Peter didn’t want Heiko dethroned.
He wanted him gone.
Forever.
He leaned his head back against the stone wall and exhaled, long and slow, as the truth settled in his bones like ice.
It hadn’t mattered that he gave up the throne without a fight.
It hadn’t mattered that he had bent over backward to be less than what they feared.
It didn’t matter that he bled on every battlefield for this realm.
They had always seen him as the Deathbringer first. A weapon. A ticking bomb.
And now that the tides were shifting, now that Thas was secure—they were eliminating all threats. Even ones who fought beside them. Especially ones they couldn’t control.
Heiko’s jaw clenched tight as the rage rose in his chest—not the wild, feral fury of the beast, but something colder, more calculated.
A betray
