Page 41 of The King is Dead
I took a warning step closer to the bars. “There was nostealing—”
“The legends call you an honorable man.Sheinsists you’re good. I do not see it. If you were truly good, you would release whatever hold it is that you have on her. If you truly had a soul, you wouldlet her go.”
“You may have noticed that I am not in possession of my freedom. Ergo, letting anything go appears to be out of my hands,” I said through my teeth.
He ignored me. “She weeps—she thinks she hides it, but she doesn’t. I hear her. Ifeelher. She is grieving. And whatever causes that grief also compels her to you. She can’t stay awayeven when she wishes to.Even when we traveled, and you were asleep…”
“Do you all consider sneaking around a virtue? Is that how it is in your culture—love is following someone in the shadows, whether they know it or not?”
He leaned closer, that hand still on his sword hilt. “I was there. I was there to hear and to observe whenyoudidn’t know. Perhaps the great General should be very careful casting shade on those who work in his shadow?”
“You don’t know a thing about me.”
“I heard the roars. I heard the claim. Isawher naked and bound in your presence.”
He shuddered at the memory and in any other circumstances I would have admired his restraint. If I’d believed I stood before the man who’d hurt her that way, I would have torn out his throat without hesitation. But the brutality of those thoughts was a reemergence of my old nature, dragged from the depths in response to this threat to the bond.
Swallowing it back, I went still, half of me flashing hot—let him hear the truth! The other screaming caution as Yilan’s warning rang through my head. I bared my teeth and gritted them against the urge toeducatehim.
“Enjoy the view in your head,Fetch,you will not see it again.”
But Turo took my silence on the point of honor as a diversion from fault.
He was shaking. “If you have any conscience, any honor, you willfree her.You stole her body, and she gave her heart because in her mind those two things are entwined, and you continue to compel her, you fuckingpig.”
I leaned in. “You need to go, or she won’t be the only one with unwanted hands on her today.”
“Tellherthe truth! Admit that you took her,madeher want you. Let her eyes be opened—”
“I did nottakeher—never have and never will. She defends me becausesheknows the truth. Perhaps your anger should be directed not at me, but at your bond-vowed?”
“She ismiserable,because of you!”
“She is miserable because of the choicesshemade.”
“You take responsibility fornothing?Truly?” Turo snarled. “Perhaps you pat yourself on the back for being one of thegood menamong your own, but you carry nothing but empty, hollow honor in comparison to her. You are a prisoner of war, an enemy, and a bane on this continent. Yet she treats you with respect while you spit curses. She put herself in your hands, accepted your deprivation and perversion despite the fact that she isa Queen!And still, when she brings you here, she honors your position. She clothes, houses, and feeds you as a guest of the royal house. She bends her neck while you turn up your nose.You claim honor? I see none of it!”
My heart sank. There was truth to his words, though there were circumstances that colored those details. I was her mate andhisKing if she spoke truth. Yet, here I stood, in prison and removed from everything and everyone I had ever known. But what could I say without revealing things she’d told me not to?
When I didn’t respond, Turo’s upper lip curled away from his teeth in a sneer.
“Ishouldkill you. At least then she would be free.”
I growled. “Killing me is not the way to her heart—or her body.”
Turo flinched, and his eyes narrowed again. He started to leave, then caught himself and turned back to me, and his throat bobbed.
“I also have the power to free you,” he said, his voice ragged.
I blinked.
Turo cleared his throat. “I could… release you. Give you your freedom. If you would only leave without… without taking any action or speaking to her. If you would agree to justdisappear.I could make that happen.”
My soul flinched.
“Now who dishonors the Queen?” I muttered.
It was Turo’s turn to recoil. He gripped that sword but didn’t move, though his entire body tensed, and his face went tight with anger again. “Bastard. It is only her life-debt to you that stays my hand from cutting your throat.”
