Right this very minute.
I heard a slight smacking noise followed by the king’s voice. “Good thing your plans don’t ruin lives, son.”
I snapped my head Keir’s direction to see his skin brighter than I had ever seen it before. “That sword wasn’t even the real one, you jackass! It was a fake! That we had planted.” Keir shook his head and rolled his neck as if he were about to unleash fire and hell upon his father. “You just killed a man for stealing a fake sword. One that he didn’t even steal because he was working the stables.”
The king stilled, cocked his head, and a faint smile graced his lips. “Not bad. Not bad at all.”
I stood, envisioning my magic wrapping around the king to immobilize him, ready to help Keir every step of the way, but before I could even let out a single strand of magic, the king grabbed Nara around the waist. His own magic slid them from the room, using her as a human shield in the process. Black magic trailed up the door as he slammed the doors behind them. In the blink of an eye, they were gone.
CHAPTER38
Blood was splattered on the lace of my wedding dress, making the pattern in the lace more noticeable. I sat on the couch in the adjoining room of Krew’s wing staring at it. I had refused to change, refused to shower, refused to go to bed, and only repeatedly pleaded to Krew for us to find and murder his father. Tonight.
The king had to sleep sometime, didn’t he?
Owen held out a cup of steaming tea while sitting down right beside me on the couch.
I shook my head, too angry to even remember how to drink.
Owen put a hand between my shoulder blades. “I know, honey. I know. Please breathe. You are glowing rather vibrantly.”
“Good,” I snapped. “All the better to kill him with.”
Owen rested his head on my shoulder. “We can’t kill him tonight and I think you know that. But he did flee from the room once he saw the three of you all about to unleash your magic on him. He might have gotten away tonight, but only just barely. He didn’t just leave, he fled.”
I inhaled deeply, listening to his words, the conviction behind and within them.
“He may have gotten away tonight, but not for long.”
I gasped as more tears filled my eyes. “I don’t want another shot at this, I want this tonight. Theo—” I cut off, unable to finish.
“I know,” Owen agreed. “I know.”
There was a tapping noise from our bedroom and Krew, who had been pacing after trying to console me a variety of different ways, said, “I’ll be right back, love.”
Seconds or minutes later, I had no idea, he came back in with Keir.
Keir dropped a sword onto the oval table with a clunk.
Seeing it sitting there, knowing that Theodore had to give his life for this sword, this master plan to get the sword away from the king, it was all too much.
“The night was not in vain,” Keir said, voice cracking. “Yet I am left with many regrets this night. I’m so sorry, Jorah.”
“Me too,” I gasped as the tears consumed me, Owen gently placing the teacup on the ground to better hold me.
“I’ll have it tested first thing in the morning,” Krew said quietly.
Keir shook his head. “I can’t believe we didn’t assume he might have something planned for tonight too. Of course his schemes and ours had to overlap.”
“It actually worked to our advantage for a while in there,” Owen said gently.
I didn’t bother to wipe at my eyes. There were too many tears. “What about the guard I threw at the wall?” I might have killed a man tonight. And that wasn’t even the oddest part of this night. The oddest part of this night was that I might have killed a man and I didn’t even care.
Krew moved to crouch next to me, so our eyes were level. “When he fell from the wall, the fall broke his neck.”
Not only was I unbothered, but I actually preferred it that way. “Died a proper piece of trash’s death,” I offered. But then my brow furrowed as I remembered something Krew told me long ago about magic. “I thought our magic was not supposed to decide life or death? It could cause unconsciousness, but not death itself?”
Krew gave a half shrug. “These were extenuating circumstances. Technically your magic didn’t kill him either, the fall did. So it was a bit of a loophole.”
