Page 101 of Given

He growled and stepped toward her again. His fingers had stopped smoking, but the wounds were deep. And they would never heal. “Watch your lying mouth when you speak of the gods.”

“I’m not lying! Please, Laurent, you have to believe me. You said you would always know if I lied to you.” She jerked her gaze to mine, her blue eyes full of tears. “You too, Varick. Use your senses and listen to me.” She drew a shuddering breath. “Rowena gave me the dagger. I hid it in my room because I didn’t know what to do. And then…the night I left my body, I traveled to Beldurn, where I saw Rolund.”

I stiffened.

Laurent sucked in a breath. “What?”

She squeezed her eyes shut briefly. “I m-mean, I didn’t see him. But I heard him talking to Crasor, the Prelate of the Brotherhood. They spoke of solstone. They talked about sending all the devils into the Fir. And Crasor said something I’ve never heard before. I didn’t understand it then and I still don’t. He said the savior of the realm will be bound in blood and reborn from the Rift.”

Laurent froze. He went so completely still that I risked looking away from Given so I could see his face. He stared at her, something like resolve in his eyes. “Rolund knows, then,” he murmured.

I frowned. “Your Grace?”

“Release her,” he said without looking at me. Blood dripped steadily from his fingers.

“Laurent—”

“I said let her go, General. She speaks the truth.” He gave a short, humorless laugh. “About this, at least.”

Confusion swarmed me, but he’d given me an order. I dropped my hands from Given’s arms and stepped back.

“Put your dress on,” Laurent told her. He turned and found his pants on the floor. He faced away as he pulled them on. From the tight set of his shoulders, I knew his hand pained him.

Given looked as bewildered as I felt. “Laurent? Does this mean you believe me?”

He whirled, his eyes blazing. “I don’t know what to believe! You hid the deadliest weapon known to vampires in my home for two weeks. You heard your brother plotting against Nor Doru and you didn’t tell me. You kept that information to yourself as you knelt in the Sanctum and vowed to serve this realm and obey me as your king and your husband.”

“I meant those vows!” she cried. “I have obeyed you, and I will serve you!”

He closed the distance between them in a blur of movement. Before I could intervene, he took her chin in a bloody grip. “Oh, you will, wife. I don’t know where your true loyalties lie. Maybe I’ll never know. But it doesn’t matter, because I don’t have to trust you to ensure you serve this realm. The prophecy is bigger than all of us.” He looked at me. “Bigger than any of us.”

An ominous feeling crept over me. My heart pounded. What prophecy did he speak of? The only prophecies I knew of were the silly birth predictions the Brotherhood issued. All my life, I’d dismissed those as a money-making scheme. Just a way to entice nobles to keep the Towers spewing their bullshit. Laurent had always laughed along with me. He knew what real power was. The priest-king of Nor Doru didn’t believe in prophecies.

But his father was mad, a voice whispered in my head. And he was losing the Deepnight.

He released Given. “Put your dress on.”

“Wh-What are you going to do? What prophecy are you talking about?”

“Get dressed. I won’t tell you again.”

“Laurent?”

“Guards!” he shouted.

Given gasped and went for her gown. I found my clothes and yanked my pants on as boots thundered in the outer rooms. Men-at-arms with swords drawn burst into the bedchamber.

“Take her,” Laurent said. “Put her in the dungeon for now.” He looked at me. “I want you to search her room.”

Given made an anguished sound. “You said you didn’t have a dungeon!”

His expression was cold. “You’re right. But how else was I supposed to know whether you were capable of sniffing out lies?”

The men-at-arms pulled her toward the door. She twisted around, tears streaming down her face. “Your Grace, please! If we could just talk.”

He turned away, and he didn’t look at her again as the guards half-led, half-dragged her from the room. For a moment, he bowed his head.

I stayed where I was, the ominous feeling tightening around me.

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