Days of relative peace passed as Merin and Red settled into palace life. Red did bring in servants and guards. There was only a handful altogether, but the amount was a necessary one.

Merin and Red each had one guard. Merin's was a towering raven-haired woman named Letha. Red's was a short, agile man named Bellare. Red felt more nervous with the man now that he was his shadow. He couldn't hear the other man walk. With a lifetime spent looking over his shoulder, Red was accustomed to being alert. The man came on Reu's recommendation, and that was the only reason the silent man was kept.

Merin erased the slave branding for him. His skin was cleaned of all reminders it ever existed. It was enough to show the Sosia what had happened to him. The Sosia served best as a puppet for its master, and whatever it saw, heard, or listened to was shown to its owner.

Overall, the past few days were deceptively tranquil. Red knew this peace wouldn't last because his brothers had been eerily absent.

That suspicion would prove to be right when Red woke up to the sound of footsteps.

The first clue to Merin that something was wrong was a scream. She dropped the pangolin tail that she was playing with and stood up in a rush.

The hideous orange nightgown was hiked up as she sprinted to the source of the noise.

Red stood in the middle of the courtyard, covered in blood.

Her feet froze at the sight of him. He was holding that beloved shovel of his, but there wasn't a trace of blood on it. Her first thought was that the blood came from him, but there were a handful of bodies at his feet.

"Behind you!" Merin shouted. Red dodged the blade from one of the attackers.

Red caught the offending arm before it could retract and sliced it in half. The man howled in pain for a second. Red slit his throat, then stuffed the sliced meat in it to shut him up for good measure.

More shadowy figures descended into the courtyard. Red pushed the dead man's body off him and got into a stance.

Merin could feel her outrage win over her shock. All the hard work she put into making this place look nice was slowly being destroyed. Red was slicing up bodies and tossing them across her newly fixed garden like it was fertilizer!

"I thought you said your brothers couldn't hire people to kill you with the binding? Aren't they supposed to be affected by whatever they dish out!" She shouted at him over the loud screams and clangs.

"They can't," Red said as he used his shovel to catch an attacker by the throat. He twisted the blade, and it sliced the man's neck. With one final thrust, Red was able to knock the head clean off.

"Looks like a loophole to me," Merin muttered. She stepped forward to interrogate one of the men who escaped with his life. He was bleeding out because of an artery in his leg. That leg was missing now, and his blood was pooling underneath him. She sidestepped the pungent scent of death and the puddle to get closer.

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Merin bent down and used her disgusting orange robes to wipe the sweat and tears off his brow. "I can make the pain go away." She said in a cajoling, sweet voice. To prove her point, she cupped his chin and infused a cool, healing breeze through her palm and into his skin.

The man gasped at the invasion and whimpered.

"Tell me who sent you." She said.

When the man shook his head, she removed her hand. The sweetness disappeared from her face as if it never existed, and only cruelty remained.

The man cried out despondent as his suffering returned with the loss of her hand. Merin knew he desired that cool relief back, so she said, "In order to receive, you must give first."

"We came for Akkad...we didn't know the nameless bastard was here. It was supposed to be Akkad!"

Red could hear what Merin was doing as he fought against his attackers. It was shocking for him to learn that Akkad was the intended target. His brother must have pissed off someone and then sent them in this direction. Was that a big enough loophole for him to escape the spellwork? It might be, and that meant he could expect more attacks like this to occur.

Red had sent Bellare off on a mission to follow up on leads on his father. He was grateful for once that he gave up control and sent the man in his stead. If Red had gone with him, then Merin would have been here to handle this mess. Well, Red's eyes darted to Merin, who was picking on the fallen attackers, not completely alone. Her own guard was making sure no one got close enough to hurt her.

Red used his own blood to make every slice he cut into his enemies the only one needed. He didn't use his blood openly as a weapon. If he did so, then his mother's origins and his grandmother's plan would be undone.

The twenty-odd men were dealt with deftly.

Regardless of how the only cut he sustained was on his palm, and that was self-inflicted, Merin fussed heavily over him when it was all done.

Technically, she first scolded him for ruining her new garden, and then she fussed.

Red was still coming down from the battle. He always felt more alive and energized when he accessed his blood magic. When he used it to kill, something darker and more violent awoken within him. The pangs of hunger that he ignored were stirred within him.

Red grabbed her wrist that was washing the blood off him and said in a gruff voice, "If you're going to say no, leave now."

Her incalculable blue eyes widened, and she gave a little gasp. Her pupils dilated, and the two spots of redness on her cheeks grew. Red knew that she understood what he wanted.

She didn't say no.

Red didn't bother confronting Akkad the next day. The duplicitous man was not only the second prince but the most cunning of his brothers. To directly confront him is what the other man desired. He was too skillful at social manipulation and wordplay. He got his scheming while suckling on his mother.

As a rule, Russus were not allowed to belong to a noble house or family. The Habrin Empire didn't like their consorts, Russus, or future mothers to belong to great houses of power. It was harder to control countries when your in-laws might try tossing their own hat in the ring. Russus were brought in as commoners and or slaves.

Vera, Akkad's mother, came in as a slave. She was cleaned up, educated, and quickly became a favorite at court. It didn't hurt that she disposed of every major threat to herself in the Emperor's harem before he ascended.

She was the reason why rules were changed in regard to ascension. The spell that bound all the sons to stay peaceful until after the death of their father was not extended to mothers before. She had an innocent woman executed for the crime of poisoning the first prince.

Red had made a point to never eat anything when she was at the table.

She was the Emperor's consort now, and if Akkad became the Emperor, she would become the most annoying woman in the Habrin Empire and unstoppable. No Emperor's siblings survived their ascension into power. If their siblings had kids or Russus, they died as well. That meant only the mother was left alive and in charge of the Emperor's harem.

Red made his way to the banquet hall, where a family breakfast of sorts was being eaten. If his brothers were going to aim for his life from afar, why not make things easier and bring the danger to their table?

He didn't want Merin getting on his case about their home being a butcher shop instead of a place to rest.