Page 50 of The King's Man 3

“I, what?”

I lean in, whisper, “Turns out youaredecent with a bow.”

Quin mirrors me, leaning forward, and flicks my forehead. For a moment, a fleeting moment, we exchange the ghost of a smile.

Bastion leads the way to the brook, out the abandoned southern gate that opens into mountainous forest.

“Why aren’t people just using this gate?” I murmur, stepping into a mosaic of emerald and shadow. Distant birds call overhead, and foraging animals leave a wake of rustling leaves in the underbrush. “There’s nothing stopping us.”

A biting laugh. “No need for a guard here. The miasma does the job. No matter what direction you go from that gate, eventually you’ll hit a wall of poisonous fog, and you’ll be lucky to survive it.”

Each step into the thickening shadows comes with a shiver and a clenching stomach. I square my shoulders and push on. The luminarium is filling up; more and more will become sick if we don’t trace the source of the infection and stop it from spreading further.

“We’re close,” Bastion says in a surprisingly comforting tone. Like he senses my unease.

I eye him warily and crunch over fallen bracken. “How is your sister faring?”

“She refuses to rest. Up all night, tending to our sick comrades.”

“What a kind sister you have.”

A chuckle. “Why do I feel that’s a slight against me?”

I spare him a blunt look and refocus on the dense undergrowth. Something large moves in the brush behind us and I whip around. Nothing but dense greenery. Bastion stares into the forest too, eyes narrowing.

“Probably a passing deer.Forests like these are full of them.”

He hums and shifts his gaze, gesturing to a narrow trickle of water. “It widens as we go further in.”

The ground muddies the closer we get. I crouch, using magic to pull a drop of water into my palm. “Same toxin in this as the patients have in their blood.” I follow the water. “We’re looking for stagnant areas and unusual growth. Something fish might have consumed.”

“You think the outbreak is to do with fish?”

I think to the case I had locked in the Crucible. The disease wasn’t in the fish the victim ate, but that doesn’t rule out other fish being the cause of water contamination. “I’m not sure. But the scales... It’s possible.”

Damp earth stirs under us as we trek along scouring the brook. Every few minutes, Bastion pauses and glares into the forest beside us. The third time, I follow his gaze.

“Every time you do that, my stomach knots. What are you looking at?”

He waves it off, but as we continue he walks closer to me, holds branches up for me to pass under, brushes stray leaves off my cloak, even sweeps me into a whisking arc when the bank suddenly gives way under my foot. We spin to a stop on firmer ground, his arm around my waist, his lips tilting slyly as he darts another gaze into the army of trees.

I pull myself away from him and back into a trunk. Bastion follows lazily and leans a hand on the bark near my head. He dips his head as he speaks, each word becoming warmer against my skin. “We should take a minute to catch our breaths.”

I snap past him, scowling.

“Such relentless determination.” He follows at a jaunty pace. “How about becoming my husband?”

I halt abruptly, turn, and stare coldly at him. “I don’t think you understand the severity of this outbreak.”

“Sure I do.”

“These types of outbreaks... If not dealt with swiftly, the infection can mutate. At the moment only those consuming the brook water are getting sick, but the more people who get it, the higher the chances of it evolving. Next, people will get it from touching the infected. Then worse, simply by breathing the same air.” I step forward and knock him on the chest. “If that happens, we’ll have another plague on our hands. Tens of thousands will die. There’s no time to waste. Do you understand?”

His smile fades and the eye with the freckle twitches. He chuckles shamelessly. “If it comes to it, we’ll share our last days together. Our lovelights too.”

“You’re insane. You don’t know me.”

“I’ve seen enough,” he says.

---