"Here," he said, handing them to Zetes. "Take those to his father and tell him that is all of his son he'll ever get from me."
"No!"
"Guards, see to it His Highness is taken away."
Kyrian watched as his uncle was seized and dragged from the room.
"Kyrian!"
Kyrian struggled against his restraints, but his body was so sore and broken that all he succeeded in doing was hurting himself more.
He wanted to call Zetes back. He wanted to tell him how sorry he was for all he'd said to his parents.
Don't let me die without their knowing.
"You can't do this!" Zetes screamed an instant before the doors slammed shut, cutting him off.
Valerius turned to his servant. "Fetch my mistress."
As soon as the servant was gone, he returned to Kyrian. He sighed as if greatly disappointed. "It appears our time together has ended. If your father is so desperate for your return, then it is only a matter of time before he marches against me. I certainly can't take a chance on him actually rescuing you, now can I?"
Kyrian closed his eyes and turned his head away from Valerius's triumphant sneer. In his mind, he saw his father on that last, fateful day as the two of them stood, toe to toe, in the center of the throne room. Julian had dubbed that day the Clash of the Titans. For neither he nor his father had been willing to listen or to yield.
He heard the words he'd said to his father. Words no son should ever utter to a parent.
The agony of it was a hundred times more severe than anything Valerius had dealt him.
While he grieved over his actions, the doors of his torture chamber opened to admit Theone. She walked into the room with her head held high, like a queen holding court. She stopped next to Valerius and gave him a warm, inviting smile.
Kyrian stared at her as the weight of her betrayal coursed through him. Let this be a nightmare. Dear Zeus, please don't let this be real. It was more than his broken body and soul could take.
"You know, Kyrian," Valerius said as he wrapped his arms around Theone and nuzzled her neck. "I will commend you on your choice of wife. She is exceptional in bed, isn't she?"
It was the cruelest blow yet dealt him.
Theone met Kyrian's eyes without shame while Valerius circled behind her, cupped her breasts in his hands and kneaded them. There was no love on her face. No remorse. Nothing. She stared at him as if he were a stranger.
It cut him all the way to his battered soul.
"Come, Theone, let us show your husband what he interrupted the night he came home."
Valerius removed the clip from her himation and let it fall to the floor. He pulled her naked body into his arms and kissed her.
Kyrian's heart splintered at the sight of Theone removing Valerius's armor. The sight of her eagerly welcoming his touch.
Unable to bear it, he closed his eyes and turned away. But still he heard them. He heard his wife begging for Valerius to fill her. Heard her moaning in pleasure. And when she climaxed in the arms of his enemy, he felt his heart wither and die.
At last Valerius had broken him.
He let the pain take him then. Let it wash over him until he felt nothing at all. Nothing but utter and complete desolation.
When they were finished, Valerius sauntered over to him. He wiped his wet hand across Kyrian's face and Kyrian cursed the scent he knew so well.
"Have you any idea how much I love the smell of your wife on my body?"
Kyrian spat in his face.
Enraged, Valerius pulled a dagger from the table and embedded it savagely in Kyrian's stomach. Kyrian gasped as the cold metal invaded his body. Maliciously, Valerius rotated his wrist and twisted the knife, pushing it in deeper.