AllFreeNovel
Share Us
And also knowing that if I was innocent, they might be condemned to the same for standing against me.
I sighed. “Get up,” I said. “Both of you. We’ve-”
“I suggest moving away from the door,” moaned Dima, cradling his head in his hands, and a moment later it burst open, smacking Vidrio hard on the shoulder. Aitor stood in the doorway, sword drawn and his expression fierce. He brandished the blade at the councillor, pressing it to his chest.
“I realised I can’t let you-”
“Stand down, Aitor,” Morales said softly. The guard’s eyes flickered across the room, taking in the two councillors on the floor and me on my feet. Then he looked at Dima, who just waved a pathetic hand amid the pastel blankets. Aitor wavered, unsure.
“I appreciate the last-minute burst of heroic loyalty,” I told him, “but the excitement’s over. We’ve impinged on Dima’s hospitality for far too long, and I’m sure he wishes to get back to his painti-”
“Try to peek at what’s on my canvas and I will gouge your eyes out,” Dima snarled without opening his own. “I do not wantto hear what any of you think of it, and you cannot hide your opinions from me.”
“I’m sure it’s beautiful,” I began to protest, but the dog’s growls only deepened.
“Missing eyes will stop you salivating over your pretty king, Nathanael,” the Hearken threatened from his bed. I took a hasty step back from where the canvas rested on its easel. “And God save me, maybe that would do usalla favour.”
Perhaps it was the way Dima called me a hundred different names the way Ren always did, having been inside the king’s head the way he was currently in ours, but that made me smile.
And then I remembered that Ren was still missing, and there was nothing left to smile about at all.
*
Chapter Fifteen
“You’re not going to…punish us?” Aitor asked meekly for the third time in as many minutes. I don’t know how the man managed to look so sad and joyful at the same time, but he was managing it.
“I may, if you keep asking,” I snarled under my breath.
“But we-”
I stopped on the stairs and spun around to face the three people who had lied, tricked, and assaulted me. They all blinked, bemused and uncertain, and swayed on the steps to account for my abrupt change of direction.
“You did it for Ren,” I reminded them. “How could I punish you for that? You literally put your lives on the line for him, knowing what it could cost you if you were wrongorright, and yet you were willing to honour and protect him. I’m still pretty pissed you thought it wasme, though,” I added in a low voice, watching them all wince.
The arguments in strange favour of their own penance recommenced almost as soon as I turned around.
“If you think,” I said to shut them up, “that I’m going to waste a single second on sentencing you to whatever punishment you all believe you deserve, when my husband is still fuckingabducted, then you don’t know me at all.”
“Your Highness,” one of the tower guards blurted out as I stomped down the steps and turned the final spiral of the staircase. “You’re injured!”
Both of their hands went to their swords, gazes running coolly over my companions as if to determine which of them was responsible for all the blood drying on my face.
“It was my fa-” Morales began, but I cut her off.
“Tripped on the stairs,” I said shortly. The two guards didn’t look convinced, but unlike the others, didn’t seem inclined to challenge me on every single Blessed thing I said. They merely bowed and let us all pass through.
“I’m so glad you weren’t the traitor, Your Highness,” Aitor said happily once we were out of their earshot, subsequently deflating under the glare I tossed back at him.
“So am I,” I shot back. “What a relief it was for me to learn that.”
“We really should get you to the healer,” murmured Morales, seemingly not put off by my extra-bitchy mood. “Our sincerest apologies for the accidental head wounds, king consort.”
I ignored her and continued weaving through the corridors. While Starling was still away in the north on her six month rotation, the palace had hired another healer with the Touch, but I wasn’t going to spend time getting my face fixed while Ren could be in danger.
“Then…I’ll have him brought to you,” Vidrio ventured, and when I didn’t bother to object, peeled off from our group just as Jiron and Wyatt rounded the corner ahead of us hand in hand. I caught the way both men tensed as their instincts to bow warred with my longstanding orders not to do any such fucking thing, stifling my growl when their instincts won out.
“Jiron,” I greeted. “I know you’re not on duty today, but I didn’t think you’d appreciate being kept in the dark.” I’d sent a messenger to relay to him what had happened to Ren shortly after I’d learned of it myself.
