Page 34 of Kept

“As long as it takes.”

“You can’t heal everyone on that lawn. You’re lucky you collapsed instead of succumbing to bloodlust. You could have ripped someone’s throat out. You could have ripped my throat out.”

“Not with you fucking drowning me!”

“Exactly.”

I looked at Varick. “Is that why you dunked him?”

He nodded, his shoulders heaving as he stared Laurent down. “It distracted him. Pissed him off enough that he cared more about threatening me than attacking me.”

Laurent huffed. He sat back in the tub and scrubbed water off his face. Despite the feeding, he looked exhausted. “It doesn’t always work.”

“It worked this time,” Varick growled. He stared at Laurent, his jaw clenched so hard I prepared to hear teeth cracking.

Laurent sighed and looked at him. “I know what you’re going to say.”

“No, you don’t, and I’ve earned the right to tell you when you’re being stupid, so shut up and listen.”

Laurent lowered his gaze.

“In battle,” Varick said, “You make the best choice you can under the circumstances. If the choice is between living and dying, it’s not even a difficult one. You could have died in the street today, Laurent.” Varick pointed to the window. “You could have died out there.” He paused, and when he spoke again, his voice was lower. “At the Rift, I retreated for the first time in my life. I didn’t like it, but I fucking did it because the alternative was to watch you, Given, and the rest of my men die by sunlight.” Another pause, and he drew a shuddering breath. “Don’t do that to me again.”

I’d seen Varick of Lar Keiren at his most vulnerable. I shouldn’t have been surprised at how much it affected me. But now I knew that his heart was as big as his body. Every time he showed it to me, I fell in love with him a little more.

Laurent’s eyes shimmered. He blinked away tears. “I won’t,” he croaked.

Varick swallowed hard. Nodded. He licked his own wrist, sealing the dagger wound and Laurent’s bite marks. He probably didn’t intend for it to be sensual, but it was. His pink tongue lashed out, and I swore I felt it between my legs.

Abruptly, all the tension in the room shifted. Like someone tossing fresh logs on a fire, it roared and shot higher, filling the air.

“Fuck,” Laurent muttered, his fingers turning white on the edge of the tub. “Varick—”

“No,” Varick said firmly. He faced away and clenched his fists at his sides. He drew a deep breath and spoke in a strained voice. “Both of you, just…don’t move.”

Water sloshed. Laurent slumped in the tub and rested the back of his head on the metal. He kept one hand locked on the rim and closed his eyes. “Not even this freezing water is helping.”

I looked between them, noting Varick’s straining erection and Laurent’s death grip on the side of the tub. “You two need to fuck each other.”

Varick grunted.

I propped a hand on my hip. “If you grunt at me one more time tonight, I’m going to get my sword.”

Laurent laughed weakly. “Our princess isn’t yet fluent in Varick of Lar Keiren.” He opened his eyes and rolled his head toward me. “What the general is trying to say is that he thinks it’s a bad idea.”

“Because it is a bad idea,” Varick rasped, irritation in his voice. He looked at me with glowing eyes. “What did you see this morning before the attack?”

My desire ebbed. “Vai Seren. It was the same as the night I killed Rolund. Parts of Eldenvalla appeared in the bedchamber, and…” I trailed off, my heart pumping harder as I recalled Midian’s taunts. Heard him claim it was my fault Laurent and Varick weren’t safe.

“And?” Varick prompted.

“I heard Midian and…I saw your father.”

Varick’s jaw tightened all over again. “Did he touch you?”

“No,” I said quickly. “And I only saw him for a few seconds.” I drew a deep breath. “Midian said he missed me. Then he insulted my intelligence and said I’m running from my destiny.”

Varick came to me and pulled me into his arms. He rested his chin on the top of my head as he’d done in the hut after we fled Vai Seren. “The demon king is a liar, halfling. You know that.”

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