Lyra’s breaths were hot against my lips, but the poisonous fear filled her gaze again. I dragged my fingertips across the line of her lower lip, pressed a soft kiss there, then stepped back.
I will say this was my doing.
She clutched my tunic. “Don’t you dare. You did not want his hands on me, I do not want their hands on you.”
Wicked, beautiful woman. I pressed a kiss to her palm.Thane will know.
I stepped for the door, and Lyra tried to protest, but stopped when I unlocked the latch. As expected, Thane leaned against the wall, picking his fingernails with a small knife, a look of annoyance in his eyes.
“Normally this disheveled state of you might bring me joy.” Thane used the knife to point at a moaning Tomas. “Alas, tonight feels a little different. Care to explain, my friend?”
34
Lyra
Thane’s mouth parted in surprisewhen I emerged from the small chamber behind Roark. My skin was still flushed from the passion of his kiss, and doubtless my hair was unkempt and wild.
I knew enough about the prince to know he would’ve laughed any other night. Tonight, he shoved a palm against Roark’s chest, eyes dark with frustration.
“How do you expect me to protect you when you pull shit moves like this? Tomas is an ass, but he’s a noble ass, and you broke his damn jaw. You know Hundur despises Dravenmoor because of his brother-in-law.”
“What happened to his brother-in-law?” I asked, voice soft. Gods, how could it get worse? If Roark was implicated here and the Myrdan king already had a vendetta…
Thane flicked his gaze to me, frowning. “The late Draven king was once challenged by the queen’s brother for a rumor that hisyounger sister was kidnapped by a Draven nobleman. Let’s just say there was one less Myrdan soon enough. Hundur has claimed it as murder for seasons.”
I looked to Roark, who’d gone stoic and stern, all Sentry while the prince spoke.
Thane looked away again, glaring at his guard. “Hundur will see this as another aggressive act by a Draven. What if he takes Yrsa away? You know what her life is like in Myrda.”
Roark glanced at Tomas, still moaning on the steps, hands over his face. From the sneer on the Sentry’s face, I wasn’t certain Roark felt much guilt for what happened here.
Still, I refused to watch him take the blame on my behalf.
“It wasn’t him.” The admission was soft, but steady.
Without a pause, Roark waved his hand, signaling the prince to look at him, not me.He is fortunate my blade is not in his heart.
Thane folded his arms over his chest. “What did you mean, Ly?”
“He’s not broken.” I intentionally turned away from Roark’s glare. He wanted to take my actions as his, but one kiss and I could not stomach the thought of never having another one. “Ser Tomas is melded.”
Thane’s brows lifted. “You sealed his mouth?”
Again, Roark intervened, stepping between me and Thane.He attacked her. Hurt her. Had her against the wall.
Thane peered at me. “That true?”
What was the point of hiding the truth? I rested a hand on Roark’s arm, a silent plea to keep steady, and straightened my shoulders to the prince. “Tomas seemed to believe I was his simply because of his station in the Myrdan court. He said if he assaulted me, put a child in me, the kings would see me as ruined and give me to him as a wife.”
A wash of rage twisted Thane’s face. Kind and personable, butharm someone he loved, and Thane could reveal the dark edges of his soul with ease. “Did he, now?”
“Roark had the opportunity to kill him,” I went on, “but he didn’t. He insisted on trying to take the fall for me”—I turned to the Sentry with a narrow look—“but I was the one who did this.”
The prince said nothing for a dozen heartbeats. Then Thane descended the few steps to Tomas’s side and nudged the bastard in the ribs with the toe of his boot, and crouched, elbows on his knees, waiting for Tomas to crack his eyes open.
“You won’t be able to eat,” he said, voice rough. “Nor drink. What a horrid way to die. I suppose you should have kept your hands off her.”
Tomas moaned, eyes imploring the prince for aid.
