He closed his eyes and then opened them again when he heard another voice. His mother, Thea, was gone. In her place was an older, broad-shouldered man wearing a tunic that left one shoulder bare. His white hair was curly and he had a wispy beard. He had a slight limp as he paced the cell.

‘If I’d known what you were,’ he growled, ‘I would have disowned you the day you were born. And now you’re the king.’ He sneered, waving his hands in disgust. ‘Look at you, boy! Some king you are. You thought you could do it better than your brother? Well, you thought wrong.’

‘I tried, Father.’

‘You tried.’ Dion’s father scowled. ‘I’ve been watching you your whole life. From what I can see, all you’ve done is fail.’

Dion put his hands over his eyes, holding them there while he drew in a long, shuddering gasp of air. He waited, and when he finally slowed his breath and the pounding of his heart, he heard only silence. He took his hands away and looked up.

There was another man standing over him. Tall and brawny, a younger version of Dion’s father, he had a barrel chest, thick black hair, and a matching beard covering his face. Where Dion’s father had been scathing, his older brother Nikolas gazed down on him with sadness in his eyes.

‘I cast you out because you are not human. You understand that, don’t you? I loved you, Dion. Why did you have to be some kind of . . . monster? You hurt everyone around you.’

‘I am who I am,’ Dion protested weakly.

‘Exactly. And that has always been your problem.’

Shaking his head from side to side, the vision began to slowly fade away.

‘Nikolas . . . Don’t go,’ Dion pleaded.

But his older brother had disappeared. And now Dion found himself looking at a stooped, stocky figure peering at him through the bars of his small cell.

The hunchback turned and barked at someone out of sight. ‘You. Yes, you! Get over here.’

‘What is it, Kyphos?’ An older warrior with a bald patch on his crown approached, wiping at his eyes and stifling a yawn.

‘Look at him. He’s at death’s door!’

The old soldier’s eyes flickered disdainfully at Dion for a moment before he shrugged. ‘He’s a prisoner.’

‘Don’t you realize, you fool? He’s a king! He’s a valuable hostage. Go, quickly. Find someone to tend his wounds. And get some food and water. Go!’

Casting a dark expression at Dion, the old soldier muttered to himself as he hurried away.

Dion blinked as he looked up at Kyphos. He shivered again, still lying on his side, arms clenched around himself.