through the serpent’s neck as he flinched back. But the creature was as insubstantial as smoke, the steel cutting nothing at all. Precious seconds and energy wasted on the strike.
Butcher gargled, hand and throat and chest drenched in blood. He fell to one knee, red teeth bared in a snarl. Jonnen saw his father retreat a few steps up the stairs, bloody dagger poised. The boy’s stomach rolled, his eyes filling with tears as he saw the big gladiatii drag himself back to his feet.
“R-run, boy,” Butcher wheezed.
Eclipse coalesced between the boy and his father, snarling.
“… JONNEN, RUN…”
The boy shuffled back down the stairs. One step. Then two. Butcher took an unsteady step forward, made a clumsy swing at the imperator. But blood was fleeing the big man’s body in floods now, puddling about him, all his strength and skill for naught. His father easily avoided the strike, stepping back again as the Liisian stumbled and fell.
“Butcher!” Jonnen cried, tears in his eyes.
“Iac-como…,” the big man gurgled. “R-R…”
Eclipse glanced over her shoulder, fangs bared in a snarl.
“… RUN…!”
The daemon leapt over Butcher’s fallen body, mouth open wide. Whisper hissed and struck, black fangs sinking into the wolf’s neck. The shadows fell into a tumbling, snarling, hissing brawl, rolling down the stairs. Eclipse growled and snapped, Whisper spat and bit, black spattering on the walls and spraying like blood. Jonnen took another step back, almost slipping in Butcher’s blood. Tears running down his cheeks. Horror turning his insides slick and cold.
“My son.”
The passengers continued to brawl, but the boy simply froze. Looking to his father on the stairs above him. Spattered in crimson. A golden laurel upon his brow. Imperator of the entire Republic. Tall and proud and strong. Ever possessed of the will to do what others would not. Butcher lay dead on the stone before him, Naev splattered on the floor below—just two more bodies added to the pile.
“Father…”
The imperator of Itreya raised one red hand, beckoning.
“Come to me, my son.”
Jonnen looked to their shadows on the wall. His father’s was reaching out to him, both hands open and welcoming. Jonnen saw his own shadow move, reaching toward his father and catching him up in a fierce embrace.
The boy himself yet remained still. The dagger Butcher had gifted him clutched in his hands. But his eyes were drawn back to Eclipse and Whisper, still brawling on the stairs. Black blood spraying, fangs bared, hissing and growling.
“Whisper, stop it!” the boy demanded.
“… JONNEN, RUN…!” Eclipse snarled.
Jonnen saw his father’s eyes narrow. Fear rising in the boy’s belly, running cold in his veins. The imperator lifted his other hand, fingers clenching. The shadows moved, sharpening themselves to points, striking at the wolf and piercing her hide.
“Don’t!” the boy cried.
Eclipse howled in pain, more shadowblood spraying. Scaeva cut the air with his hand, sent the daemon sailing into the wall. Whisper struck, razored teeth sinking again into Eclipse’s throat. Black coils wrapped around the shadowwolf’s body, squeezing, crushing, fangs sinking in again and again.
“… Do you regret your insult now, little dog…?”
“… J-JONNEN…”
“… Do you fear me yet…?”
“Father, make him stop!” the boy cried.
The boy could feel tears burning in his eyes. Watching Eclipse’s struggles weaken. Whisper’s coils squeezing ever tighter, fangs sinking ever deeper. Eclipse whimpered in pain, thrashing and rolling and biting.
“The blood you have in your veins? You’re strong enough for both of us.”
Jonnen raised his hands, fingers curling into claws as he used his gifts, seizing the snake’s neck in an invisible grip. He smashed Whisper against the wall as the serpent flailed and hissed, tail lashing, tongue flickering.
“Lucius!” his father snapped. “Release him!”
The boy held still. Frozen with it. That voice he’d known since before he could talk. The authority he’d obeyed since before he could walk. The father he’d admired, sought to make proud, wished all his life to grow up to be.
His sister had taken him in. Showed him her world. Eclipse had lived in his shadow for months now. Kept his fear at bay. The daemon had loved him, just as fiercely as she’d once loved another boy, just as lost and afraid as he.
“… CASSIUS…,” she whimpered.
But this was the man who’d raised Jonnen. Who’d known him for years, not months. The man he’d feared and loved and emulated. The sun shining in his sky.
“Lucius, I said release him!” came the cry.
And so, though it tore him to his heart, though the tears scalded his cheeks to burning, Jonnen looked at Eclipse. The