Page 35 of The King's Man
Her eyes widened and she turned her head to look at me. Her tongue slipped out to lick her lips, but she shook her head. “No, thank you. That’s very kind. But… no.”
Then we both stared.
She didn’t say another word. And I didn’t know what to say. It was awkward as all hell.
At some point I muttered something about being grateful for the wine. But then I… left.
Walking back out to that cold hallway outside her room felt like walking through water. I had topush.The hand I’d felt at my back now planted on my chest and urged me to stay, to sit. Tocomfort.
It was madness. She didn’t want me here!
So I walked out, telling her I’d see her in the morning.
But it hurt to leave.
Hurt like something was being hollowed from my chest.
15.The Grieving
~ DIADRE ~
Progress on the first day traveling back was slower than I thought. After that awkward drink the night before, I worried things might be tense between us. But Jann was not onlynotawkward, he was clearly tired and uninterested in talking. Not at all hesitant to let me see that. So I let him be silent.
When we reached camp the first night, I was surprised. After a night in the Palace and in my own bed, the furs around the fire shouldn’t have seemed welcoming, yet I found myself far more eager for them than not.
It was on the second day of travel that we made up the time. Without having to ride or walk and follow the pass through the Shadows, we cut miles off the journey. And after all the climbing the day before to make certain we bedded high on the mountain to give us the best chance of catching the angle of the sun and setting our course correctly, the majority of his flight wasgliding, wheeling circles, catching wind flows and riding them down, down, down.
We were back to the Nephilim camp by early afternoon. A stunning feat.
Yet, after two near-silent days, when we landed on the rise where we’d so fatefully left Gall and Istral days before, the dread I’d been feeling could no longer be avoided.
As our feet hit the ground, Jann held me tightly to his chest to keep me upright until I found my balance after all that wheeling. For a moment, I didn’t want him to let go. I didn’t want to be released to find my best friend—and Queen—and deliver the horrific news that would break her heart.
I didn’t want to hear her despair, or watch Melek grieve.
I didn’t want to see them face this together.The thought was intrusive. Shocking.Petty.Where had it come from?
“They’ll have seen our approach,” Jann breathed in my ear, his weary voice little more than rough gravel tumbling down a hill. “I can do it,” he said grimly. “I can tell Melek, and he’ll tell Yilan.”
I shook my head. “No. She’s my friend. I have to… I have to do it. She deserves that. If the roles were reversed, I’d want to hear it from her.”
That thought resolved me. I shrugged off Jann’s arms and stepped out, handing him his bag and bedroll, and pulling mine around and over my shoulder so that it hung down my back.
“Jann, thank you for carrying me when you’re so tired. I know that was hard. I’m—”
“Dee!”
Yilan’s high cry pierced my heart as swiftly as an arrow.
Jann and I both turned to find her sprinting from the forest that surrounded the path below that led to the Nephilim camp.
Jann had been right. They’d seen us coming.
Dear God.
“Dee!” Yilan called, pushing for more speed as she scaled the hill towards us. “What news? Where are—”
She blinked and cut off, her steps slowing from a sprint to a run, then a jog. Then a walk.
