clever person had locked them in another chamber until I let them out.”

His guards. Not human guards. The undying beasts.

Bane tried to keep his tone as careless as Tamas’s would be. “You let them out? A chamber full of ravening beasts? You are brave or stupid, my friend.”

“I am neither, because that supposes there was danger. Now ask what it is you truly want to know: How do I control them?”

Bane shrugged. “I assume it is some spell of your cousin’s.”

“Not Solegius’s, my friend. Mine.” Harmon leaned back and steepled his fingers. “They are my children.”

Echo wrinkled her nose. “Your children?”

“Oh, not of my loins.” He waved that idea away. “They were shredded with the rest. But the beasts, I made them.”

“You made the undying scourge,” Bane said flatly.