“The Venari King is the only person with the knowledge of how to rid our streets of these creatures,” Dorian affirmed. “He has not unleashed anything on our kingdom. You’ll do well to remember it next time you see him.”
“Wait outside,” Aydra whispered to Draven with a slight squeeze of his bicep.
Draven didn’t look at her when he exited the shop.
Her eyes met her brother’s as she hugged the cloak around her chest, and then she looked around at the people staring at her. “Elders of the Blackhand mountains are to arrive tomorrow. We will have a long discussion with them about the way they allow these creatures to stay alive.”
“How do you know that is where they come from?” asked one of the women. “How do you know it is not a trick of the Venari—”
“The Venari do not allow the Infi to walk among them,” Aydra interjected quickly, eyes glaring through the woman that had brought up the notion. The woman sank back into the shadows, and Aydra stepped forward to stand beside her brother.
“Does anyone else have any opinions they would like to get out?” she dared to ask.
The room stilled, Dreamers glancing between one another, but saying nothing in response.
“You can get rid of them?” asked Grey.
The three Infi men began to groan groggily. One of them shook its head, as though it were waking up from a blackout. Dorian grabbed slowly for his knife on his belt.
“Get these people out,” he muttered to Aydra and Lex. “I do not wish for them to witness beating hearts being pulled from these lifeless bodies.”
Aydra nodded before then looking around the room. “Go home. All of you. You’ve seen enough for tonight.”
The people filed out quietly, until only Grey was left in the room with them. He refused to leave, and so Aydra had warned him of what was to come. She had Lex signal Draven that he could come inside once the others had gone.
Grey tensed the moment Draven stepped in. “Why is he here? Has he come to claim his brothers?”
“He is with me, Grey,” Aydra said pointedly. “And these creatures are not his brothers.”
Draven’s jaw tightened, but he didn’t say anything in response to Grey’s query. He simply stepped forward to Dorian’s side. The force at which he pulled each of the Infi’s heads up to look at them was abrupt. Aydra couldn’t stop staring at the shamed shadows resting in his features.
He sighed heavily, nostrils flaring, and then he looked to Dorian.
“You know what to do,” he said in a low tone.
Dorian twirled the knife in his fingers as he stared at the creatures. “Hey Grey—”
“Yes, Your Majesty,” Grey replied.
“You may want to cover your ears.”
The noise of the first one’s piercing scream reverberated through the small shop, and a chill ran down Aydra’s spine. Dorian had pushed his knife into the man’s throat. Dark, nearly black blood spurted from the vein he had cut, and it poured out onto the side of his body, trailing over Dorian’s hands and onto his feet.
Which was when the other two woke up.
They shifted features at an instant. True forms coming the surface. Disfigured and molten skinned, red burns plaguing their faces. Their wails echoed off the walls, making Aydra wince at the ear-piercing sound of it.
“You’re going to wake up the whole village, brother,” Aydra muttered as she hugged her arms around her chest.
Dorian’s knife met the necks of the other two, and their wailing ceased—but they knew it was only brief if he did not work fast.
“Quickly,” Draven said over his shoulder.
“You could help,” Dorian argued as he cut the chest of the first.
“What do you need?” Grey asked.
“Three bags,” Dorian managed, pulling the first’s heart from his chest. He tossed the still beating muscle into Grey’s hands, and Grey nearly dropped it as he realized what it was doing.
“What—“
“Bags, Grey,” Aydra reminded him.
She watched her brother work, the determined expression on his face that she knew he’d earned while on his time with Draven vanquishing those in the village towns. Draven was pushing him to do this on his own, as she was sure he’d done while he and Dorian had been on the road together. Grey brought forward two more bags for them, and Dorian took them from his hands.
The blood spattered on his young features, sitting stark against his alabaster skin and large white blue eyes. His thick black hair was quickly matted, the tips of his bangs falling into his right eye. He had a firm clench of his wide mouth, teeth showing as he worked determinedly to get the heart out of the second Infi.
The ribcage broke, and Dorian pulled the heart out, pushing open the bag on the floor with his elbow. The beating heart dropped inside it, and he moved on his knees to the third.
—The Infi surged back to life.
Its shriek made Aydra jump.
The creature grasped onto Dorian’s cloak and yanked him forward. It snarled in Dorian’s face, saliva dripping from its pointed teeth.
“Dorian…” Aydra said slowly, not wanting to interfere if he didn’t need it.
“I’ve got it.”
Dorian resisted the pull of the creature, and—
His knife plunged into its neck once again.
She watched him take the last heart, as as the bodies lied limp on the ground, the rope around them unfurled. Dorian sighed and sank back on his knees, apparently willing his breaths to catch after having to wrestle with them.
“Look at that.” Draven gave Dorian a firm clap on his shoulder. “A king worthy of the crown not yet on his head.”
CHAPTER FIFTY-ONE
THE ORDEAL OF the Infi was exhausting on them. It was well past midnight by the time they wrapped the bodies up and stowed them away in the stables so they could take them to the Hills of Bitratus after the meeting. Aydra walked with her arm around
