Page 9 of Prisoner of Steel and Shadow

His gaze sharpened, zeroing in on what she’d left unsaid. “You know where she is.”

“I do.”

“Tell me.”

“That’s why I’m here.”

“Stop fucking around and tell me.” Each word bitten off and dripping with impatience.

There you are, big guy.

Ronan hadn’t so much as blinked since she confirmed she knew Reyna’s whereabouts. With each growled word, she could practically see the warrior waking up and breaking free of the metaphorical prison his despair had trapped him within. He positively radiated tension, his big hands curling and uncurling at his sides, his nostrils flared, jaw clenched, and chest rising and falling with every rapid breath. He was no longer a man ready for death, but one preparing to go to war.

One he had no intention of losing.

Nearly giddy with relief at the proof her friend wasn’t beyond saving, Effie smiled.

“I thought you’d never ask.”

CHAPTER4

RONAN

“It is the height of impropriety—”

“Not sure Ronan gives a Talyrian’s teat about being appropriate, Tims.”

The Kiri’s Advisor glanced sharply up at her Sword. Shoulders drooping, he let out a disgruntled huff. “No one in this blasted Circle does. But the point stands,Iam the one who calls the meetings. Any matter important enough to require a formal gathering of the Circle—”

“Yeah, yeah. We heard you the first seven hundred times.” Kragen rested a meaty palm on the older man’s shoulder. “You can get the next one, buddy.”

“Do. You. Mind?” Timmins shrugged him off, taking a moment to smooth down his jacket and adjust his cuffs, as if the Sword’s two-second touch had somehow rumpled him beyond repair.

Laughing, Kragen scrubbed his palm over the other man’s hair, which had gone more salt than pepper at the temples. “Not as much as you, Tims.”

Timmins slapped his hand away with a beleaguered, “Why am I the only one who treats my position with the deference it deserves?”

“Because you’re the best of us, Timmins. We’ve always said so,” Joquil answered, finally interceding. Helena’s Master had always been better than the rest of them at soothing the Advisor’s easily ruffled feathers.

The announcement seemed to have caught the older man off guard. Cheeks tinged pink, he cleared his throat before feigning indifference. “Yes, well. It is nice to hear it acknowledged on occasion.”

Ronan watched all of this play out with the barely suppressed aggravation of a man desperate to be elsewhere. After Effie’s revelation, the two of them returned to the palace, where Ronan called an emergency meeting, and Effie went in search of Lucian and the prisoner. That had been well over an hour ago. It took every ounce of his control not to storm up to the Kiri’s private rooms and forcibly carry Helena down here and toss her in her damned throne so they could have this farce of a tribunal and be done with it.

But he didn’t.

The small part of him still thinking logically knew she’d be far less agreeable to his plan if he attempted to run off and do it without her blessing. Just as she had to know his ‘request’ was a way for her to publicly save face. Helena knew him too well to believe he was actually asking for permission. He’d already made up his mind and would be leaving, blessing or no, but it would make things so much easier on them both if it appeared she willingly freed him of his vow.

When he’d pledged to be her Shield, it had been for life. Same as the rest of the Circle. His leaving without her consent would be deemed an act of outright treason. Meaning he’d never be able to set foot on Elysian soil as a free man again. Given their history, Ronan doubted Helena would go to such extremes, but sometimes the queen was required to do things the woman would rather not. And Helena was every inch a queen.

Ronan inwardly shrugged. Whatever the outcome, his path was set. He’d started over more than once before. He wasn’t afraid of doing so again. Though hewouldmiss these arseholes if that was the case.

The arseholes in question still hadn’t ceased their senseless bickering.

“You have something, just here,” Kragen said, pointing at an invisible speck of dirt on the Advisor’s jacket.

“Where?” Timmins asked, eyes widening in horror as he dipped his chin to inspect the aforementioned area. Kragen was already quaking with laughter as he quickly moved his hand and smacked Timmins in the nose. Realizing he’d fallen for what was quite possibly the oldest trick in the book, Timmins flushed with anger. “So help me, Sword, if you so much as twitch another eyelash in my direction—”

“How exactly am I supposed to control my eyelashes?”

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