Once I’ve removedWornen and his friend and killed them both for disrespecting Renna, amongst other things, I can’t find her. “Where is she, Lynna?"
"Rexxan! What’ve you done?"
"I didn't like him anyway, it’s been on my to-do list for years. Where is she?"
"You have to stop solving issues like that!"
Is she suffering from hearing loss? "Where is she?"
"She left and asked Espan not to follow her."
"Did she look upset?"
"No, she didn't look anything. She just said she was tired of all the…,” Lynna winces, agonised at the idea of swearing, “…of the bullshit and left."
"Should I go?" I have no idea what to do with an upset woman. All I know is that Lynna likes hot water bottles when she's bleeding and diamonds for every other problem. I have no experience of comforting women.
"Yes, go," advises Lynna, and I do, but I can’t find Renna. She isn’t in her room, nor is she in my bathroom, which I've found her breaking into twice since I'd shown her it. I thought I’d find her in the training courtyard, but she isn’t there either.
“She’s in the forest.”
Ellatar stands in the hallway, arms across his gold-plated chest.
“How would you know that?”
“Because I just saw her collect her swords and leave heading east.”
A frisson of jealousy pangs in my gut. “Paying close attention to the Shadow Commander, Ellatar?”
A slight smile graces his lips. “Doing my job, Rexxan.”
Fuck him. “Fuck you.”
He laughs as I stalk out the hallway. If he wasn’t my friend, I’d have fired him last century. But I am wise enough to know that the most valuable thing a King can have is a friend that keeps his ego in check.
I don’t know whether to follow her. I have no reason to follow her. I tell myself I’ll follow her because she shouldn’t be alone in the forest, but Renna is a force of nature. She’d be just fine.
But I am worried now that Wornen’s words will bite her as ferocious as any wolf could. So, for reasons far beyond my own wisdom, I ride out of the palace grounds, along the eastern road, and through the gate into the woods. I leave my horse beside hers at the gate and allow myself to sink into the blissful dark of the forest.My home.
I’ll give it to her; she’s good. It takes me an hour to find even a trace of her. But I could find and ensnare a specific butterfly in this forest and the Shadow Commander is no different. I weave my way through the trees above, watching down on her as she walks through the forest in that. Fucking.Dress. I slink from branch to branch, wordless and silent as she slashes the branches in front of her.
“Egotistical men,” she says, into the soundless night. “They always think they’re one step ahead, but truly they’re not.”
I jolt out of the way as an arrow pierces the air, rocketing up through the tree canopy and skimming my chest and face. I plummet down to the forest floor, a knife at her throat before she can even breathe out my name. My face is so close to hers that I can feel the heat from her skin penetrating the cool air.
“We must stop meeting like this, Commander.”
“Oh, but we havesomuch fun out here,” she breathes out, one ringed finger brushing a lock of hair from the nape of her neck. The same finger hooks under the tip of my knife at her throat, gently trailing it upwards and over her chin, settling it at the little intent in the centre of her bottom lip. The look in her eyes isn’t fear, it isn’t annoyance, it isn’t affection. It’s pure unadulterated lust.
She wants me to kiss her. Gods above, I think I’d sacrifice my fortune for one brush of my lips on hers. But she is not just any woman, she’s addictive in the most toxic of ways. Before I can act on any of my treacherous thoughts she snatches the blade of the knife between two straight rows of teeth, pulls away, and sprints into the trees around us.
I sprint after her, wondering how my evening plans morphed so quickly from fake conversation over caviar to chasing an inappropriately-dressed criminal through the woods. Her laughter echoes around the trees, glimpses of satin evanescing behind gnarled tree bark.
Somehow, I lose her. The forest is silent. Eerily silent. This is what it feels like to be the Shadow Commander’s prey. I pause to catch any sound of her, but I should’ve known better. A knife flies out of the bushes at a breakneck speed. It lands with a thud in the tree between my thighs.Fuck. At least I got one child out.
I yank it out, my blood temperature rising to an insufferable level. “And here I was thinking you wanted me in that way,” I call, as she darts through the trees again. She moves like lightning, but I am faster, and I throw the knife at her with everything that I have. Her yelp pierces the quiet air as she realises she is pinned by her dress to the tree behind her. I clear the space between us in seconds, bracing a hand either side of her head on the rough trunk of the tree.
Her breasts brush my chest with each heavy breath she takes, her eyes fixed on mine. She’s got a dangerous glint in her eye, like she really does not give a shit. The cool metal of her blade bites at the skin on my own throat now, but my knife kisses her neck too. “One push. One push of my hand and the great Forest King will bleed out at my feet.”
