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“Do you love me, brother?” I ask, knowing this is the only way for him to hear the urgency in my voice.
“Teo, what the fu—”
“Levi, gods help me, just answer the question. Do you love me, brother?”
He nods.
“Of course. Sometimes you’re a pain in the ass but you’re still my family,” he retorts without missing a beat.
“Then trust me when I tell you that I need you to put these clothes on, now! We don’t have much time!”
His forehead creases in confusion, but thankfully he gets out of bed and starts getting dressed. I wait impatiently for him to hurry up, since time is of the essence. My father is still in the great hall having hisaudiencewith King Krystiyan, distracting him while his men do their dirty work. As soon as King Krystiyan finds out what is really happening under his roof, this whole castle will be a battleground, and before that happens, I have to make sure that Levi is as far away from here as possible, hidden away and kept safe.
“You are good?” I ask him after he’s put his coat on.
“Confused, more like,” he replies. “Just exactly what is this all about?”
“Do you still keep your horse in the back stable with the other servants’?” I ask instead of answering his loaded question.
“I do. You know I prefer to groom my horse myself.”
“Good. Let’s go then and, for the love of the gods, don’t make a sound,” I order, creaking the door open.
Levi gives me a curt nod and silently follows me down the hall.
If memory serves me right, there is a door in the kitchen that will lead us to the back stables, so that’s where we head off to. But just as we reach the ground level, Levi tugs at my sleeve to call my attention.
“Through that way it will take us longer. I know a shortcut,” he announces, going in the opposite direction.
Shit.
“Wait! Levi, wait!” I all but yell after him.
Unfortunately for me, the stubborn ass just keeps to his route instead of the one I had planned out for us.
And then we hear it.
The loud clink of steel and metal.
Swords clashing away at the other.
Levi turns his head over his shoulder to stare in my direction, anger and confusion all rolled up into a haunting shade in his eyes.
“Don’t!” I call out when Levi sprints away in the direction of the sound.
I run after him as fast as I can, Levi’s tree trunks for legs leaving me in the dust. When I realize that the sword fighting sounds are coming from the great hall, my apprehension increases.
The fuck is going on?
I watch as Levi turns the corner and enters the hall before me, fear and trepidation chilling my bones. A few seconds later when I step into the room, my jaw slacks open at what I find.
My father panting for breath while on his hands and knees, Levi’s father aiming the tip of his sword to his head. It’s obvious that they were the two who we heard battling it out, King Krystiyan having bested my father.
But he doesn’t finish him.
Instead, the east-born king just stares in my direction and that’s when I see that one of my father’s men has a dagger to Levi’s throat.
“Let him go, Yusuf,” King Krystiyan commands, never wavering his gaze from his son.
