Chapter 65: Sir Dorian

Several drops of blood splattered on the floor.

Leonidas felt his vision slowly dim, but fought to hold on to the man who currently had his hand lodged into his torso.

Not twenty minutes ago, he had been standing in front of his mirror, freshly bathed, pulling a clean shirt over his head and thinking, quite stupidly, of Karina. Whether she was still awake. Whether she would humor him if he showed up at her door uninvited, or whether she’d slam it in his face the way she had the last three times.

He had actually been smiling about it.

For which Rafael had called him a fool.

Then the shadows in the corner had folded in on themselves, and a massive panther had exploded out of the darkness before either of them had a chance to react.

Rafael had gone down first. One clean strike to the temple, and his friend had crumpled to the floor without so much as a groan, blood already pooling beneath his head.

Leonidas had fought. Shifting mid-lunge, claws meeting claws, the two of them tearing through furniture and stone alike until the room looked like a battlefield. But the panther was surprisingly stronger, and Leonidas was only now, with a hand buried wrist-deep in his side, understanding why.

The panther had shifted back. Skin resettling over muscle, bones cracking into place, until a man stood in front of him instead. Naked. Bloodied. Grinning like he had been waiting decades for this exact moment.

He had dark blue hair, and a set of navy blue eyes that seemed to swallow the light. Older than Leonidas remembered. Gray threading through the dark strands. A thin scar cutting through one eyebrow, pale against weathered skin.

Leonidas’s eyes widened as recognition dawned on him.

"Sir Dorian," he rasped, tasting copper.

"Oh?" The man chuckled. "The little King remembers me." Dorian twisted his hand, and Leonidas’s whole body convulsed around a scream he refused to let out. "I confess, I wasn’t certain you would. You were what, seven, the last time you saw me? Eight?"

"My father said you died." Leonidas’s voice came out thin.

"Your father said a great many things that weren’t true." Dorian’s smile widened.

"You’re the one," Leonidas managed, forcing the words out through gritted teeth. "Behind the attacks. The plague. The panthers going feral in the outer regions." A laugh scraped out of him, more cough than laughter. "Of course. Of course it was you."

"Very good." Dorian looked almost delighted.

"You could have just asked for a meeting," Leonidas rasped. "Would have saved us both the trouble of you putting your hand through my ribs."

Dorian’s grin didn’t waver, but something behind his eyes sharpened. "Still arrogant. Even like this."

"I’m told it’s one of my more endearing qualities."

"Endearing or not, this is the end of it for you. Wouldn’t you like to know what actually happened to me, Leonidas? Since you’re going to die anyway, I see no harm in telling you."

Leonidas said nothing in response. His knees had started to buckle.

"Your father experimented on us." Dorian said it plainly. "Panthers. Soldiers. Anyone he decided was expendable enough to risk. He wanted to breed something stronger. Faster. A weapon he could parade in front of the other kingdoms." His eyes glittered. "But he failed."

"You’re lying."

"I wish I was." Dorian tilted his head. "The experiment failed, and as a result, he killed almost everyone who had been involved in it. Including me. Imagine, killing your most trusted general to keep a disgusting secret."

Leonidas’s vision swam, black creeping in at the edges. He remembered Dorian. Not the man standing before him now, but the one from before. The one who had taught him to hold a sword. Who had let him ride on his shoulders through the palace gardens. Who had ruffled his hair and called him little king and promised to always protect him.

That man had disappeared when Leonidas was seven. And Leonidas had cried for a week.

"As you can already see, I survived. And now," Dorian continued, twisting his hand again, savoring the sound Leonidas made, "I am going to return the favour. Starting with you. And then, I think, your precious little Empress." His grin turned vicious. "Renira was useless, couldn’t even do what was necessary of her. But I’m taking matters into my hands now, and I’m going to kill that woman."

What?

A flash of protectiveness rushed through him. Leonidas gritted his teeth, drops of blood trailing down his lips.

That will not happen.

"You talk too much," Leonidas managed, and forced a smile of his own, weak and bloody. "Always did. Even when I was seven."

Confusion flickered across Dorian’s face, half a second too slow.

Leonidas drove his claws into the arm buried in his side, and the moment Dorian flinched, hand loosening on instinct, Leonidas wrenched himself backward off the blade of his fingers and slammed his fist into Dorian’s jaw with everything he had left.

Dorian staggered, more startled than hurt, blood spraying from his split lip.

It wasn’t enough to end this. Leonidas knew that even as pain roared through his side, even as the world tilted dangerously. But it bought him a handful of seconds, and a handful of seconds was all he needed.

He didn’t wait to see Dorian recover. He turned, half-falling, and dragged himself toward where Rafael lay crumpled near the door, blood matting the side of his hair.

"Rafael." His voice cracked. He grabbed his friend’s shoulder, shook him hard enough to hurt. "Rafael, wake up!"

Nothing.

"Wake up! ARGH—" He clutched his side, breath tearing out of him in ragged gasps, but he didn’t stop shaking Rafael. "Stand. You have to stand. You have to warn them—"

Rafael’s eyes fluttered, unfocused, a groan finally scraping out of his throat.

Behind them, Dorian was rising to his feet again, wiping blood from his mouth, letting out a chilling laugh. He looked too pleased for a man who had just been struck.

There wasn’t time.

Leonidas hauled Rafael up by the collar, ignoring the scream of pain from his own body, and threw his friend’s arm over his shoulder. Every step felt like dragging himself through fire, blood trailing thick behind them, but he forced his legs to move, forced himself toward the door, Dorian’s laughter chasing them the whole way.

"Run all you like," Dorian called after them. "I have all the time in the world, Your Majesty. And so does your empress’s death."

Leonidas didn’t answer. He couldn’t spare the breath.

I need to warn Karina.

He staggered forward into the dark, Rafael’s dead weight sagging against him, blood dripping steadily onto the marble floor behind them, and did not stop moving.