Iscariot

Life isn't always what you'd think it'd be.

Erik paused in the doorway to look back at James, still unconscious on the bed. I almost killed him. Instead, he stopped the bleeding, healing his brother and carrying him up the stairs to his bedroom to sleep off the injury. At least Mika will be safe from him tonight. Evening was approaching, James wouldn't wake until dawn at the earliest.

I didn't mean to hurt him. But he had. What if it were Damien or Matthew or Mika? He was in the human world; an incubus with strong magic and even stronger instincts on edge, wound tighter than he'd ever been. It wasn't safe for him to walk freely. Not if something like this could happen.

Why weren't you shielded against me? It was unheard of for a demon, let alone the power-hungry Demon Lord. Once more, Erik considered his elder brother as he lay unconscious. The harsh lines, the stoic indifference, had relaxed away. Once more, he looked like James. As teens, he'd fallen asleep beside him while talking the night away. When they'd escaped to the human world, they'd worried and planned and dreamed of their new lives together, too. James: the studious man who hid the nurturing heart within, who cherished flowers and tradition, who once held himself to a level of honor higher and more difficult than any of them ever would.

But not any longer. Erik didn't want to think about what Raestrao had become. He had managed to stay away, dwelling in Lilith Castle and holding onto his own. He'd heard enough of the rumors to know it was better that way. His brother held his Kingdom in an iron fist and quickly smothered any dissension. Denizens of his lands tried to move into Lilith every day and Erik couldn't turn them away. It was the one thing he insisted on; he let his advisers handle the rest.

How many more am I killing by leaving you alive? He hated the question, but it was one he had to ask if only to torment himself. Could I do it, to protect her? An even harder question.

James moaned in his sleep, his eyes wavering beneath their lids. Erik made himself turn away. James is gone. No one knew that more than he. I won't trust you again. I can't. If the time came, he would do what needed to be done to protect Mika. Until then, he would guard her dreams. But not his brother's.

He left Raestrao to his nightmares.

*

"How could you side with him, Raestrao?" Aomaris called across the chasm to his brother. The Heir stood tall behind their father, glaring at him. "This is wrong." He waved a hand over the decimated valley, once a town with fertile fields. "You know it's wrong. You're killing the people you want to rule!"

"Stand down, Aomaris." Raestrao called back to him. His brother didn't understand. He'd disappeared, only to reemerge as a leader among the rebels, a thorn in their father's side that grew as others rallied around him. The Dragon Lord they called him. "It is your insurgency that is causing this death."

"Shut up and take care of him." The Demon Lord growled, glancing askance at his son. His only son in his eyes.

"Father?" Raestrao hesitated.

"You fight for your Kingdom, boy. Everyone, everything. YOU must always be the one to fight, to take it for yourself or you will fall to the dogs."

The Prince turned back to regard his brother on the opposite cliff.

Aomaris stood tall, resolute. Strong. "Are we gonna do this, or what?" He flared his wings and Raestrao gasped. As they spread, the golden image of a dragon appeared behind him, intertwined with red and green power, lighting the sky. It bellowed a roar that echoed, making the entire war hold as its power rolled across the land. The Dragon Lord. Dragon's blood and dragon's fire burns within Aomaris! Raestrao had known his brother was strong, but this? How could Aomaris even control it? What else did he not know about his own brother?