‘Umm …’ The woman pushed the door wider and marched into the chaos.I looked at Torgrin helplessly, but he just shook his head.
What was I supposed to do?I couldn’t hurt an old lady.
She was still wearing the queen’s emblem on her mantle, and a white veil concealed her hair.
After taking in the room before her, she turned to face me.She seemed entirely unbothered by the gory scene.
‘As you must know, my dear friend Queen Yaris is dead, and she gave me one last request: I was to find you.She asked me to serve and help you as I have done for her all these years.’
‘Why?’I asked in utter confusion.‘Wouldn’t it make more sense that you serve her family?Like Bethel, her niece?Or Lord Warwick?He will be here any day now.’
‘No,’ she said firmly.
‘Look, we’re leaving the city.Bethel is in the room down the hall, and you can wait with her if you like.’I sighed, looking around the room.Honesty seemed the best approach in our current situation.
‘See that body with no head?’I gestured to Goodwin’s gruesome remains.‘That is King Hared’s son, and I did that to him,’ I admitted to her with no regret.
‘Good.Yaris strongly disliked him,’ she said, looking me directly in the eye.
Is she crazy?Had Queen Yaris’s death sent her around the bend?
‘I’m not crazy.’
Did she just read my mind?
‘If that was what you were thinking,’ she added.
I didn’t know what to think or say to this odd, persistent woman.Torgrin came forward, seeing I was getting nowhere with her.We didn’t have time for this.
‘Look, I don’t think you understand,’ he said.‘They will discover what we have done, and guards and knights will be waiting to stop us from leaving the city.’
‘Well, you must get to your horses first, correct?’she asked.‘I know a way to get you to the royal stables without being seen by the castle guards.’
Torgrin raised his eyebrows in surprise.That could be helpful.
‘Of course, I will only tell you the way if you take me with you.’
I liked this sly old lady.
‘Can you ride?’Torgrin asked her as the corner of his mouth twitched with amusement.
She nodded with a smile, knowing she had prevailed.
There was no more arguing.I knew our choices were limited, and I must think with my head and not my heart.Torgrin was going to find Cillian.I was going to take everyone else and get out of the city.Torgrin and Cillian would meet us in Danu Woods, and together, we would return to Atlas in Murus.
Rhett wouldn’t be much help in a fight, but Tomas’s aim with a bow would.Now we had an old lady joining us – and then there was Finn.Could I trust him?He was a king’s guard and might have become a knight one day.Even if he proved his worth, we would need a miracle to live through this.
Everyone was ready.Finn and Tomas supported Rhett, and the woman in white waited patiently by the door.Torgrin went to check on Bethel’s restraints and to secure her gag so she couldn’t call for help once we were gone.
When he returned to where we waited for him, he walked directly to me and pulled me roughly against his solid body.Face to face, chest to chest, we stood.He wrapped one hand around my upper arm and slid his other hand under my braid to grasp the back of my neck.
I stared into the inky depths of his eyes, and everything else went out of focus.For a moment, it was as if he and I were all that existed.
He did not ask this time.Positioning my head how he wanted it, air whooshed from my lungs as he lowered his head.His surprisingly soft but firm lips found mine, and I tensed as every nerve in my body sparked at once.How could a first kiss feel this familiar?How can the sensation of his body pressed against mine feel so right – like two broken pieces being put back together?
With a breathless sigh, I submitted to him as his tongue caressed mine.This was one battle with him I didn’t want to win, and he knew it the moment I arched against his body.His kiss grew more tender.I would let him take what he wanted, what he needed.
I heard Finn give a long, low whistle.
