Born of Legend by Sherrilyn Kenyon

until you give me a reason not to. Just don’t abuse my trust, because I won’t give you a second chance, and your life is what I will take when you break it. Understood?”
    â€œUnderstood.”
    â€œYou accept my terms?”
    Jullien nodded. “Thank you.”
    Trajen inclined his head to him. “Don’t thank me. Like I said, I’m paying forward a kindness that was once done for me. And you earned this by what you did for Vasili and Ushara. Keep making the right decisions and you’ll go far in the Gorturnum Nation. Do wrong and I’ll bury you.”
    With those words spoken, Trajen got up and left him alone with the badge.
    Jullien pulled it toward him and swallowed. The black patch had the ghostly image of a screaming skull. Legend said the Canting symbol was originally chosen by the Snitches who founded The Tavalian League to represent the sound their souls had made when they learned their daughter and her crew had been wrongfully seized and slaughtered by a corrupt government who’d wanted their cargo.
    He knew that sound. His own soul had made it when he’d awakened to the shrieks of his mother. Drowsy and confused, he’d left his room, desperate to find out what was wrong.
    â€œMatarra? What’s happened?”
    Screaming with hysteria, she’d turned on him with a vengeance. “My precious Nykyrian is dead! It should have been you who died, but you’re too stupid to have gone to school with him. You couldn’t even get in! God help this empire with you as emperor!”
    Stunned, he’d stood there as a mere, innocent child, trying to process those words and the heartbreaking grief in his heart, while his mother had continued to rail against him.
    His twin was dead?
    Bitter agony had stolen his tongue as his soul screamed out for his brother. Nykyrian couldn’t be dead. They were twins. They were supposed to live out their lives together. Forever. That was what twins did.
    Wouldn’t he know if something had happened to his brother? Weren’t they supposed to be so close that he’d feel it in his bones if his brother died?
    Then Tylie had turned her own wroth on him. She’d slapped him so hard, he could still feel the sting of her hand. “Where are your tears for your brother? Do you feel nothing for him? He was your twin!”
    Still, he couldn’t move. Couldn’t breathe. It was as if all the breath had been violently sucked out his body.
    Hissing, Tylie had wrenched him by the arm to drag him from the room.
    â€œMatarra!” he’d cried, trying to reach his mother.
    She’d turned her back on him as Tylie had shoved him into the hallway and slammed the door in his face, and locked it.
    Then the tears had come. Fast and furious until he was sick from them. He’d wanted to go to school with Nykyrian. But as his mother had said, he was too stupid to get in. Even though he’d studied and taken the admissions test three times, he hadn’t been good enough. He’d never been as good as Nykyrian, at anything. No matter how hard he’d tried. He’d always been lacking. Always second best.
    â€œDon’t you dare cry for that hybrid bastard!”
    Jullien had shrank away as his grandmother and cousin Parisa had neared him. Knowing better than to let her see his weakness, he’d wiped his tears and drawn a ragged breath. “M-m-my brother’s dead.”
    â€œI know. Who do you think killed him?”
    Eyes wide with cold-blooded terror, he’d looked from his grandmother to Parisa and back again.
    â€œThat’s right,” his grandmother had said without any feeling whatsoever. “And if you don’t behave and do just what I say, it’ll be Parisa’s son I see on my throne. Do you understand?”
    â€œYes, mu tadara .” Horrified past any rational thought other than survival, he’d started for his room.
    â€œAnd Jullien?”
    He’d