71 | ACT IV, SCENE X

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P R E V I O U S L Y

It was my brother, Aidon.

[TRIGGER WARNING: THIS CHAPTER CONTAINS EXPLICIT DESCRIPTION OF VIOLENCE

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[TRIGGER WARNING: THIS CHAPTER CONTAINS EXPLICIT DESCRIPTION OF VIOLENCE. PLEASE READ AT YOUR OWN DISCRETION.]

EDWINA

"AIDON..." I CHOKED OUT. "AIDON you can't possibly..."

"Yes, sister, I can," he said in an unnaturally cold voice, leaning close to me.

"You are my brother," I whispered, my voice hopelessly close to cracking. He was Aidon - he was brother, my loving brother-

"I was your brother. Now tell me how to open the cube," he snapped purposefully.

"Why the fuck do you want the cube?" I demanded.

"I need the Logogram. Now tell me how to open it, you worthless bitch!"

Aidon's hand gripped my bleeding throat, smearing my cheek with my own blood as he bored his eyes into mine - eyes of death, eyes of wickedness.

His gaze glimmered like water laced with poison, dripping with ominous cruelty. He was not the Aidon I knew - the man I'd known would never have done this - there had to be some kind of mistake... he was my brother, the brother who'd stood by my side as I wept over my dead mother, the brother who'd cared, the brother who'd loved.

"You have no idea who I am, do you?" he rasped, tracing a callous finger down my cheek, now slick with blood and sweat. "I know your little secret. I found it. It was right there in the Louvre-"

Before I could make sense of what he was saying, Aidon gripped my elbow in a pincer hard lock and pulled.

My right hand broke.

The pain burned around my innards better than boiling water. Everything felt scalded and, move or not, I was in more pain than I could have ever imagined was possible. A strike of the Bloodstone in my heart would be a mercy right now.

Instead, Drusilla put a hand around the stone buried in my hip, and pushed it further in.

I bit back a stifled scream.

Tristan, I whispered to myself. Tristan, please. I should have let him kill me - anything would be better than his cruelty, anything would be better than to be carved like a piece of meat in the hands of this butcher.

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