“Throw her from that window and you will not live beyond that very moment,” Jareth said, hazard in his tone. “Why are you even doing this? You are her father. You are supposed to protect her.”
Ciaran wasn’t moved. His gaze lingered on Jareth, appraising and calculating. He’d just spent the past several minutes chasing his daughter around the solar, trying to grab her because he knew her screaming would bring The Guardians. And these other knights—he wasn’t sure who they were, but he recognized them because they had been with his daughter when she had come back into town. He had only arrived in Bristol when she had returned from wherever it was she had gone, so the entire situation was confusing to him.
But he knew one thing.
He was in a precarious situation.
You are supposed to protect her.
Protecting Desdra had never entered his mind. He only wanted her money and any other money he could get his hands on. But those plans were now ruined because of her screaming,so once he’d gotten his hands on her, he’d managed to knock her on the head with the butt of the shovel she’d been using against him, hard enough to render her unconscious. At that point, the door to the chamber was about to be destroyed, so he used the only leverage he could—his daughter’s life. Men were breaking in to help her, so he had to keep them at bay as long as he could, and he did that by lifting her into the windowsill. It had worked—the men hadn’t advanced on him—but he knew that wouldn’t last.
If he was going to escape with his life, he had to think fast.
“Bring me Chester or, I swear, I will throw her from this window,” he said again, trying not to sound desperate. “I must speak with him!”
Zeus, who was feeling extraordinarily guilty about this situation, stepped forward. “He speaks the truth, le Daire,” he said steadily. “Lord Chester died several weeks ago. Lord Jareth is now the lord of Aphrodite’s Feast. You must speak to him.”
He was indicating Jareth. Hearing the confirmation of Chester’s death from Zeus, a man who had no reason to lie, only further destabilized Ciaran. He was unsure what to do at that point, and Jareth, seeing the confusion on his face, sought to take advantage of it.
“Tell me what you want,” he said, taking a step forward, very slowly. “If you have a disagreement, surely we can come to a pleasing solution. Only let your daughter go. We do not need her if we are to discuss things like men.”
Ciaran’s gaze darted to Jareth. “That is far enough,” he told him. “Come no closer.”
“What do you want, le Daire?”
Ciaran began to see a way that this situation might work out to his advantage. They didn’t want Desdra thrown from the window and Ciaran very much wanted money.Anymoney atthis point. He had a pirate to pay and, damnation, the man wasn’t going to wait. No one was going to wait. Not even Ciaran.
He pointed to the scattered ledgers on the table.
“Money,” he said simply. “I know there is a great deal here and I want it. Bring it to me and put it on the table. Then you will stand back and allow me passage out of here. I will never return. You have that assurance. But if you do not swear a solemn oath to let me leave unharmed, I will let my daughter fall from this window. This I vow.”
Jareth shrugged. “As I said, if you let her fall, you’ll not live to take another breath,” he said. Then his gaze turned hard as he took another step in Ciaran’s direction. “I will personally destroy you. I will obliterate you from the face of this earth and even in death, you will be so smashed, so mutilated, that not even God will be able to put you back together again. Do you understand me? Obliteration is something I give my most hated enemies, something not even your soul will recover from. Now… I will give you some money simply to be rid of you, but make one more threat against her and you’ll not like my reaction. You are not in command here.Iam. And I will tell you how this is going to end.”
Ciaran’s features tightened. “I do not know you,” he said. “I do not care. But understand me when I tell you that I will throw her through the window if you take another step. Get out of here and get those men out of here. Bring your money back to me. I will not wait forever.”
“You’ll wait as long as I tell you to wait,” Jareth said. “Remove her from the windowsill and release her. If you do that, I will get your money and you will be allowed to leave, unharmed. Those are the terms.”
“You do not dictate terms. I do.”
Jareth cocked an eyebrow. “Clearly, you do not know how this works.”
“Do as I say or—!”
He never got the chance to finish. Desdra chose that moment to awaken and, though groggy, quickly became aware enough to realize that she was being hung from a window. She didn’t know how she got there, or why, but she immediately screamed and started to panic. Kicking her legs, she hit her father in the face, which caused him to lose his grip.
After that, everything seemed to happen in slow motion.
Jareth, seeing that Desdra was coming around, made a break for the window to grab her. She slammed Ciaran in the side of the head with her foot, which forced the man backward. He had been holding her by the back of her garment and his grasp on her slipped. Jareth could see this happen as he ran at her. God help him, he could see that she was now falling, headfirst, out of the window. He could see everything right before his eyes, and as fast as he moved, he wasn’t fast enough. He managed to grab part of the hem of her dress as she tumbled out, but it wasn’t enough. It slipped through his hands, and she right along with it.
Screaming all the way, Desdra fell three floors to the hard-packed earth below.
Then… silence.
CHAPTER TWENTY
“He hasn’t lefther side for three days,” Orion said. “He will not sleep. He will not eat. He just sits there, holding her hand and watching her face. The man is a mess.”
He was speaking to Hugh, who had been out on an errand for the garrison for a few days when the incident with Desdra happened. Everyone in the city knew what had occurred. He’d heard about it the moment he returned to Bristol Castle. It was a tragedy on so many levels that it was difficult to know where to start.
