Page 7 of The King is Dead
He wasn’tentirelywrong. But the target of his rage was off. And I couldn’t explain that without taking steps that would have repercussions so far-reaching even I was breathless at the thought.
So, like a coward, I ran.
And like the man of honor and integrity that he was, Turo put his own feelings and confusion aside to protect me in mine. He followed me, a silent shadow, all the way down to the main floor ofthe Palace, all the way to the Royal wing, barking orders at any guards along the route who leaped to bar doors at the sight of running figures in the hall.
He cleared the path for me and stopped me having to explain anything to anyone. A mercy I didn’t deserve.
But he stayed on my heels all the way to my personal quarters, where he instructed the guards to open and let me through, then stopped to speak quietly with them once I was inside.
I turned once, as I closed the door, and even though his words were for the guards, his eyes were on me.
Our gazes met and the flicker of his pain shone through before he blinked and turned back to the guards.
But I felt that look like a knife in my ribs.
Please help him to forgive me when all of this comes out,I prayed.
Then I closed the door and turned my back on it, leaning against it to suck long, slow breaths between my teeth until the ache was manageable again.
3. Izzy
~ YILAN ~
The bright sunlight filtered in through the filigree screens that now surrounded the covered balcony off of my personal apartments. The screens, which had been added in my absence, were delicately wrought from handcrafted iron and bronze, and must have taken every hour of the months I’d been away to complete. I shuddered to think what work had gone untouched in the city while the smiths and metalworkers made them.
They were beautiful works of art. But they turned my balcony, which had always been my sanctuary, into a cell.
A stunning, gilded, impenetrablecage.
An hour after fleeing Melek, then Turo, I stepped out of the large doors of my personal apartment and onto the balcony where I had once spent mornings like this bathed in light. But the entire space was now dim, even with the bright sun breaking through the countless gaps in the screens, which had been made to look like leaves and vines but were in fact a metalwork fortress.
No gap large enough for a spear to pass through and no external vantage point from which an arrow could be loosed to good effect.
A wall of protection,according to Turo.
A cageto me.
Servants lined the wall, bowing and curtseying as I passed. I tried to smile, nodded to accept their respects and thanked them, but myblood was running cold. The decision to imprisonmy quarters hadn’t been theirs, so I wouldn’t make them pay for my frustration.
I’d throw my choice words at Turo, the true culprit, this afternoon.
What the actual fuck had he been thinking?
He knew I loved this space. Knew it was where I went to relax and breathe. It didn’t matter how pretty the bars of a cage might appear—they were still bars.
The hair on the back of my neck stood up and my breathing wanted to quicken. I gripped my skirts to stop my hands shaking, trying to appear serene, and took slow, even strides towards the dappled light falling over my chair and table where I took informal meals.
My lips twisted in disapproval at the screens blocking my view of the gardens and river below, but my heart fluttered with anticipation.
Istral was on her way to share breakfast with me. I had arrived so late the night before and there had been so many things to do that I hadn’t had a second to myself until now. Which was just as well since Istral didn’t cope well with tension, and I’d beenverytense, anticipating Melek’s reaction. Even now I couldn’t relax, but at least I was no longer twisted up inside.
He knew everything now. All that was left was to wait.
I should have rested. But I knew I would struggle to sleep until I had clarity. And a massive, warm body nearby.
I’d grown accustomed to falling asleep to the rhythm of his breathing.
Melek.
