It was possibly as near to love as he could ever come.
And it tasted like ash.
“I don’t know how to let her go when the fate I’m surrendering her to is no better than what she would face with me.”
And there it was. The shameful truth he couldn’t suppress, no matter how hard he tried, admitted on a whisper so raw there was no place to hide.
Whoever mated his gentle little human would force her submission.
He was a monster; he would ruin her. His hands or those of some other monster, her fate was the same.
Yet his instincts screamed no.
His instincts promised him he would never hurt her.
But his instincts lied. He’d already hurt her.
“Kesh…” For a moment, there was a flicker of something almost like regret in his father’s eyes, so brief he might have imagined it, before the usual dark nothingness slid back in place. “She can’t be?—”
A knock on the door interrupted whatever he was about to say.
“Come in,” Kesh snapped, not wanting to hear his father’s denial of what his entire being screamed for.
Sefron opened the door. “Your Highness, Governor Maell wishes to know if you will keep the Pure Breeder long? The lords are eager to continue the courting ceremony.” He grimaced. “And by ‘eager’, I mean they’re about five minutes from ripping the horns off each other with impatience.”
Kesh frowned, his attention snapping fully to the guard. “What do you mean, ‘will I keep her long’? She’s not with m—” Ice-cold dread crashed through his nervous system as realization hit his body before his brain. He was moving before the full weight of terror hit. “Who took her? When did they take her?”
Sefron blinked, shock filtering over his features. “Your Highness, no one took her. Mallorn came to bring her to you about half an hour ago. He said you needed to see her.”
Mallorn.
The name rang through him like a hollow strike.
His Second. His most trusted friend, up until yesterday.
The man who’d accused him of using Georgia to manipulate him. Who’d seen him take the woman his friend had wanted for himself.
He’d felt fear before, especially since the gentle little Breeder came into his life, but nothing… nothing like this.
“Sound the alarm. Lock down my territory. No one gets in, no one gets out.”
“Your Highness, surely Mallorn wouldn’t?—?!”
“Do it!” Kesh spun back around to his father. “Call Kain. Tell him she’s gone. Tell him whatever the fuck he needs to know to deal with the fallout.”
“She’s disappeared under your care, Kesh. It’s prudent for you to stay and?—”
“I don’t give a shit what’s prudent! He took her. I’m getting her back. And so help me—if you try to stop me, you’ll be the first thing I burn.
Only silence followed him as he strode out of the room to find the woman he could no longer pretend he was capable of letting go.
44
Kesh
The doors barely survived whens Kesh shoved them open. The corridor around him was empty save for the pounding echo of his footsteps. His magic clawed under his skin, demanding release, demanding blood—but he kept it leashed. Had to.
Until she was safe. Until she was back.
