AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“Did you hear his plans?” Damyn asked curtly. “He intends to turn you over to Kallus. We need to get out of here, now. Kallus must have found a way to use you for his ends and that’s why he was so angry at Joachim for putting you in danger.”
Kallus wanted me? Why?
“I assumed we’d be making a hasty exit anyway once you committed a little light murder,” I said crisply. I sounded more irritated than I would have, except I worried what the nobles would do if they caught Damyn with blood on his hands.
And the thought my uncle wanted me for some terrible purpose pulsed through my blood, carrying with it… grief.
Damyn had just killed in his protectiveness for me, yet he wouldn’t confess he felt a damn thing for me.
All of which feelings combined and made me sound pretty bitchy. “Could you have picked a more inconvenient person to murder, by the way? They’re going to notice Camet is missing.”
“It doesn’t matter. We’ll be gone.” Damyn moved swiftly to Jaik’s window, though we both knew damned well there was no leaving that way, not without our wings.
A knock on the door made me jump, and I pressed a hand to my heart, which was desperately hammering.
“My lord,” a feminine voice called through the door, “the festivities are dull without you.”
Damyn sighed under his breath. Then he moved toward the door. “Some things have changed, my dear, and I must chart a new path forward for us to save the isle. I need to be undisturbed.”
Damyn’s voice had come out higher than usual, and he was smiling as he said the words, filling them with both cheer and arrogance. He sounded like a near-perfect imitation of Camet, and I cocked my head to one side, fascinated by this unexpected skill. Was there anything Damyn couldn’t do?
“Then will you come to me tonight?”
“Of course. If you’ll be so kind as to tell the servants I want to be left undisturbed on your way back to the party…”
“I will. I’ll be waiting for you,” she promised.
Some of the nobles clearly thought Jaik wouldn’t survive to take the throne again, given how they were treating Camet. Or maybe they thought he was key to their comfort during a long siege.
My gaze turned back to the man, who had stretched an arm toward the door as if he were trying to summon help. But the knife had gone through his throat, and he could barely make a noise, let alone express a word. His gaze met mine, begging for help.
And I smiled back at him.
Once the hall was clear, Damyn and I let ourselves out and he pocketed Jaik’s dagger once again. We headed down the hallway, only to realize we were fenced in by nobles—and by guards who were watching to make sure we didn’t head for a door.
“We should return to the ball for now,” Damyn said to me quietly. “Until they stop watching quite so closely. Our absence didn’t go unnoticed.”
I’d learned during my conversations I had some friends left among the nobles, people who were loyal to Jaik or even to me. But for now, I nodded.
“Try to look boring. Once interest in us dies down, I’ll find us a way out.” Damyn promised me.
“Always scheming in the shadows.” I knew that well now, given how Damyn had moved through the court, positioning himself to be of service. To me. All his life.
It seemed ridiculous that he had given up so much for me and yet was unwilling to reach out and take what he clearly wanted. To give me whatIwanted when he’d tried to give me everything else.
I added, “Of course, all I want is for you to be by my side instead of behind me, watching over me with a blade.”
Damyn cast me a quick glance I couldn’t read, then his inscrutable gaze swept back out to the room, searching out any danger.
To my surprise, when we reached the ballroom, Damyn held out his hand to me. A lively waltz was playing. “Would you do me the honor of dancing with me?”
I was about to say something pointed, but there was a spot of blood on his sleeve. I quickly took his hand and stepped forward into his arms, taking a second to furtively tuck the sleeve back under itself so the stain was hidden.
“Despite your moments of stupidity,” I smiled up at him. “I’ll always dance with you, Damyn.”
My words might have been pointed, but his answering smile crinkled the corners of his eyes. They were a deep, magnetic blue, an unexpected contrast to his deeply tanned skin.
“I remain very fond of you despite yours,” he returned.
