I came to with my hands bound in glass. Righting to my knees, I scanned my surroundings with my heart skipping a few beats. Still on Cinder. On the viewing platform. No army of female soldiers in sight. I let out a sigh of relief. I feared Gait.

Gale paced along the stage in glorious contrast of dark Lyriki skin and bright feathers. She shivered as she glared at Korac. "And this one we execute... I have no words for what he did to me."

I looked between the pair, puzzling at her meaning. Even Para and Karter exchanged confused glances.

Korac shrugged beside me. "You made no protest at the time. I recall quite the opposite."

She scoffed, "Rather difficult to protest when one is gagged."

The entire audience turned to him.

Korac smirked arrogantly while facing execution on his knees. "You put the bit in your mouth, my dear. And you looked very pleased as you did it. Lie to yourself in your regrets afterward, but never lie to me. I left you more than satisfied."

Gale fumed.

"What the fuck did I wake up to?" Umbra groaned as he straightened.

"Silence!" she shrieked.

My nacre jarred around my insides. I hung my head and spit the sweat from my lip.

Karter spared me a sympathetic glance. "We should leave. Now."

Gale shook her head. "We cannot leave without locating the other one."

"Karter, why are you doing this?"

I groaned as Xelan came out of hiding to confront our betrayers.

Korac watched him intently.

Umbra seethed at Gale, who flaunted her pretty face inches from his. The threat of her voice was the only barrier between them.

Karter inched toward my brother with her hands wide, unarmed. "Prince Xelan, we wish to free the Icari from these warring men. We know you detest their ways. As does your mother. You can rule. The Tritans will back you. Please help us liberate Cinder."

Remember, as I tell you the rest of this story that Xelan was young and an Icarus above all things. Conserve your judgment.

I didn't follow my brother's movements as he rendered Gale and Para unconscious. He even took the time to lower both gently to the ground before twisting Karter onto her knees with her hands grasped behind her head.

"I apologize, Karter, if I hurt you."

She thrashed and cried in his unbreakable grip.

Holding her without a single muscle strained, Xelan's eyes held so much pity. "But a Cinder backed by Tritans is nothing more than a satellite armed for genocide. I cannot abide that."

I think Xelan regretted his actions on this day. I believe he often considered a Cinder where he, barely Earth-age eighteen, usurped Umbra. Knowing how the Tritans viewed the Probabilities and thought of Cinder in the scheme of things--This was our fate no matter his decision.

Karter arched her entire body to look at him. "Kill me, Xelan. Do not let your father have us." Tears streamed from her burning eyes. She meant it.

"Hah!" Umbra stood and wobbled unsteadily to the Valkyrie with his hands cuffed behind his back. "Pretty viper, I will enjoy my revenge. If only for what you did to Amolot."

Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.

Karter shut her eyes to him. "That monster died as she deserved. Like a dog. May you never find the parts."

Umbra spat in her face and lunged at her.

Korac rushed off his feet with his hands tied behind his back and knocked our King to the ground. And pinned him there.

Xelan wiped Karter's face with his own robes. She gazed up at him, confounded with his generosity. He glared at father, fuming.

I rolled my eyes at the valorous young men sharing the platform with me. Even so, I didn't want to see Umbra's brand of justice served to any woman, let alone those I respected.

The King of Cinder sneered under my guard's knee. "They betrayed us. To the Tritans! They keep the nacre chamber from us!"

Not this nonsense again.

Xelan whispered into Karter's ear. She nodded at him with wide eyes, and he released her. "Check Para for me. Can you take the cuffs off once you finish?"

"Yes, your majesty." She rushed to her partner's side.

We exchanged uneasy glances, waiting for her to finish. After adjusting the blue-haired Valkyrie, she set to work on my cuffs. Free, I leveled my face to Umbra's gaze. The man's eyes seared into my soul. The hate. The malice.

I clicked my tongue. "That will not do. Play nice or you stay in those cuffs while my guard scrapes your face on the rock until you bleed to death."

"On your say, Prince Nox." Korac kept his knee on my father's neck as the Valkyrie released him.

Xelan stood over me. "This is enough. We need to relieve mother, and I tire--"

"Xelan, no!" Karter cried out as she threw herself onto him.

The Lyrik's song resonated over our heads. So pretty. So devastating.

Korac stood between her and the Valkyrie, shielding Xelan. He took the brunt of the lethal sound waves, unaffected. Karter collapsed in Xelan's arms.

I leapt and speared Gale to the ground with my hand clasped over her mouth. Tears poured from her blazing eyes. Orange blood pooled from the back of her head, smelling of kerosene. The "leash" fed.

This siren tried to kill my brother, who stood between her and unendurable execution. Who spared Karter and Para. Who tried to save any and everyone. And this bitch almost murdered him. She and her kind killed many Icari on this day at the heart of Cinder.

I folded my hands together over her nose and mouth. And I pressed down. Gale's eyes widened immediately. She screamed into my hands what air she drew until she drew no more. My arms bled from her weak scratches.

The "leash" gorged itself on her. The pain. The terror. The unadulterated satisfaction of knowing I was in the right. Distantly, I was aware of hands pulling at me. Screams begging me to stop. I opened my wings and enclosed myself with my prey, forcing them back. They did not matter. All that mattered was the precious life I siphoned off this assassin who tried to murder someone as valuable to me as my brother.

Gale died in agony and fear.

I punched my fist into her chest and removed her nacre. The breeze picked up, carrying with it the scent of my fallen soldiers. I looked to the sky and roared, vindicated.

"Nox, how could you?"

The censure and pain in Xelan's voice finally brought me around. I found him staring at me in horror and disgust. Behind him, Umbra grinned wickedly with pride, foul and malign in its roots.

Korac knelt before me with his welcomed indifference. "By the Tenements of Vengeance, sire?"

Exactly what I needed to hear. "'Behold that enemy of mine. Let him suffer for the suffering he caused. Let the punishment rival the crime.'"

"No." I turned to Xelan, who continued, "There is a better way than this. Killing her was unnecessary. And we will not kill the Valkyrie. We failed them first."

Korac stared at my brother with thinly veiled fascination.

I lowered my head. Not in shame. Not in remorse. My brother and I were worlds apart in our convictions. I wanted reality to work Xelan's way. But it meant always protecting him from how it really worked. It was time to disillusion him.

"Do what you like with the Valkyrie," I ordered as I stood.

Korac followed.

Xelan recoiled at the blood dripping down my arm.

I ignored how he startled when I retracted my wings. My own brother, frightened of me.

Shaking my head, I declared, "I will rebuild Cinder after this attack. The Icarean families who lost their mothers and fathers today will rejoice when I present them with their murderer's nacre."

I brushed by Xelan, forever failing my little brother's expectations as his hero. It was time for him to grow up.

I addressed our people with recourse for the actions aimed against us that day. Mother and father let me lead. Korac took his place at my right side. Xelan led the captured Valkyrie to his laboratory and confined them in stasis chambers not dissimilar to the Martyr Complex. Eventually, he moved their bays to Earth where I learned recently of their awakening.

Over the next few years, Icarean warriors operated as mercenaries for currency and supplies from Collective dealers of all varieties. Xelan toiled away in his lab on genetic experiments, improving flora and fauna reproduction or cellular enhancements. He wanted to save Cinder. But as our Vittle crops expended, we were forced to suppress our people's appetites. Korac, father, and I sought a new planet.

A new Cinder.