The two younger daughters were sobbing quietly. “We’re here, Papa,” Effington, the older one, said as she touched his cheek. “We’re here. We love you.”
Jax’s breathing was becoming erratic. “Be happy,” he said breathlessly. “I… I love you both very much. Go with Julian now. I want… want to be alone with your mother.”
Julian lifted his father’s hand, kissing it, before leading his sisters away. The women were sobbing, heading off into the small solar of the keep, as Julian paused at the entry and watched them go. He was just so overwhelmed with everything that he felt as if he were living a nightmare. Everything was closing in on him, swallowing him up with grief until he could hardly breathe. After a moment, he turned to see Ashton standing in the keep entry.
The man had tears in his eyes.
“Back to the wall, Ash,” he commanded quietly. “Tell Tristan what has happened, but do not tell them men. Some may have seen what happened, but most did not. It may kill their morale to know what has happened to my father, so do not… tell them yet.”
Ashton quickly wiped his eyes. “I will not,” he said. “Tristan and I will hold the line. You must be with your father at this time.”
Julian simply nodded. Ashton put a comforting hand on his shoulder before departing the keep, heading out to the wall and shouting to the men. Julian watched him go a moment before returning his attention to his father and mother. Kellington was still holding Jax tightly, her cheek against his forehead, rocking him gently.
The sight broke Julian’s heart.
As he stood there and blinked back tears, the old surgeon came over to him.
“I cannot help your father, lad,” he said in his usual raspy tone. “The wounds are too great. There was no chance.”
“I know.”
“He’s a strong man. A lesser man would have been killed right away.”
Julian struggled to swallow the lump in his throat. “My father is no ordinary man.”
The surgeon, who had been with the de Velt army for several years, simply nodded. “I’ll be with the men in the solar but send for me when your mother is ready.”
“Ready for what?”
“To take your father away.”
Julian couldn’t believe he was hearing those words. So much of him was in denial at the moment that he simply couldn’t grasp that his father was dying. It had all happened so fast. Five minutes ago, his father was alive and well, but now…
Now, he was passing into legend.
As he watched his parents in a scene he would never be able to forget, as if it were branded into his memory, he didn’t see his father moving at all, so perhaps he was already dead. The battle that Julian had thought so ridiculously weak had become the worst battle he’d ever faced in his life. Most certainly the costliest.
Do not underestimate John, his father had said.
God help him, he’d been right.
But he couldn’t allow the grief to fill him. If he did, he would be unable to function. There was still a battle going on and with his father down, it was now up to him. The timid knight who lacked self-confidence now found himself in command of mighty Pelinom Castle and John wasn’t going to lay his goddamned hands on Pelinom while Julian had breath left his body.
Instead of grief filling his veins, hatred did.
Hatred for the king who killed his father.
With a lingering look to his parents, Julian headed out into the bailey where another barrage of arrows had come down butno one had been hit this time. Everyone was staying under cover now.
And that went on for the rest of the day.
When evening finally fell, John’s army had retreated enough to convince Julian and Ashton and Tristan that they were finally pulling out. They’d been unable to break Pelinom, at least not in a way they could see. The walls stood, but inside, the damage had indeed been done. Terrible damage that was the worst possible outcome in the death of Jax de Velt. When Julian finally entered the keep after sunset to see what had become of his mother and father, he found his mother sitting on the ground where he’d left her, still holding what was now his father’s cooling corpse and from what Julian was told, no one could make her release him.
Julian didn’t even try.
In fact, he stood guard over his mother and father all night, a silent witness to their last embrace on this earth. A silent witness to the conclusion of a love story for the ages. Even when they finally managed to take Jax away to remove the bolts to prepare the man for burial, Kellington never left his side. The entire time, she never left him.
And neither did Julian.
