“I said nothing because I thought ye would,” Alex went on, voice steady now, each word set like stone. “I waited for ye to come forward. The longer ye kept yer silence, the more I realized ye would never speak. But tonight, I realized ye didnae slip withIsabella at the window. Ye threw her out, did ye nae? Ye grim bastard.”
Calum’s mouth tightened. The knife trembled, then stilled. “I ended what ye wouldnae fix.”
“I willnae let ye do the same to Erica,” Alex said.
They moved at the same time.
Calum shoved Erica aside and lunged, his dagger striking the air. Alex pivoted, felt the blade catch his sleeve and burn a hot line across his forearm. He closed, caught Calum’s wrist, and slammed it against the stall post. The knife skittered, rebounded off a rail, and spun back into Calum’s free hand.
He slashed again but dropped his weight, and the blade cut air. They crashed to the floor, and the breath left Alex in a flat grunt. He drove his shoulder forward and hooked Calum’s ankle, trying to knock him off balance.
Calum had trained with him for years. He knew the moves. He twisted clear and drove a fist into the side of Alex’s head.
Pain flared across Alex’s skull. He tasted copper. The knife came again, a tight arc for his throat.
Alex caught Calum’s forearm in both hands. The edge kissed his neck and missed. They locked, faces close, breathing harsh, old friendship turned into heat and strain.
“Stand down,” he grunted. “I am warning ye.”
Calum bared his teeth. “For what? So ye can fail her the way ye failed Isabella?”
He wrenched, broke Alex’s grip, and drove the blade for the heart.
Alex dropped his left elbow and took the thrust to his shoulder. Pain flared hot, but he did not let it stop him. He stepped into the path of the knife, head to chin, a short, brutal shove.
Calum’s teeth snapped.
Alex hammered ribs with his right, then again, then a third time, each blow placed where the bone was thin. Calum’s breath hitched.
“Ye think I was only training the men?” Alex panted. “I was training meself as well.”
Calum stabbed wildly, but the point only nicked fabric and skin. Alex drove forward and slammed him into the stall rail, and the knife clattered away.
He did not stop. He hooked Calum’s knee with his boot, spun around, and took him down. He mounted through the scramble, knees to arms, weight pinning shoulders and chest. His hand found the fallen sword lying along the straw where he had dropped it.
“Nay one comes aftermechildren and lives to see the end of it, ye bastard,” he growled.
Calum opened his mouth to speak, but Alex drove down the blade.
The sword met flesh, then wood. Calum jerked, breath leaving him in a long, shocked exhale. His hands spasmed once against Alex’s thighs, then stilled.
Silence came hard, followed by Erica’s gasps. Alex turned to look at her. Blood had sprayed across her dress in a thin arc. It beaded along the edge of her collar, bright as berries in winter.
She did not look at it. She stared at the body beneath Alex’s knees, as if trying to reconcile two men at once.
He stood up and put a hand on the stall post in a bid to steady himself, as the ground swayed beneath him. Katie’s small body slammed into his leg and clung to it. He put a bloody hand on her head and felt her shake.
“Out,” he said, voice low. “Go on, love. Find yer sister. Find the nurse.”
Katie ran, feet loud on the stones outside the stables.
Alex looked down at Calum, then at the sword in his hand,then up at Erica. Her face was pale as she touched her neck, as if to confirm she was still here. Her eyes rose to his and held.
He knew at that moment there was no clean way back to what had been.If she truly wanted to leave now, she would have every right.
CHAPTER 30
The castle felt toosmall when Erica returned to her room. She let Leah strip her out of her dress and wash the cut on her throat. When the room emptied at last, the door opened again.
