Nathan lit the torches around the clearing, the sun disappearing over the horizon the moment the last one was lit.

The women all knew what the torches meant.

Red Snow.

Alix returned, in his executioner gear, ready to claim the lives of three people.

One by one, he grabbed them.

They screamed. They begged. They cried.

I felt nothing.

I felt nothing after my own blood betrayed me.

The one person I trusted more than anyone stabbed me in the fucking back.

Magnus must have heard the screams because he came running, heading right for Alix. “What the fuck are you doing? I made my stance on this perfectly clear.”

Alix turned around and left the women on the ground. The mask covered the bottom half of his face, but the shine in his eyes showed his hidden smile. “I don’t take orders from you, asshole.”

I stepped behind Magnus and waited for him to turn around.

Magnus pulled out his knife from his pocket and held it at the ready. “Let them go, or I’ll cut off your balls, your lips, and your nose.”

Alix wasn’t scared because he had a more formidable foe on his side. He looked behind Magnus, right at me.

My brother stilled—because he knew.

He slowly turned around and met my look, a hint of surprise there, as if he actually believed there was a chance Alix was the one behind this. His faith infuriated me.

My concentrated stare was full of anger and disappointment. The betrayal stung—and it would always sting. Magnus had forced me to do this because I had no other option. “Because of your foolishness, I will take three lives instead of one. The women can thank you for that.”

He shook his head slightly, still in disbelief. The women and guards stared at us as the torches flickered. His eyes remained on me as if there was no one else there, and when he spoke, it was just for me to hear. “You’re better than this.”

Nothing would dim my anger. Nothing. “Sorry to disappoint you, brother.”

He flinched at my cruelty. “It doesn’t have to be this way.”

“Yes, it does.” I looked past him and nodded at Alix, telling him to continue with the butchering.

With lightning speed, Magnus punched Alix so hard in the back of the head that he fell to the ground and didn’t get up again. There must have been so much adrenaline in his veins to numb the pain, because his knuckles slammed into the hardest skull I’d ever seen. He turned back to me and stared me down, now as his enemy.

The two other guards standing with the women didn’t move forward, having seen their enormous comrade collapse on the ground from a single hit.

Magnus held his ground and didn’t back down. “I’m not going to let this happen.”