Bringer of Winter- a M/M/M Epic Fantasy Romance

29-- Patricide

KHIF—

Fire was the first thing we saw as we moved out of Master Dreu's mansion and out into the streets of Eleyan. Thom had left the moonlight thread key with one of the other gladiators with the instructions of passing it around, and then running as fast and as far as they could. To freedom. Flames of fire licked up into the dark sky, making the city seem as if it were in bright noon day rather than night just before the sun rose. Chaos surrounded us, as horrible as that fateful day in Rothart, and I had to take a deep breath in to shove those memories, so newly reawakened, back down until I could face them on another day.

"Are Lucia and Teri safe?" I asked suddenly, worry for the two women who had become friends to me over the years making me pause and turn towards the direction of Heath's mansion rather than the palace.

"I sent them away yesterday, before I went to the palace. They're long gone, on their way to my home in the west. Which is where we should be going, as well," Heath countered, his snarl heavy as he glared me down.

I ignored his ire and turned to Ryker, Tye, Ryse, and Thom.

"I go to save the Pryn prince— to save Theo. I won't ask you to come with me. We have fought many battles together, and this is one we won't likely survive. Run if you can, be free, and I pray we meet again. You have been my friends and brothers, and I love you all very much. I hope we see each other again."

"You are the Nibean king, ain't ya?" Ryse asked, watching me with bright, studious eyes. "We all kinda wondered over the years, but we were never sure."

"I am," I replied, nodding, the time for lies and hiding over and done with. A moment of silence followed my words, and I could see Thom, Tye, and Ryse mulling them over. Almost as one, they turned to each other, then back to me, and held their hands over their hearts.

"I never was a great Pryn anyways," Tye said with a smirk. "I'll help you save the prince, and then we can get the hell out of this damn place."

"It's not like I have anything better to do," Thom muttered with a shrug, and Ryse only nodded in a way that was almost a bow.

"I'd follow you to hell, little fairy," Tye said, using the nickname he had called me since my first fight with him, where he had said I flew around the Courtyard like I had wings. "You know that. I owe my life to you many, many times over. Plus, I think staying with you will be more interesting than anything I could get into on my own."

I smirked and rolled my eyes to keep the tears that pooled there from falling and making me look weak in front of these men who were now swearing their lives to me.

"This is all beautiful," Ryker muttered, his hand landing on my shoulder, making me look up at him. "But we need mounts or we'll never make it up to the palace."

I could feel Wal'yah's power rise up within me as the screams of the trapped gryphons, kept near the Courtyard, only a few miles from where we were, washed over me. I smirked up at my l'ayai, knowing he was thinking the exact same thing I was when his own smile met my own.

THEO—

Fire. Heat and flame, pain and terror and death. That was all I saw and felt when I was woken and thrown from my bed, terrified at the sounds of Napa screaming my name as he clawed his way towards me. All was a haze. I could feel pain and the heat of flames lick my skin, blood dripping from my body onto cold, harsh stone. Then all was black until I woke again.

I heard words spoken in a foreign language I did not understand and I felt fear as I watched Rion shoved towards me. The boy whimpered and cried as he tried to wipe blood from my face and pressed against something that felt like molten agony at my belly.