Mathias exhaled a laugh that sounded like dry leaves scraping against a gravestone.
"Still scavenging for scraps of the past, Cedric? She is my wife now—bound by blood and law. Accept your obsolescence and find another shadow to haunt. You're beginning to look pathetic."
In a blur of feral motion, Cedric lunged. He fisted his hands into Mathias's collar, jerking him forward until their breaths mingled—hot, jagged, and thick with hatred.
"Accept it? I'd sooner accept a noose. I look pathetic because I mistook an adder for a brother. I bled my pride dry begging you to leave her be, and you repaid that vulnerability by gutting me while I wasn't looking."
He threw Mathias back with a jarring, bone-deep force. Cedric began to prowl the room, his fingers trailing with predatory indifference over the books on the desk.
