Page 31 of A Kingdom of Lies
“You wouldn’t have. For that you would have had to stop thinking about yourself for a moment to–”
“I get it, Gyah. And I’m sorry, okay? If I could change it, I would. But that isn’t going to get us out of here.” A string in me snapped, one that I had not realised was pulled too tight. “My father was killed before my very eyes by a man I was beginning to let myself love. In the space of weeks, I have gone from believing I had a family to learning that I have no one. You were right, you should not have followed me.”
Hot, sticky tears sliced down my cheeks. They clung to my lashes, soaked my skin, made me reluctant to blink for fear of becoming blinded by sadness.
Gyah just stared at me, standing within the room of minimal comforts that I’d named our prison, a room that’d been bolted and locked from the outside with god knows how many Hunters listening in.
“Say something then!” I pleaded, unable to handle the harsh silence. “Scream at me, tell me what you really think. Go on, I’m all ears, Gyah. There is nothing you can say to me that I haven’t already told myself.”
I flinched as she strode towards me, preparing myself for a grounding slap or punch to the gut. It never came. Instead, arms wrapped around me, pulling me in tight. One long exhale and I practically melted into Gyah’s embrace like ice above an open flame. Her hand found the back of my head where she supported me. Her chin rested upon my shoulder as she, too, exhaled a breath full of heavy emotion. “Robin, I have been unkind with my choice of words.”
“They… they have been justified.”
Gyah squeezed me tighter. “If I am being honest, I’m scared. It is a feeling I am not used to and one that I do not wish to continue experiencing. I fear for Althea, and I fear for you too.”
“I get it.”
I was scared too. Scared to death that my choices would lead to more death. Althea’s life was in the hands of people who paid coin to hunt her kind and that made me feel as though I was stepping across a bed of knives.
Gyah pulled back, holding me at arm’s length as her eyes studied me from top to bottom. “You really want to do this, don’t you?”
She didn’t need to elaborate. I shook my head in refusal. “I needed an army to face the Oakstorm court. But this isn’t the way. I didn’t think, I see that now. The only one I could think that would jump at the concept of killing a fey king was the Hunters.”
“They’re our enemies. King or not, Doran or you. We are all the same in the Hunters’ eyes.” Gyah chewed on her lip, gaze unfocused as she stared at nothing. Her words hurt, because they were true. “But I can see you have made up your mind. You do not want to be helped. So, once Althea is back to me, and the right moment presents itself, we will leave.”
“I know.” Defeat settled in my chest, making me hollow.
Doran had killed my family. I would repay that debt, but not this way.
“What do we do now?” I asked Gyah, feeling as though she was calm enough to think whereas my mind was a storm of guilt and grief.
“First, we get some answers. Anything we learn about this place and the people here may be useful information for when the chance to escape presents itself,” Gyah whispered, eyes wide. “If there is one thing I have learned during my years of training, it is that the art of listening is one of the greatest passive weapons we all have access to.”
“In a twisted way, I’m glad you are with me.” I couldn’t imagine being here alone, knowing Duncan and his Hunters filled the many rooms within the fortress. Part of me could not help but believe the locked door was not only to stop us from leaving, but to prevent unwanted guests from entering.
“As much as I enjoy your company, I admit there are other places I would wish to spend time with you than this.” Gyah looked around the room with a distrusting stare. “We’re not safe here.”
“I was not safe back in Wychwood. Assassins. Monsters. Doran Oakstorm.” Gyah didn’t tell me I was wrong. “What is to say he will not send his pets after me again?”
“Perhaps Doran will, but you were also never alone in Wychwood. If you followed on this path, you would’ve been. It would’ve changed everything, not just with you and Doran, but you and the fey. The people who are going to expect you to be a king and lead. They’ll never follow you if they know you wanted to side with the Hunters.”
She was right. Just the thought of what I’d done twisted my gut into knots, making bile creep up the back of my throat.
I gritted my teeth together, refusing to make comment. Gyah noticed, her shoulders slumping forward as if the weight of disappointment in me was too much to handle.
“Get some rest, Robin,” Gyah said, releasing me and gesturing to the bed with a flick of a finger. “You’ll need it.”
I grunted and smiled, clearing the tears away with the back of my grime-smeared hand. “I don’t mind taking the first watch.”
Gyah simply shook her head in refusal. “I would very much like to be the one to welcome any Hunter who dares visits this room first. So sleep. I promise to behave, for Althea’s sake, not theirs.”
CHAPTER 11
It was the unfamiliar presence that woke me. Not a sound or slight sudden movement, but the knowing burn of someone’s unwanted, silent stare that dragged me from the pits of the deep sleep I’d found myself prisoner to.
Abruptly, I sat up tangled in the bedsheets, panic coursing through my veins.
“Was it something I did?” Duncan leaned against the wall opposite the end of the bed, one leg propped up behind him. His arms were folded across his broad chest as he surveyed me with eyes glittering with intrigue.
