Rushing after Quinn, I’m vaguely aware of Wren and Rapunzel behind me. Everything is a blur. We burst inside the tavern where I grew up, and I hear—
“Where are they, Adele?” A man demands.
“Probably fucking your mother,” she snaps.
“Watch your mouth, woman,” the soldier warns.
His threat nonpluses my mother, who two men restrain. “You don’t frighten me. I’ve been threatened by men twice your size and ten times your worth.” She spits at his feet.
“Just because I had my hands all over your mother last night doesn’t mean you can take liberties with mine. Let her go.” That gets everyone’s attention—even the three soldiers tearing my mother’s beloved tavern apart with their mindless pillaging.
Adele whips her gaze to us. “Dax!” Then she looks back at the man standing in front of her—Captain of the Guard, judging by his finer tunic and sword—and laughs. “My son is here. You’re fucked now. All of you.”
“Stafford?” the Captain of the Guard smirks at me as he takes my measure. “Your filthy language seems to be your only resemblance to your mother.”
Quinn steps up beside me, his menacing presence a tangible force all around us. “You’d do well to heed my friend’s warning to release her.”
With astounding arrogance, The Captain of the Guard moves his hand toward his sword. “Tell me, why should I listen to the words of a savage?”
A rumbling laughter works its way among the soldiers who feed off the insult of their leader.
Quinn gazes over each man in the room before settling on the bastards manhandling my mother. With a deep sigh typically reserved for toddlers who won’t eat their vegetables, he responds in a monotone voice. “Because if they don’t, I’ll rip his arms clean out of their sockets. And that one.” He jabs his index finger at the soldier on the right. “I’ll use my dagger to stab him in the eyes simply because he won’t stop looking at her.” He gestures to Rapunzel. “Does that assuage your curiosity, or would you like to know how I plan to cut off your cock? Because men like you usually get off on roughing up defenseless women.”
“Redgrave. Kincaid. Stafford.” The Captain of the Guard punctuates each name by pointing at us. “Dead men, all of you, by order of King John.”
“Fuck King John,” Wren grinds out, then spits at the commander’s feet.
In my peripheral vision, I spy the soldiers cease their plundering of The Cup and Crown to advance toward us. Quinn’s growl rumbles throughout the tavern. He crouches, settles into a battle stance, and raises his sword.
“No!” Rapunzel screams, but Wren silences her with a word and pushes her back.
“Worthless, the lot of you.” My mother puts up a valiant fight against her captors’ hold. “Your fealty won’t win you the king’s favor. My son was loyal and see where it got him. John pissed all over my son’s devotion to the crown,” she yells in a rush. “He’ll piss all over yours as well. You mark my words.”
At her rant, the Captain of the Guard pauses. He gives her a peculiar look, his brows furrowed over puzzled brown eyes. Curiously, he moves his hand away from his sword. With a flick of his wrist, he gestures from me to my mother. “Quiet her, Stafford.”
“Put a fucking finger on her and—”
“Dax,” Rapunzel’s soft voice cuts off my threat. I whip around and see her dart out of Wren’s reach. Quinn, quicker than us, grabs for her, but she slaps him away. “Enough. It’s time.”
Not yet.
I’m not ready to let her go, and by Wren and Quinn’s expressions, neither are they. But she’s right. It’s time, Goddamnit.
“Fucking leave her,” I grind out between clenched teeth.
At that, Quinn changes his course of action and puts his body between Rapunzel and the soldiers. Everyone watches as she runs to mother and tenderly cups her face. Adele watches her curiously. Cautiously. The soldiers holding my mother’s arms tense but obviously don’t view Rapunzel as a threat. It’s a common practice among the king’s men to underestimate women.
Fucking fools.
We’re counting on that to be John’s downfall.
“Do you know who I am?” Rapunzel asks my mother.
“Aye, Your Highness, I certainly do. Leave it to my Dax to tangle himself up with a princess.” My mother’s fierce blue eyes meet calming green ones. She tilts her head and examines Rapunzel’s face. “I met her once. Queen Anne. She passed through Lansing once. Not long before she fell pregnant. Her presence here was a blessing. It was as if the town had been touched by the hand of the Holy Mother Herself. This kingdom loved her, and we still mourn her loss.” My mother smiles, and it’s as if the rest of us cease to exist. “Your Highness, to look at you… It is to see her again. Oh, yes, I know who you are.”
“Your Highness?” the Captain of the Guard echoes. “What madness is this?”
With a sneer, Wren says to him, “Look hard at her, you fucking imbecile.”
