Soldier, Brother, Sorcerer

A REIGN OF STEEL (Book #11)

A LAND OF FIRE (Book #12)

A RULE OF QUEENS (Book #13)

AN OATH OF BROTHERS (Book #14)

A DREAM OF MORTALS (Book #15)

A JOUST OF KNIGHTS (Book #16)

THE GIFT OF BATTLE (Book #17)

THE SURVIVAL TRILOGY

ARENA ONE: SLAVERSUNNERS (Book #1)

ARENA TWO (Book #2)

ARENA THREE (Book #3)

VAMPIRE, FALLEN

BEFORE DAWN (Book #1)

THE VAMPIRE JOURNALS

TURNED (Book #1)

LOVED (Book #2)

BETRAYED (Book #3)

DESTINED (Book #4)

DESIRED (Book #5)

BETROTHED (Book #6)

VOWED (Book #7)

FOUND (Book #8)

RESURRECTED (Book #9)

CRAVED (Book #10)

FATED (Book #11)

OBSESSED (Book #12)

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Copyright © 2017 by Morgan Rice. All rights reserved. Except as permitted under the U.S. Copyright Act of 1976, no part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed or transmitted in any form or by any means, or stored in a database or retrieval system, without the prior permission of the author. This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. If you’re reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please return it and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author. This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, businesses, organizations, places, events, and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictionally. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

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CHAPTER ONE

Thanos was surprised to wake up at all. From what the queen had said before the soldiers had beaten him into unconsciousness, he’d expected that they would cut his throat and be done with it.

He didn’t know whether it was a good thing or not that they’d changed their mind.

He must have slipped back out of consciousness, because he found himself looking at the blood that had covered the floor in his father’s chambers. He could remember the sensation of holding his father in his arms, the once big man feeling as delicate as a child. In his dreams, his hands were covered in blood.

He blinked awake, and sunlight told him that this wasn’t a dream anymore. But the blood was still there. His hands were still red with it, and now Thanos didn’t know how much of it was his. He could feel the hardness of iron against his body, but it didn’t feel right for chains.

He couldn’t focus on it though, and Thanos found himself wondering just how badly he’d been beaten that he couldn’t pull clear of the memories. They dragged him down again, into the moments where he was watching his father die, helpless to do anything to stop it.

“You need to be able to prove the truth of it. The whole truth.”

It had taken so much of his father’s strength to say those words. It had been so important to him, in that moment, that Thanos be able to prove that he was the king’s son. Perhaps he had seen a way to undo some of the damage he had done in his life. Perhaps he had just seen the damage that Lucious might wreak given real power.

Thanos groaned at the thought of it all, sunlight streaming in through his dreams, while pain pushed them back more physically. Even so, his father’s voice lingered.

“Felldust. You’ll find the answers you need in Felldust. That’s where she went after I…”

Even in his dreams, there was no conclusion to those words except the blank staring of his father’s eyes. There was only the name of a place, a hint of a journey that might tell him everything.

If he lived long enough to make it.

Consciousness came back to him, and the full weight of the pain came with it. Thanos felt as though every part of him was bruised bone deep. He could barely lift his head, because it felt as though it might fall to pieces just with the effort of it. He knew from experience what broken ribs felt like, and far too many other places felt nearly the same.

The guards who had beaten him hadn’t held back because of who he was. If anything, it felt as though they had hit him harder for it, either stung by the scale of his supposed betrayal or wanting to show that they weren’t on the side of their rebel prince.

Thanos managed to sit up and look around. The world near him seemed to shift while he did it. For a moment, he thought it was some trick of the pain, vertigo caused by the blows to his head. Then he realized that he really was moving, vertical bars of iron providing a constant reference point as his movement made him set the rest of the world swinging.