"It wasn't hard, actually," Byron continued, his voice a low tone that was horrifically out of place amidst the tension. "I just gave him a taste of his own medicine. A slow, wasting poison that mimicked a 'natural' decline. A fitting end for a man who took such pleasure in slow, agonizing destruction."
Ryan stared at his brother, utterly mortified, utterly broken. The grand conspiracy, the destabilization of the kingdom , the murders that had consumed his life for over a year – all of it, all of it stemmed from this deep, poisoned well of his brother's grief and vengeful madness.
The monster he had been hunting for so long was not a stranger, but his own kin, a boy whose heart had been shattered and had regrown into something twisted and terrible. He was speechless, the pieces of his world reassembling themselves into a monstrous new picture he could barely comprehend.
