This time, he snarled with anger when he struck her. His general’s ring sliced into Eris’s lip and she didn’t even wince in pain. She just smiled and licked the blood from her lip. “Still so emotional,” she mocked. “Father will think that makes you weak. I can’t imagine his disappointment when you became general.”

Damocles gripped the front of her shirt and pulled her roughly to him. “He told me none of this was meant to be mine. You were always better, always stronger. And when everyone thought you had died, even our own people looked at me like I was a disappointment. Despite the Oracle’s programming. I hadn’t earned it. The Empire was given to me.”

“And you never faltered,” Eris sneered. “You never questioned what you were given. It was a whole lie built on bones and slaughter. We killed our brothers for him.”

His face flickered. She remembered the angry boy. She had picked up the pieces, helped him become a man. He wouldn’t have even come close to being the Spare, if not for her.

And he knew it.

“Everything would have been mine either way,” he said, voice low. “If I had told them all you were willing to give it up for that weakling.”

“Xander,” Eris said, her voice steady. “His name was Xander. My frater.”

“Brother?” He said the word like the shape of it on his tongue was revolting. “Your weakness. Even now, your icons hang on every planet in the Empire and they all think you died in battle, a hero. They don’t realize what a coward you are.” His lip curled. “I’ll show them something different before the end. I’ll force our father to choose between us, and the entire Empire will despise you.”

Eris’s stomach coiled in dread. “Before the end?” She sounded calm. But if he could hear the beat of her heart, he would know she lied.

“Father’s time is over,” Damocles said. His lips curled in a sneer. “Do you know he mourned you? He’d spend hours kneeling in front of your icons in silence. Now he’s growing soft. Maybe it was your death that started it. Making noises with those disgusting creatures about peace. Fucking lies. The Empire’s resources are drying up. We have the chance to take the Evoli planets, use them for our own, and he chose the easy way because he’s a coward too. It goes against our gods, Discordia. We don’t share. The galaxy is ours. And he’s no longer fit to rule it.”