Page 4 of The King's Man
Grimly, because he and I both knew that if it wasn’tthat,then the alternative was far worse. But there didn’t seem much point in saying that out loud when Yilan was already in pieces.
“I’ll go look,” I said as calmly as I could. “Maybe… maybe the messenger went to the wrong place. Maybe the trackers did too. Maybe they were mixed up—”
Yilan looked at me, hope suddenly light in her eyes.
Melek shook his head. “No, they didn’t,” he said quietly. “I’ve already asked them—they all accurately described that little nook in the hillside… they went to the right place.”
Shit.Shit.
The Fallen.
Only they could have defeated Gall and taken Istral without leaving signs any skilled tracker would find.
Unaware of my thoughts, Yilan fell into Melek’s chest again. As he held her, stroking her back, he turned his head to meet my gaze and locked in, his expression leaving no room for question.Don’t say it. Don’t say it. Don’t say it.
But she needed to know. If the Fallen had taken Istral—
“Stop staring past me like I’m a child, I know what this means,” Yilan spat, pulling out of Melek’s chest and glaring at me even through her tears. Then she turned back to Melek. “Lucifer warned me! He told me he’d do this and I was so fucking arrogant! So sure we’d won. I should have known. He was here—he spoke to me. Melek, he must have her.There’s no other explanation!”she wailed with such heartbroken force, something twisted in my gut. “It’s my fault,” she whispered. “He warned me to listen and I didn’t. And now—oh God.”
Yilan jerked out of Melek’s arms, clapping a hand to her mouth, then rushed to the corner where a bucket had been left for food scraps and rubbish. Bending at the waist, she vomited loudly into it.
Uncertain what was the best thing to do, I looked to Melek, to find him staring at her, so pained, sotortured.
“She knows?” I murmured.
Melek nodded. “Lucifer came to her. Twice. More if you count the dreams.”
“Hewhat?!You said he’d threatened you, but I thought—”
“He’s tried to convince Yilan to let him breed her. She’s refused, of course, but he threatened… he said he’d overlooked the Fetch females. And if she didn’t comply, he wouldn’t do that again. But we never imagined…Istral?”
“It’s my fault,” Yilan gasped, still holding onto that bucket and retching. “He told me there was only one way to protect the others and I didn’t listen—”
“Don’t youdare,”Melek growled, stalking across the tent to her side. “Yilan, if we blame ourselves for every fucked up thing the Fallen attempt, thenweare the evil in this world. And we are not. We are not the reason this world is evil—we are the ones who need salvation from it!”
Still hunched over that bucket she stared up at him, her eyes pleading, lashes stuck together with the tears pouring down her face. “Salvation? It’s already too late. Istral doesn’t know… she doesn’tunderstand—not really. If he’s got her, she’ll try to placate him and—”
“Hush,” Melek said, pulling her into his chest again, shaking his head. “Don’t torture yourself. We’ll find her. We’ll find both of them.”
I doubt it.I didn’t say it though. If Lucifer really had taken Istral, he would have had to remove her from Gall. Something hewas more than strong enough to do. But Gall would have fought to the death to save her. There was no question.
My head spun. What could I do? How could I help?
How the fuck did we fight an immortal?
Resist.
But there was no resisting when the thing was already done!
“Melek, I—”
“What’s happened?” Diadre rushed into the tent, running straight to Yilan’s side, her voice tight and stern. “What the fuck did you bastards do?”
“It wasn’tus.!” I growled.
Yilan shook her head and pulled out of Melek’s arms to grab her friend, and the whole conversation began again.
Gall didn’t return after the messenger.
