Page 91

A distraction. Roark tightened his hold on my shoulders and held me closer. What I know of Stonegate is that the Jorvans are not above sacrificing their own men to get a drop on the enemy.

To find us. To peek beyond our borders. I traced the hard planes of Roark’s chest with one finger. “They know you are the prince of Dravenmoor. Someone sent word to Stonegate that we had wed, and they came.”

Yes, a report like that likely spurred the action, Roark agreed. I would’ve wanted to do the same if it were reversed. I do think that if it was Thane who ordered this, he wouldn’t have done it this way.

“Meaning?”

He would’ve sent a warning, or a taunt to get under my skin.

I snorted against his chest. “I can see it. ‘Roark, you ass. Not inviting me to your nuptials? True we are, at present, not seeing eye to eye, but I ought to have been there in the first row. I’ll never forgive you for this slight. Best, Thane, the better prince.’ ”

My cheek bounced against his heart when he let out one of his breathy laughs.

After a pause he sobered. Thane is not like Damir or his mother. He would not risk innocent Stav Guard. He would rather fight beside them, and if he cannot, he pisses and moans.

True enough. One of my most favored interactions with Thane the Bold was the night we snuck away from our assigned protections and fired arrows into the onslaught of ravagers at the gates.

“Elisabet wouldn’t have drawn attention to us, would she?”

It took a moment for Roark to respond, then: I don’t believe so. I hesitate to say it, but she seems sincere in wanting us to destroy the missing bones.

“You are hesitant to trust her in general. I understand. But do you think you’ll ever trust her again?”

He considered my words, mindlessly running his fingers against my skin. I can understand the desperation to keep me alive after Nivek was lost. But I have a soul bond now. I cannot ever fathom anything that would bring me to willingly break it. She split my father’s soul, making him a Skul Drek. To do so, she had to know their bond would weaken.

“Has ours weakened?”

Roark’s mouth tightened for a moment before he went on without acknowledging the truth of our intact bond. But how would she know it was possible to keep a bond with a split soul? Either way, the distrust is deeper than willingly dividing her soul bond’s soul; it is allowing him to be killed.

“But it was done so you would live. Don’t you think your father would want you to survive?”

But his mind—

I clasped his hands before he could finish his gestures. “You told me there were moments when he had a clear thought. Perhaps that night was one.”

I did not understand my defense of the queen, but I could not manage to keep my tongue still. As though some deeper piece of my soul yearned for Roark to have some…peace, some kindness left from a bloodstained past.

He let out a rough, breathy sigh and gestured slowly. The point is, I do not understand her true motivations.

I had not mentioned what I witnessed on the queen when Nivek was summoned, the web of an unbreakable bond. I did not know if I truly trusted Elisabet myself, but the words came all the same. “I do not think her bond was broken.”

Roark tilted his head. Why?

“I know you see things differently when we speak soul to soul, but I saw endless weaves of a bond across her soul, Roark. I saw it, and it looked so similar to ours.”

He rubbed the place over his brow. But she knew that to rend my soul would break my bond. That was why it was done.

I propped myself onto one elbow and studied his features. Behind the anger I could almost see a flicker of hope. “Unless she knew a different truth.”

You believe Elisabet of Dravenmoor willingly allowed me to keep a soul bond with a melder, knowing it would be considered treason? You think she has been playing a part all this time?

“Why did you not kill Thane?” I asked, my thoughts tumbling in new theories, new possibilities. “You could have taken his soul, and the ravagers would’ve ended him, but Skul Drek let him live.”

Roark winced. Nothing disturbed him more than knowing how close he’d come to killing the prince. Some of it is a blur since I was not in control entirely, but it was as though, all at once, I recognized him. My hate, my cruelty, could not take him, for he had earned none of it.

“Your mother had a great deal of control over you in those moments. True, you had regained some, but I believe she could have forced you. What if she…didn’t want you to lose another brother?”

I stopped when Thane faced me. I could feel him, sense him. Somewhere in the darkness, I managed to pull on the connection between us and stop the slaughter. The queen would have allowed him to die.