“What about what happened at the opera? I hadn’t told Henry yet, but you threatened me and put your hands on me.Bruisedme.”
Ved growled quietly behind her.
“Youhitmy little sister?” Henry asked, stepping toward Lord Richard with dangerous intent.
The lord smiled easily, his hands up to diffuse the tension. “I’d never. I have no idea where she got such a notion. Can’t you see she’s hysterical? Where is this suitor she’s supposed to have run off with, anyway? Maybe he’s a fantasy as well. He couldn’t come here and show his face? If he were a good man, he’d have made his intentions clear. After all, he was able to have his way with—”
Henry cursed and punched Richard. Clara screamed as if startled. But she wasn’t looking at them—her focus was trained on something behind Isobel.
Ved had uncloaked, his eye shields glowing red.
“By the devil!” Lord Richard roared at Henry. And then he also caught sight of the Xaal standing behind Isobel. His face twisted, his eyes going unnaturally wide.
“You,” he said hoarsely, backing away.
It was then that Henry noticed Ved, too, and his first instinct was to grab Clara and pull her behind him. “Bloody hell,” he cried.
Lord Richard, however, grabbed for something leaning against the wall.
A hunting rifle. He leveled it at Ved.
Without thought, Isobel tried to put herself between the gun and Ved. But Ved snarled and pulled her out of the line of fire. With one arm he covered her torso, his hand locked on her hip. A mechanical whirring sound came from his back armor, revealing a thin cylinder emitting a bright red light. She was certain this was what he had killed the Kroid with in the woods.
In slow motion, it seemed, Lord Richard followed the movement. He opened his mouth to say something, but red dots aligned on him, one in the middle of his forehead and two over his heart.
The confusion and abject terror were clear on his face. His hands shook.
“Lower the goddamned guns,” Henry ordered. He still had Clara behind him, but she was peeking around his back, unblinking, staring at Ved.
Isobel recognized the look on her face—curiosity.
“What in the hell is he?” Lord Richard demanded.
Ved made a noise that reverberated through her, but she spoke for him. “His name is Ved. And he ismine,” she said. The word was so true that it settled within her like a secondheart.
“Are you out of your mind?” Lord Richard babbled between trembling lips. His face had turned an ugly shade of purple-red. “Those eyes… He was in my house. Hethreatenedme. He—”
Before he could say any more, however, Henry marched over to Richard. The lord was so intent on her and Ved that he paid little attention to her brother, who snatched the rifle from his hand. But not before it let off a crack of a shot. The bullet went high, hitting part of the ceiling and causing plaster chips and dust to rain down on them.
Ved made to step forward, but Henry punched Lord Richard squarely in the nose. Again.
This time with a sickening crack.
“Papa!” Clara shouted at the same time Isobel said, “Henry!”
Ved made a satisfied rumble.
But nothing came from the Lord Richard Seymour. He simply dropped to the floor, knocked out cold.
Chapter 42
Isobel
The room fell silent.
“I’m leaving,” Isobel blurted out. The admission, though a surprise even to herself, seemed so right that she slumped. It felt like shedding a weight she’d been carrying for a lifetime. “I’m going with Ved.”
Ved looked at her but didn’t say anything. She hated that she couldn’t see his expression, but at least she could imagine it clearly now.
