Free Born of Legend by Sherrilyn Kenyon Page A

severed all access to him and his empire.”
    â€œBecause of your sister-in-law?”
    He nodded.
    â€œWhy did you kidnap her?”
    Jullien let out a bitter laugh. “I didn’t kidnap her.… Aksel Bredeh was my brother’s adoptive brother. That’s who I gave her to, and he’d sworn to me that he wasn’t going to hurt her, only use her to get Nyk out of my life again and get my grandmother off my back before she killed me—which she’d promised to do. And it wasn’t like he was a stranger to me, or her or Nyk, either, for that matter. We’d all gone to school together. He was the stepfather of Nyk’s daughter. I’d known Aksel for years. And Kiara, too, and no offense, but she was always a snotty bitch to me. Every time I tried to be nice to her, she’d curl her lip and sneer like I wasn’t fit to breathe her air.”
    His eyes tormented, he raked a hand through his hair. “Have I told you I was extremely high that night? I wasn’t thinking straight. My entire world was crashing down around me faster than I could make sense of it all. My parents were blaming me for Nykyrian’s death and absence like I was the one who’d orchestrated it. And I was a fucking child when it all happened. Five years old, to be precise. While I like to think I’m intelligent, I have to say, that level of evil was quite beyond my abilities at that time. Then, while all that shit was breaking loose with my parents and brother—the Andarion citizens began rioting in the streets to kill us all. If that wasn’t enough, my grandmother went out of her mind, threatening to kill me and my mother if I didn’t help her kill Nykyrian. Add to that, cousins Merrell, Chrisen, and Nyran who used that time to come after all of us so that they could take the throne during the riots … Yeah, fun memories. I tried to talk to my father about it and ask for his help, and he brushed me off, saying he was disgusted with me and didn’t have time for it. In fact, his entire consulate was trying to get me disinherited. My aunt Tylie was threatening to see me imprisoned. Galene Batur had threatened to gut me. I’d been poisoned by my own guards. My cousins were being systematically hunted down and executed … and were trying to save their own asses by telling lies on me. Yeah, I made some really bad decisions. But my entire family had turned on me, I had no allies or friends, and I was trying to stay alive in the middle of an extremely violent political coup. So sue me that I panicked when I had no one at all to trust or turn to.”
    The anguish in his eyes scorched her. “Here, let me give you the exact sequence of events.” He counted them off on his fingers. “My cousins Chrisen, Merrell, and Nyran had decided that it was time to put me down, and were plotting to have me and my mother killed. I didn’t realize what they were doing until they had set up a guy named Talyn Batur whose mother was my mother’s best friend and her head bodyguard, and had me take the fall for it. Now, I fully admit I’m not innocent. I played right into their hands, like a fool. I did just what they wanted. And it cost me. Which scared me because I knew I’d screwed up with my mother to the point she’d never forgive me for it. She’s always thought more of Galene than she has of me. For that matter, she loves Talyn more. It’s why I let Chrisen and them manipulate me. I hated Galene and Talyn for the fact that I couldn’t get near my mother for any reason, yet Talyn was allowed to visit her like a beloved son. Him , she rocked to sleep and petted. He got to do homework in her lap. Me, she wouldn’t look at. Not for anything. Not without slapping me or attacking me. And then when Nyk turned up with a pregnant wife and…” He closed his eyes and flinched. “I overheard my mother and aunt talking.”
    Glancing