“I would love to talk to her about it,” I admitted, smiling gently as I glanced up at him, hoping I hadn’t offended him.
He didn’t even blink twice. Instead, he nodded his head in understanding before answering smoothly, “Let’s head back to the castle and maybe seek her out. The others are probably taking a break from training, so it would be a good time to head back anyway.”
When we came down the plank and reached the harbor, I felt a small trickle of discomfort go through me at the eyes I could feel running over my skin. It was the same way I’d felt when Malakai brought me places in the castle to be put on display in front of others. Someone was looking at me and not in a good way.
Instead of sinking down and trying to hide myself, I held my head high and continued to walk forward.
Suddenly, a deep growl emanated from Kolvar’s throat, and I snapped my gaze up, noticing that his eyes were narrowed at someone further down the dock. When I turned to look, he pulled me in closer to him before another sound came from his throat that probably should have been concerning, but instead made my toes curl.
“Kolvar?”
I felt my spine stiffen defensively as someone shouted his name louder than I whispered it. Kolvar came to a complete stop, his gaze darkening to almost black on whoever I could hear approaching us.
“Kolvar.” The voice was distinctly masculine, and when the person spoke his name, Kolvar’s face twisted with pure distaste. I smoothed a hand over his chest before turning to face the person approaching us. Kolvar’s arm hooked around my waist in a possessive hold as he tucked me under his chin.
“Eddard.” His voice was cold, distant, and so unlike the man I knew.
Eddard was the name of this rather unimpressive man? I had no idea who he was or what his deal was, but the fact that he upset Kolvar was more than enough reason for me to not like him.
“I thought I was seeing shit.” The man offered a full smile, his teeth as bright as his white hair, both contrasting his dark blue eyes that filled with a glint malicious enough to cause my eyes to narrow on him in suspicion.
What did this man want?
Eddard continued without looking my way. “I told the others there was no way that someone of Kolvar’s position would come down from his high tower to mingle with the rest of us. That there was no possible way he was on the docks—I see that I was wrong.”
“You have one chance to get out of my sight,” Kolvar’s voice was deadly soft. “One chance only. I’m not dealing with your shit today.”
“What shit?” The man spit out, his face turning red despite the fear I could see in his gaze. “Myshitis that I’m still fucking pissed. Pissed that you sabotaged my chance at the position you now have, simply because you were jealous.”
Kolvar barked out a cold laugh. “Jealous? No. And I didn’t sabotage anything, Eddard. I told them exactly what I saw—what I walked in on. Next time, don’t steal from a commander, and I won’t have to report it.”
“I didn’t steal shit,” Eddard spit out. “Besides, that was forever ago. They’re holding a grudge against me because of you.”
Kolvar inhaled, growing more and more pissed. I ran a hand over his chest, drawing his gaze down to me. “Let's go. Seriously, let's just get back to the castle.”
It was clear these two had history, and Kolvar seemed to have moved past it while Eddard had stewed in his anger—blaming all his problems in his military career on Kolvar.
“I suppose it doesn’t matter now,” Eddard drew out, upset that we weren’t focused on him anymore. “But I do find it interesting that the only thing that could bring you down to the docks was to show off this ship to a piece of pussy—”
Kolvar was gone in the next breath—slamming into Eddard, gripping his throat, and launching him more than twenty feet away like a rag doll. The man let out a pained groan from where he fell into a heap on the dock. When he tried to sit up, looking even more angry, I decided to step in, intercepting Kolvar and keeping him from stepping forward.
“Kolvar. Let’s go, seriously.” I didn’t need him to get in trouble because this guy was a piece of crap.
“You heard what he called you,” he spit out. “He can’t get away with that—he won’t.”
I could see the fury he wanted to rain down, so I did the only thing I could think of to turn his aggression to something else. I popped up on my toes and kissed him hard. At first, he didn’t respond, but his tension snapped in the next moment, and he let out a low growl and kissed me back as he wrapped an arm around me.
That man could call me whatever he wanted. His opinion and thoughts of me or our relationship meant less than nothing to me. I’d do what was needed to get Kolvar out of here and away from the trouble Eddard was trying to instigate as some form of payback.
When I pulled back, I slipped out of his arms and stepped back. Confusion filled his heated gaze.
“Kyella.”
It was a tone of warning, filled with realization, as I took another step back.
“What?”
“Get back here, darling,” he drew out. His gaze traveled down to my feet as I took another step back, a predatory light flashing in the depths of his eyes.
