The Rise of Deragon (The Deragon Duology #2)

39

Madman

P andora isn’t waiting for me down by the water when I steer my boat into its usual spot.

She’s never stood me up, and even with the grief she’s undergoing, she had told me herself she’d meet me here tonight. Sworn she would.

We didn’t settle on a time, so I wait on her for an hour. Two. Frankly, after staying holed up in Broadcove’s tunnels for five years, a couple of hours is certainly no skin off my back. Or, at least, it shouldn’t be. But each minute that passes, my internal alarms are blaring—screaming at me that something is wrong.

Very wrong.

Blood thrumming in my veins, I don’t bother going up to my old rooms. Instead, I put my vehemence to good use and scale the rock-lined wall onto the ground floor. The leather of my gloves takes the brunt of the brutal texture, not cutting up the skin there, and I stand on my feet before the manicured lawn.

With long strides, I finally saunter through the darkness and towards the front porch light that illuminates Andromeda House. I bang my fist on the door like I might just break it down, over and over, until it finally opens inwards.

“ Where is she ?” I roar.

A serpent’s smile paired with pinstripe pajamas greets me in return. “Where’s whom ?”

I strike Kit across the face, throwing my entire body weight into the movement. He recoils with a sharp hiss, and I see the flush fill his cheeks before he can cover it with his hand.

Good .

“Don’t play dumb with me,” I snarl. “This is business.”

“The same business as you bringing Pandora to the Isle after we struck up a deal to kill Venus Deragon? Whatever happened to what we talked about, one grave in exchange for another?”

My blood now boils for more reasons than the one that originally brought me to this doorstep. I haven’t dared come through the front entrance in . . . gods, more than half a decade, at least, and this is what gets handed to me.

“I don’t know where you buried her, but wherever it is, I’ll find it myself. Our deal’s off,” I sneer, getting up in his face.

We’re the same height when we face off like this, when he’s too caught off guard to stand a step higher than me.

He’s always done that—looked down on me. When we were young, he took advantage of every instant he could to make himself look better or embarrass me in front of an audience. Even now, it is clear that he clings to those four minutes of life before I arrived like a weapon, one that he always points towards me, sharp side out.

“You deserted us,” he seethes. “Any hurt I felt by what you did was eclipsed by how much it tore Anna apart, and when her heartbreak killed her, I knew you were to blame. Her blood was on your hands, so I only thought it fair that you get your hands dirtier to make up for it. I buried her alone , and for what? So you could play your precious little instruments for whatever Urovian scraps the nobles would toss your way?”

The words strike my soul like a barbed whip, and he knows it. But I won’t stand for this sort of abuse. I came here for Pandora, and I’m not leaving here until I get some answers. Until I get her .

“Although,” he drawls as I’m drawn closer. “Perhaps I should be thanking you, given the present circumstances.”

“What’s that supposed to mean?”

“It means that I was more than displeased to play host to Pandora’s whims when she first arrived,” he explains casually. “Had I not thought of using her absence from Broadcove as potential leverage, I might have slaughtered her just to prove a point. But even now, knowing that Venus would rather leave her niece to rot than risk her neck to save her—smart as she may be to do so—I find myself oddly indebted to you. To your failure. Had you not diverted from the original plan, I would never have gotten the chance to throw it in your face.”

I stand there, heart hammering in my chest to where I fear my ribs may crack. “To throw what in my face?”

My brother’s grin resembles that of our father from what memory serves me, and I’m consumed with disgust at the sight of it. “Use your imagination, Madden.”

+

Brothers bicker and brothers fight, but unless some outside force miraculously steps in and stops me, I might just kill mine.

The first swing of my fist against Kellan Seagrave’s jaw feels like pure joy, but the longer I wail on him, taking a few blows of my own in the process, the more rage creeps in. My vision darkens; our mingled blood fills my senses. I go feral for this, letting each swing stoke the fire of my hatred.

Kellan finds a gap between punches to shut the front door, herding us outside. I make contact with his shoulder once more, hearing a crack deep in his bones, before he chokes out the word stop .

“Princes don’t act this way,” he reminds me pointedly. “Besides, we wouldn’t want to wake up Pandora, now, would we? Not when she’s sleeping so soundly.”

The smug look on Kellan’s face and the implication of why Pandora’s getting such restful sleep . . . I could start a bloody war over it. And he reads the look on my face like one of his prized books.

