But he was reaching for her, gripping at her shoulder, shoving her back against the shelf. “Oh, don’t play coy with me,” he snapped. “We both know you like a bit of force with your fucking anyway, don’t we? Now get on your knees, before I knock you out andputyou there.”
The fear was shouting, scrabbling, and Rosa hurled herself away from him, grasping at the shelf behind her. For the book she knew was there, had to be there — and she gulped as she dragged it out, her hands skittering against its heavy weight. It was theAnnals of the Realm, full of pomp and bullshit andlies, just like Lord Kaspar himself — and Rosa flung it toward him with all her might. Not at his head, as her initial impulse might have been — but instead straight at his exposed, swollen groin.
It made impact with a vicious-soundingcrack, and Lord Kaspar shrieked with satisfying shrillness, his face contorting with agony as he staggered back onto the floor. Sending Rosa’s papers flying everywhere, wafting through the air, settling down all around his sprawled, moaning body.
“You devious littlebitch,” he croaked, clutching both hands to his groin. “You will fuckingpayfor this, you —”
His voice abruptly broke, as if it had been strangled — because he was blinking, gaping, at the paper. The single sheet of paper that had settled onto his thigh, its block letters clear, blatant, glaring. Shouting, striking, into the sudden deadly silence.
LORD KASPAR’S BASTARDS, it read.The Shocking Truth Behind the Realm’s Most Acclaimed Gentleman Scholar.
“What. The. Fuck,” hissed Lord Kaspar, his voice poisonous, “isthis.”
Rosa felt her chin lifting, her composure and conviction rising, her body straightening to its full height. “Oh, that?” she said, with surprising coolness. “That’s my latest treatise. Quite a compelling title, don’t you think? I’ve arranged for a thousand copies to be printed, with wide distribution to begin next week.”
Lord Kaspar gawked open-mouthed at her, his eyes round and bulbous, his face gone a sickly shade of white. “You havenot,” he gasped. “You wouldnever.”
Rosa felt herself smile at him, cool, bitter. “Oh, wouldn’t I?” she said. “Just the same way you wouldn’t start an unjust war, or make promises you never meant to keep, or force yourself on someone who doesn’t want you? Someone who’s only done her best topleaseyou, these past nineyears, despite everything you’ve done to her?!”
Lord Kaspar’s mouth was opening and closing, his throat working, his eyes suddenly darting around at the other papers scattered all over. Many of them full of neat typeset text — courtesy of one of Lady Scall’s many connections — and several more with large titles, printed in the same thick block letters.
INSIDE ORC MOUNTAIN: A True Account, one read.ORCS ON TRIAL: Myths and So-Called Scandals, read another. And then,THE REAL ATROCITIES OF THE REALM: A Firsthand Account of a Lord’s Ruin of an Innocent.
And then, the last one, Rosa’s own pet project —ORCLING BIRTH: A Summary of Best Practices for Protecting Women’s Health.
Lord Kaspar looked like he’d been struck in the groin — again — and his dazed eyes blinked at the titles, again, again, as if he truly couldn’t believe they were real. And with a jolting, jerky movement, he grasped for the nearest paper, and ripped it to shreds with visibly shaking fingers.
“You willnot,” he said, his voice hitching as he clutched for another sheet, and tore it again and again, “dareto besmirch a lord’simpeccablereputation with such foul, unfoundedfalsehoods. You willnot.”
But Rosa was smiling again, hard and grim. “You misunderstand me, Lord Kaspar,” she said flatly. “I will do this, whether you approve of it or not. I willonlyreconsider if you do as I asked, and speak to your father and the Council, andbegthem to stop this unjust war.”
Lord Kaspar was goggling at her again, and Rosa snatched up the nearest paper — another title page forLord Kaspar’s Bastards— and held it up toward him. “And while you’re at it,” she said coldly, “you will seek out your children — including the girls — and give every one of them your support, and a proper education. Then, andonlythen, will I refrain from distributing these treatises. Otherwise, I will use every means at my disposal to deliver copies to every town, village, and library in therealm. You have one week.”
A sheer, maniacal hatred had flashed across Lord Kaspar’s blinking eyes — and in a burst of movement, he leapt to his feet, and launched himself at Rosa. His clammy, sticky hands finding her neck, and clamping tight.
The panic soared and screamed, Rosa’s entire body kicking and writhing against him, against the horrifying force of that shocking, dangerous pressure. Entirely unlike anything she’d ever felt before, unlike anything John hadeverdone, and her vision was already spotting, sparking black holes in Lord Kaspar’s handsome, leering, furious face.
“You will not,” he gasped, through his heaving breaths. “Because you’ll bedead. Killed at the hands of anorc, who dared to come intomyfucking library, and try to steal what’smine! You want to start awar, my stupid little bookworm,here’show we start a war!”
No.No. Rosa’s feet were slipping, her vision stuttering, Lord Kaspar was going to kill her, everything was for nothing, everything,John—
John. Rising up behind Lord Kaspar, like a huge, violent, avenging god. His eyes glittering with fierce, inhuman rage, as his powerful arm snapped over Lord Kaspar’s head, and crushed hard against his neck. Dragging Lord Kaspar away from Rosa altogether, his pale face suddenly contorted with pain, his eyes bulging, his mouth screaming with no sound.
“She ismine, vile human,” John hissed, deep, close in Lord Kaspar’s ear. “And for this, youdie.”
38
For a choked, careening instant, Lord Kaspar fought and flailed against John’s deadly grip, his arms frantically swatting and swinging.
But John only yanked tighter, the muscles flexing in his powerful arm, and Lord Kaspar’s movements gradually, visibly slowed. Becoming more sluggish and erratic, his eyes rolling back, his mouth falling open.
And as Rosa watched, blinking, strangely detached, there was the awareness, unnerving but certain, that she didn’t care if Lord Kaspar died. That he’d been truly horrible, both to her and the orcs, and to everyone else around him. John could kill him, with her blessing.
But then, a bang. Loud, pointed, from the very back of the library. Almost like a door slamming open, and Rosa’s dazed, blunted brain finally leapt back into motion, more panic surging and soaring. What if it was armed men. What if Lord Kaspar had somehow called for guards. What if there was a brawl in the library, what if John was found out, captured,killed—
But it was — Tristan? Yes, Tristan, sprinting, bodily leaping over a table with surprising ease, while Salvi dodged around after him. And instead of going for Lord Kaspar’s rapidly sagging form, as Rosa might have expected, they both launched themselves toward — John?
“Stop, John-Ka,” Tristan hissed, grasping with clawed fingers at John’s arm, still clamped around Lord Kaspar’s neck. “You must not.Please.”
