Page 190 of Unrivaled
The tangled threads slowly submitted to the order I imposed upon them.I waited in an unused room deep in the keep.It had no windows to let me track the sun’s passage, but the sound of the city stepping into the day carried even here.
I’d left Audrey diving into her books and scrolls, tying up the last of the loose ends, making sure it was all as neat as it could be.I’d come early, as much to give her quiet as to stretch my legs.That meant I had more time than I needed to tame the cards of thread.I considered the pattern I’d been working on while I sorted.
The door opened.I wasn’t the only one who was early.
We all felt the storm darkening the sky today.
Kaelson nodded to me, closing it behind himself.“How’s she holding up?”he asked me, coming over and settling in the chair opposite me.His tabard was neat, his boots polished, his hair trimmed regulation length.But the sleeves of his shirt had been rolled up to expose his forearms, and the silver hairs there that weren’t regulation.The Duke either hadn’t considered it or liked his men hairy.
“As expected,” I told him.“Your men?”
“Got those I can trust on the main gates and the west path you requested.”He studied my face.“You’re looking better.”
I selected a needle with care.“Fen Breath,” I told him.“Mixed with Green Serpent.”
He shook his head.“I’m a simple man, mistress.But I’ll trust, from the way you bled all over my office, it wasn’t good.”
“Fen Breath causes internal bleeding,” I explained.“Difficult to work with, though, and unstable.He’d mixed it with a common poison.I thought it wasonlythe common poison until it was almost too late.”
“If you’re telling me this so I can sort through those packs if you die today,” he said bluntly, “I’ll tell you straight; they’re going in a fireplace and I won’t lose a wink of sleep over it.”
“Don’t let Audrey at them,” I told him.
“Does she know they exist?”
“Not yet.”I considered him.“How’d they get the lordling out?”
“Carriage, during the night.The ’Ban bannermen made it happen, and took out a few Black Borough lads who lurked behind them.You’re right.They’re good.”
“I don’t enjoy being right,” I told him tiredly.“We need to weed out the Black Borough spies.”
“We do,” he agreed.“It’s at the top of my list for tomorrow.I’ve got lists kept in the garden, beneath the statue of the Wife.There’s a loose stone by her right foot.They’re up to date as of last night.”
I accepted the information with a nod and a twinge of regret.“Will you be on the gates?”
He shook his head, looking down at his meaty fists.“I’ll hold the bailey.The boys’ll waver, seeing him again.I’ll give them a rallying point.”
He’d also paint a target on his back.
“They’ll rally for Thomas,” I offered.“She may need a way out, Kael.”
He nodded.“They’ll rally best with two of us.And if they rally well enough, well, we won’t need that way out, will we?”
Something scarred and slumberous behind my ribs ached at his words.“Can you pay for that gamble, soldier?”I asked him, the words biting.
A smile touched the corners of his eyes, making lines fan out from their depths.They were a deep brown.I’d never noticed that before.Deep, warm brown.“What do you think, scout?”
The discomfort that skittered up my spine and squeezed my lungs was just another part of being a human.I shook my head.“If you fall, our resistance crumbles.”
“So catch me then,” he said, softy.
My attention narrowed on his expression.There was teasing, there, some levity.And more.Warmth.Respect.“I’m not a pre-battle fuck,” I told him, drawing back.
The smile faded.Compassion sat kindly on his features.I had to look down.“I got you something,” he said, reaching behind his tabard.
Strength seared my veins at the movement, but he wasn’t withdrawing a weapon, of course.Not Kaelson.
A flower with a long, sinuous stem and three layers of soft, yellow petals lay across his big, scarred hand.One of the petals was creased, a few bruised, one missing completely.He set it gently between us.I frowned.He’d left theusefulpart of the plant behind.
