“Get her!” Danior roared from within, and Honoria pressed her legs as fast as they would go.
Several of the two dozen men surrounding the cottage spurned their horses forward when the band came pouring out after her, only to stop dead in their tracks.
They were surrounded.
Lash.
He was there, looking magnificent atop one of their stallions, Balthazar. Honoria had never seen a more welcome sight. He spurred the horse to meet her, somehow looking twice his size, flanked by Hugh and Mr. Ross.
He didn’t wait for the horse to halt before dismounting, neither did Honoria hesitate. She flung herself into his arms, her heart stuttering when his arms closed around her and held tight.
“Honoria,” he breathed and buried his face in her hair.
All her anger fled.
“That was rather anticlimactic,” Hugh drawled from atop his horse. “I imagined more of a fight.”
Honoria shut her eyes, drawing in a deep breath. Lash’s scent wrapped around her like soft, flowing silk. Nothing about this day was anticlimactic.
“Are you hurt?” he asked, his voice low and shaken. He drew back slightly to peer down at her. “Did my brother hurt you?”
“My pride, mostly,” she admitted. “They only bound me to a chair.”
He inhaled sharply, and an animal growl ripped from his throat. Startled by the depth of his fury, his concern, she searched his face. His countenance was dark, the anger that marked his features giving him an almost feral appearance.
He pulled back to grasp her wrist gently in his palms, examining them methodically, stiffening when he saw the red welts on her wrists. He traced a finger over the bruises. “I’m going to kill him.”
“Aye, I will help you.”
Lash did not want to let her go. He wanted to hold her for an entire lifetime. A thousand lifetimes. The way she was staring at him, like he was her hero, he wanted to freeze them in that moment forever, so the glow would never vanish from her face.
But he had to deal with his brother.
He had to find his sister.
He had to keep her safe.
And he had to break that look into pieces to do so.
Reluctantly, he set her behind him and faced his older brother. Time had not done Danior justice. Two years separated their birth, yet the sharp creases carved into his brother’s skin gave him the appearance of being in his late thirties rather than thirty.
“What a blessed reunion,” Danior sneered. “How long must you remain the bane of my existence?”
“Not for much longer. It’s over.”
“It will never be over. You and yourgadjofriends won’t stop me,phral.”
“Why?” Lash demanded. “What is my life worth to you?”
“Your half-breed existence has brought shame to our family from the moment of your birth.” The last was spat out like a vile curse. “I never understood why my father kept you as long as he did.”
Half-breed.
“What are you talking about?” Lash snapped. “What game are you playing now?”
Behind him, Honoria inhaled sharply.
“Your eyes,phral, are green. Everyone knew the moment you were born you were a half-breed bastard.” Danior’s features hardened into a mask of resentment. “Mother shamed our family with her infidelity.”
