I felt my jaw clench. “Then Mordred knows too?”
She shook her head. “From what I understand, no one else knows. Kay said he used a servant—someone who owed him a favor. She had access to some of Mordred’s lesser ritual components, enough to perform an identity spell. Nothing that would trigger alarm.”
I let out a slow breath. That was something, at least. Mordred’s involvement would have made this infinitely worse—his allegiance to Arthur was complete.
Still, Kay knowing her secret was one problem too many.
“Has Kay tried to leverage this against you yet?” I already suspected the answer. The shift in her expression—tightened jaw, averted eyes—confirmed it before she spoke.
She nodded slowly. “He attempted to, yes.”
I said nothing for a long moment. My anger boiled just beneath the surface—at Kay, at Arthur for creating a court where such threats were currency, and at myself for not noticing sooner. But more than that, I was furious at the helplessness in her voice, the fear she was trying to hide.
“Did he hurt you?” I asked quietly.
She looked away, her profile suddenly rigid with something beyond fear—something that kindled my rage before she even spoke.
"He..." Then she cleared her throat, the sound unnaturally loud in the quiet chamber. "He attempted to, yes."
“What did he want from you?” Heat surged through me—an old, familiar fury that usually preceded bloodshed. My hands flexed at my sides, already imagining themselves closing around Kay’s throat.
If he had touched her…
There wouldn't be anything left when I was through with him.
She wouldn’t meet my gaze. Her eyes fixed on the moonlit window, her shoulders rigid. I reached out and turned herface toward mine, gently but firmly. The faint crimson in her cheeks wasn’t embarrassment—it was anger, humiliation, and something deeper that twisted in my chest.
“Guinevere.” My voice shook with restrained violence. “Tell me what he did to you.”
Her throat worked as she swallowed. “He discovered my secret, and he tried to use it against me. He thought fear of discovery would buy my silence and my obedience.”
My breath left me in a slow, dangerous exhale. I could picture it too easily—Kay cornering her with that cruel, smug smile, wielding her secret like a weapon. The image was enough to make my vision blur at the edges.
"Did he see you—the true you?" I knew Kay's nature all too well—his ability to perceive weakness, to exploit vulnerability. If he had glimpsed even a fraction of her true beauty beneath the Lioran disguise, if he had seen the woman behind the knight's façade, he would have wanted her. The thought alone made my blood run cold with rage.
"Yes." That single word was barely audible. Her hands trembled slightly where they rested against her sides, and I could see the shadow of whatever had transpired written across her delicate features.
My jaw clenched so hard I felt my teeth might crack. "He attempted to force himself on you?" The question came out harsher than I intended, each word edged with barely contained violence. The possibility made something feral and protective roar to life within me—a beast that demanded blood, demanded justice for any harm done to her.
And it made no blasted sense. I had never been protective of another woman before. But she was not another woman. No, as far as I was concerned, she was the only woman.
“He was stopped before he could… claim me.”
"Stopped?"
She nodded. "Elenora—she stepped in on my behalf."
I was surprised, as I hadn't thought Elenora the type to involve herself in the affairs of others—particularly not to defend someone she barely knew. The courtesan had always struck me as self-serving, concerned primarily with her own pleasures and survival within the treacherous waters of court politics. Yet she had stepped between Kay and Guinevere when it mattered most, risking his wrath and potentially her own position at court.
I now felt a newfound respect for the woman, even if I had completely lost any romantic interest in her. The shallow attraction I'd once felt seemed laughable now, a pale shadow compared to what burned within me for the woman before me. Elenora's intervention had likely saved Guinevere from a fate that would have destroyed us both—her from the violation, and me from the consequences of what I would have done to Kay in response.
Truth be told, I didn't imagine I would ever feel for another woman the way I did for Guinevere. The intensity of my feelings defied everything I thought I knew about myself, about desire, about the careful boundaries I'd maintained throughout my life. Every other woman had been a temporary distraction, a brief flame that burned bright and died quickly. But this—whatever this was between us—felt like something that could consume everything in its path.
And that frightened the hell out of me. More than facing Arthur's wrath or the consequences of my actions. This woman had the power to unmake me completely, and I was walking willingly into that destruction.
"Then Elenora knows the truth about you—about Lioran?"
She shook her head. "She only knows what she walked into—Kay about to… have his way with me."