“ Pathetic . You’re mad at me when all I did was seize my opportunity when the window appeared. You wasted, what, four months? Gods, years more if we’re counting how long you had to stalk your prey—”

I swing on him so hard that, had I missed, I would’ve shattered the bones in my fingers along the brick wall. Luckily, my braced fist slams into the ridge of his jaw, and he yelps at the forceful contact. Kellan spits fresh blood onto the floor.

“Fine. Maybe I deserve that for how stupid I was to think you wouldn’t be lurking around my property, waiting for her each night.”

“ Your property?”

“Yes, my property. You up and left this place years ago, which left me to tend to the House. Anna certainly couldn’t, and Andie needed the help.” There’s a roughness in his voice that turns his next words venomous. “I’ve been trained to keep this House and its occupants a secret, so when Pandora Deragon of all people just showed up here, I didn’t think about you once outside of my anger. I was focused on how the Urovian Princess could spoil everything I have been working towards on a complete and utter accident !”

Kellan charges at me, and for once, I let him get in a hard shove. I scramble backwards, grunting as I fail to find my footing and smack onto the gravel lot.

“So I learned to play nice. Got to know her a bit. Turns out, she’s not like their lot, and it kills me. When I’m with her, it’s like I’m dying a slow, tortuous death. I kiss her, and I taste my own treachery. If only I could’ve searched past my own headspace to get a proper read on hers, to discover that she had grown feelings for her captor . . . it just wasn’t me .”

The satisfaction his admission gives me spreads across my face in a cruel smile—but it doesn’t last. Not when he smiles back and taunts, “What did you even do together once I fell asleep? Have fireside chats and look at the stars?”

I go to open my mouth in rebuttal, but Kellan holds up a single finger, that demonic grin further curving along his bloodied mouth. “Don’t worry, brother. I’m not that na?ve. I know you want to brag all about it—I can see it in your eyes. You’re just aching to tell me what she’s like in bed. How her hips bow when your fingers—”

“Be very careful what you say next.”

Even if he stops there, I’m already making silent plans on killing him in my head.

How dare he touch what’s mine.

“But that’s not even the best part,” Kellan adds. “No, the best part is the way Pandora insists that you take off her clothes. Slowly, to where it tortures her, builds up her anticipation. And then, when she’s naked, she trembles —”

Kellan’s smart enough to catch my fist within his readied hands this time, but he has to throw my fist away from the heat that burns within my blood. “Oh, I see, now,” he dares to drawl. “You wouldn’t know.”

I dive for him, wishing I had longer nails to tear open his skin and longer arms so that I could reach into his sockets and gouge out his eyes. But Kellan’s always been a bit faster than me, more on the slender side and quick to dodge my movements every time I’d lash out.

“For what it’s worth,” Kellan says, “I do like her. She’s got a good personality, and she’s a decent lay.”

“Watch your mouth—”

“But she’s the runt of her bloodline. Worse, she’s the daughter of the runt. I knew those Urovian assholes carried heavy influence over their mass media, but to convince the world that Pandora Deragon is their direct heir when she was really the bastard child they made their heir because they couldn’t conceive? It’s rich ,” he guffaws.

If Pandora were here to hear the words fly out of his mouth so flippantly, let alone learn the magnitude of how he’s been lying to her, using her, she’d be heartbroken. Infinitely more than she already is.

“Suppose those Saints ran out of blessings when it came time for them to procreate?” Kellan quips, hammering the nail into his coffin.

“That’s enough ,” I say, my tone vicious, and the words acidic in my throat.

“Fine, I’ve had my fun. Just remember, that mask you wear; you don’t wear it for Pandora’s sake. You wear it for yours —because you’ve always feared that when you shed your disguise, she’ll think it’s me at first, and it destroys you.”

There’s something deep in my gut that roars at the accusation, at the accuracy of it. Then, Kellan steps back into the House. “But don’t worry, Madden. No need to find the balls to show yourself to her anymore. I’m taking care of it.”

There is nothing in that statement that makes me feel better or even remotely at peace.

“Why’d you think I asked you to keep your voice down?” he asks, ever the twisted showman. “This way, the princess doesn’t go down struggling. Her last memory will be a happy one, even if it’s a lie.”

With that, Kellan slams the front door in my face, locking it tight.

And I shred my vocal cords as I beg Pandora to run for her life.

Part IV: Rhapsody