Samael shrugged before looking away. “I can say no one saw that relationship coming either. I heard talk of you two, of course, but I hear talk about many women and men. The two of you struck a little differently because of how much it pissed off your father.”
“Imagine how he feels about us now that he knows about her.”
Samael chuckled. “I don’t have to imagine it; I was with him after you killed Ivan and fled with her from that field. I’ve never seen a bigger temper tantrum. It was glorious.”
“I can imagine it wasn’t so glorious for the amsirah he hurt during his tirade, and I’m sure there were many.”
“Oh, there were,” Samael agreed. “You’ll be happy to know Gaius was one of them.”
“Why would that make me happy?”
“I’m not a fool, Ryker. I can see how much you two despise each other. I’m guessing it’s because he has a thing for your girl.”
“My wife,” I growled.
Samael glanced back at me again. “Sorry, I forgot that. I’m guessing it’s because he has a thing for your wife.”
He did have a thing for Ellery, and that was enough of a reason to hate the fucker, but it was more than that. “What did the duke do to him after the field?”
“He demoted him from his position as the head of Ivan’s guard, and there was no way the duke would let him be the head of his private contingent. He couldn’t have the man who’d failed to keep Ivan alive in such a position. However, even your father… the duke… realized there was nothing Gaius could have done to prevent Ivan’s death. He also recognizes that, while Gaius is an ass-kissing sycophant, he’s also an asset.”
“That’s because Veni recognizes himself in Gaius,” I said.
“That’s terrifying,” Tucker muttered.
“I agree,” Callan said.
“I also agree with that,” Samael said. “That must be part of the reason why he didn’t completely toss Gaius aside or kill him. The duke made him one of his soldiers. He’s not the head, but he is in the upper ranks.”
“So, he was demoted but still holds a position of power,” I muttered.
“He also received one hundred lashes.”
I chuckled. “That’s nothing.”
When Samael glanced back again, his brow furrowed as his eyes scanned me. They lingered on the hundreds of scars covering my bare chest. Some were new, but most were older and faded. Samael knew Veni was the first to bestow some of those scars on me. But he was far from the last.
“To some, it’s not much,” he murmured. “To Gaius, it was everything.”
When I grinned at Samael, he smiled back before turning away again. It was a small moment, not of forgiveness, but of understanding and amusement at Gaius’s suffering.
“He’s already healed from them. Believe me, I know. He gladly lashed me, but then he wasn’t the first.”
Samael winced. “I remember seeing the marks on you as a child. You were usually good at hiding them, but sometimes I’d glimpse them when your shirt pulled up or a sleeve fell. I asked my father about them once, and he told me that some fathers do things differently. I was young when I asked, so it took a few years for me to understand what he meant. By then, we’d grown out of our hide-and-seek phase and moved on to girls and future plans. I never mentioned seeing the marks to you and never asked about them, but I saw them.”
I didn’t say anything; what was there to say?
“How much further is it?” Tucker asked.
“We’re almost to the kitchen,” Samael said. “We’ll have to cross it to get to the last tunnel, but even though it’s nighttime, there’s a chance someone will be there. Sometimes a cook is preparing something for tomorrow or someone will raid the pantry. It’s not allowed, but I’ve done it a time or two myself.”
“How do we avoid running into them?” Lawrence asked.
“I’ll make sure it’s safe for you to exit—though I’m sure most of the servants would be happy to see you. Nobody likes life under the duke.”
“I know that feeling well,” I remarked dryly.
“Maybe we can get one of those servants to kill him,” Callan suggested.
