Page 123 of The King's Man
“But you won’t have it if you’re dead before we reach it because you’ve pushed yourself beyond your limits—evenyouhave limits, Jann!”
I stood at his toes in that ridiculous outfit, fists balled at my sides, wanting to yell, but keeping my voice to a whisper-shout because we were trying to remain undetected and were still within a mile of the city gates.
I was prepared for a fight. Prepared to push him to listen. So, it was a surprise when he looked down at me and something in his eyes changed. He frowned, but thoughtfully, his eyes narrowing.
“You are… worried for me,” he said, as if this were some kind of revelation.
My cheeks heated and I folded my arms. “Don’t you worry for me?”
“Of course, but…”
“But what?”
The lines in his forehead tightened and he shifted his weight on his feet, staring at me as if he wasn’t quite sure what he saw. “I thought you were… reluctantly bound,” he admitted carefully.
My head jerked back. “I mean… weren’t webothpretty reluctant for this?” I asked carefully.
Jann’s eyes shadowed for a moment, but he nodded. “I suppose so.”
“You suppose?”
Jann shrugged. “I was resistant toanybond, but not to you in particular. You’ll remember, I flirted the moment we met—”
“Because you flirt witheveryone.”
“Noteveryone,” he muttered, shifting his weight when I gave him a look. But he raised his chin and stared down at me with a challenge in his eyes. “Dee, it was you who… disapproved.”
I almost snarled at him—surely he couldn’t be serious? But then, as if I’d spoken the words and he had an answer, he put a hand to my face and his expression grew tense, like he concentrated… and a moment later an image bloomed in my head. It flickered and blurred at times, but as he showed me his memories, my jaw went slack and my heart flipped as the world seemed toshift…
44.First Sight
~ JANN ~
I was still learning how to share memories with her, and my pride screamed that I shouldn’t place myself at her feet. But the startled brightness of her gaze drew me deeper.
She needed to know. She needed tounderstand.So, I took her back to that night of the Jubilee in Theynor. Before we’d revealed ourselves to Melek, even. When my team and I were spies, scouting for an opportunity to steal our uncrowned king back from the Fetch bitch who’d kidnapped him.
The night that the entire noble population of the Palace unexpectedly ventured into the gardens and we followed…
I had ordered the others to spread out. We had to stay among the trees, so there was no way to watch from the north, the direction of the Palace itself. But I placed Kran and Drek nearest the points where the royal lawns parted the trees and swept into this clearing, while Hever and I took the southeastern and western points.
Melek was easy to find. Even with the lack of lights in the clearing itself and silhouetted against the flames fifty feet away, I picked him by his sheer size. He stood head and shoulders over most of these men. And even the taller among them were far more slight in their builds.
The drums picked up pace and I cursed under my breath, my heart rate increasing with it. But then high, climbing voices joined the drums, and a very few minutes later the point of this strange pageantry was finally revealed.
The men in the clearing murmured and shifted on their feet, peering past those in front of them. The first hint for me was the fluid sweep of white on the lawn behind the fire, but soon, the wearers of the white robes danced into the clearing and spread out around it.
I sat back on my heels, eyes wide.
Women. A hundred women, though there seemed to be a cluster at the center that the others accompanied. Their voices were sweet and high, singing in a language I didn’t recognize, but the men either understood the words, or knew their meaning.
They all leaned closer, their expressions shifting from anticipation to eagerness as the women danced in a circle around the bonfire in opposing lines that split to either side, but continued until they looped around to meet at the bottom of the clearing and began weaving in and out, still dancing.
The drums maintained their thudding and it vibrated in my bones with such resonance, it seemed to sync with my heartbeat. My body grew feverish, inexplicably humming with unprovoked need.
Was it magik? Did these creatures bespell us and we didn’t even know?
When I was able to make out Yilan among the women—dressed in black strapping and soft, sheer red falls that setmy blood alight—I grunted and looked away. My skin crawled even as my body thrummed in time with those drums.
