Eryx POV
The sound of my name rises until it presses against my skull, until it feels like it might split me open from the inside. Voices crash together, rough and reverent, chanting as one. I stand there and let it happen. I don’t lift my hands. I don’t acknowledge it yet. I watch them instead, faces lit with belief, relief and hunger. Power always sounds like this when it comes back to you.
I turn my head slightly and speak.
“Take him.”
My men move immediately. Eran doesn’t have time to react before hands clamp down on his arms, before he’s dragged forward through the crowd. He fights them with a wildness that borders on desperation, boots scraping, shoulders jerking as he tries to break free.
“Let me go!” he screams, his voice cracking as it echoes off the stone. “Get your hands of
