Starkeeper of the Fractured Crown

His brows pulled together. “What?”

“Don’t let her go to the city.” I had work I needed to take care of. Just because I didn’t hold the crown, didn’t mean I wasn’t in control.

Word hadn’t spread about my revoking yet, and even if it had, I was still a god among men.

“Where are you going?”

“Away.” I Jumped.

~~~

Ket

I gasped, sweat pouring from my brow, shivers wracking through me. The only reason I could even stand in this moment was due to my vice-like grip around the sink.

If not for that, I would have collapsed, and I probably would have stayed there forever.

My head lifted, feeling like a ten-ton weight on my shoulders, and I found silver eyes staring back at me.

Not my eyes. No, they hadn’t been my eyes in ten years.

These were the eyes of the boy I had to murder.

“I am Ket Thomas,”I told myself.“I am human. Kyra Skye is my best friend. George Thomas is my father. I am Ket Thomas.”

“Sweetheart, are you done in there? I’d like to speak with you.”

I sneered, seeing the hatred reflectedback at me. Screw witches. Screw magic. Screw the gods-damned world.

I straightened, pushing back my sweat-soaked hair, fixing Raymond’s expensive jacket, and I turned for the bathroom door.

Evanora was sitting on my desk waiting for me.

“Yes?” I asked tiredly.

She smiled sweetly and slowly parted her legs, her dress falling to cover herself. “You don’t have to use such a tone with me, it’s just the two of us now.”

I gave her the most hatred-filled glare I could muster up as she leaned forward, placing her two hands between her knees, gripping the edge of the desk. “How much longer am I to do this?”

17. That was the age I tried so desperately to hold onto. The last time I had beenme. Whatever secrets they had, whatever their true agenda was, they were using me to accomplish it, and I hated them for it.

Killing my father in front of me, forcing me to kill Raymond, and then forcing me to wear his skin because the prince had been too weak for this. I still had nightmares about it. Still wanted to claw myself out of this…flesh prison.

“Until we get that boy and his sister to the castle. It shouldn’t be hard to get her to comply. Maybe we could offer her up a roasted pig to lure her in.”

She wanted me to come over. Wanted me to fuck her on the desk in celebration of Mark coming to age. I hated her for that, loathed her for it.

She still wouldn’t tell me why Mark being 11 was important. Why theyhad waited so long to claim him, but it didn’t matter because even if they did manage to rip him from the unyielding grips of Kyra, I would do everything in my power to protect him until she got him back.

Evanora held out a hand expectantly.

She would be the first to die. I swore to the dead gods, if I ever escaped this place, I would become the greatest witch hunter this world had ever seen.

I walked over and took her hand, letting her pull me between her legs. “Anyway,” she sighed, sliding her hands over my chest, “she and her brother are running around somewhere in Therian. Her mother is gone, abandoned them, and our job,” she went on, pulling at my collar, “is to lure them back here. You’re going to act like a perfect little prince, maybe even convince her to fall in love with you. Hmm? If that doesn’t work, we can figure something else out.”

If that meant getting her close enough to tell her the truth, then fine, I would do whatever she wanted, but she was greatly underestimating Kyra and her love for that boy. She would destroy this world, leave it in nothing but ash and fire if it meant Mark was safe.

But Evanora didn’t need to know that, so for now, I would play her perfect little fuck toy, do what she needed me to do in order to get more information, and I would wait.