at him.”
“You figured it out, Amir.” He studiously stared at his brother. “You got there before me.”
Amir preened at that. “Finally, you see my worth, albeit too fucking late. One thing I must know, because it’s so unlike you to miss an opportunity staring you in the face. Why didn’t you give Niko your blood? You know what our blood does to people. So, why not possess Niko?”
Vasili frowned hard. He fought to keep the grimace from his lips but failed and turned his pained expression on Niko.
“Oh fuck… you care about him, you really care.” Amir spat a horrible, brittle laugh. “You found someone you couldn’t manipulate into being your tool and fell for him? I mean, you still fucked him up, but you wouldn’t go any further because you like him. Shit, you had a limit after all. I bet that was a surprise for everyone. Cold, heartless Vasili Caville actually gives a shit about someone who isn’t himself. Do you love him?”
Vasili’s expression subtly altered from pain to regret. “Amir.”
“You do, you fucking do.” His grin stretched. “My darling dog Nikolas, kill Vasili.”
Niko started forward, his body and mind out of his control.
“Hold!” Yasir approached, gun raised for a second time, but this time its barrels were fixed on Amir.
“Aim at Nikolas,” Vasili snapped.
Yasir hesitated. “What?”
“Shoot Niko,” Vasili said.
“No, I’m not—”
Amir chuckled. “Nobody trusts you, brother.”
Vasili tossed him a snarl and backed up some more, stumbling over a body. Niko methodically tracked him, and Vasili raised his blades again. “Nikolas, you know I didn’t want this.”
He knew that, but he also knew this was happening, and despite the screaming in his head, there was nothing he could do to stop it.
“Yasir, shoot Niko!”
Twin gun barrels finally pointed at Niko. “Niko, talk to me.”
“He can’t,” Vasili hissed. “Shoot him, Yasir. He can’t stop this. You can.”
Amir clapped his hands together and laughed harder. “This is fucking priceless! He’s so high on power and spice, shoot him and he’ll just get right back up. Nikolas Yazdan does everything I tell him to. He’s mine, Vasili.” Amir pointed a finger at his brother. “He’s all fucking mine, and knowing you love him makes this all the sweeter.”
Niko stepped over the body Vasili had stumbled over moments before. The prince had his back at a wall now with nowhere to go. He brandished the blades like a threat, and maybe he’d summon the flame to help, but it didn’t matter. Niko was more than the flame, more than Vasili’s or Amir’s power. He was made to be more.
“Niko, dammit! Stop!” Yasir barked, circling around to face him.
A high-pitched whistle shattered the distant sounds of battle.
An elf call.
Niko knew it. He’d heard it before on the front. Reinforcements. If Amir didn’t unleash him on the elves, they’d soon flood into the streets in a wave bigger than the first.
Vasili’s head whipped around at the sound. His cheek ticked, and that was all the warning Niko had. Vasili’s blade flew. The dagger punched into his shoulder, but barely broke his stride. It all happened too fast, but at the same time excruciatingly slow, as though time was slowing to make him see the terrible thing he was about to do.
He tore the blade free, tossed it away and pinned Vasili to the wall, making the prince bark a cry.
“Kill him!” Amir screamed.
Niko’s thumb sank into Vasili’s beautiful eye. The prince opened his mouth in a silent scream. He didn’t fight, didn’t push back, because Niko pushed against the past already branded into his chest. Elves had done this. Held him down. Took his eye. And now Niko would take the other.
Another crack in the ice. A gasp of freedom.
Horror tried to squeeze the air from Niko’s lungs and the blood from his heart. He couldn’t… do this.
“Fucking blind him! Make the bitch scream like your mother screamed when I put a noose around her neck and cut her throat!” Amir’s manic laughter delivered the final, devastating crack to Niko’s ice.
A gun blasted so loud and close that Niko staggered under the weight of fresh fire in his side, his ears ringing. Vasili slipped from his fingers. A kick landed in his gut, and then he was on his back, staring at the falling ash, wondering why it was snowing in Loreen.
Shouts went up, but they had nothing to do with him because none of this was real. It couldn’t be. This was all part of the nightmare Amir had him wrapped in.
His gut