“Yes?” I ask, my anger leeching into my tone.
Keagan bows a little too quickly before dropping to a knee beside my chair. “My lord,” he begins, his words short and rushed. “There is something I must tell you.”
My mind immediately goes to Haven, as it normally does nowadays. She’s always getting into trouble, and although her disobedience is starting to weigh on me, I do enjoy it in some ways. Well, I should say, I enjoy the punishment after. “Is it about her?”
Keagan nods.
Of course it is.
“Has she run off again?”
“No, my lord. She hasn’t.”
Confused, I lean closer to the Irishman. My hand trembles. “What is this about then?” This letter holds the news I’d been waiting three hundred years for, and I don’t want to wait a second longer for it. “Out with it.”
“My lord,” he says, “I-I have my suspicions of Haven and… and Brenin…”
I blink, unsure what he is even suggesting here. “Avrum?”
Again, Keagan nods.
My spine straightens, my interest piquing. “What about them?”
“We believe there is something happening between them,” he explains.
“We?”
He glances over his shoulder, and that’s when I notice that Cornelius is there, filling up the library’s doorway with his massive frame. “You and Cornelius believe this?”
“Yes, my lord.”
“And something like what, exactly?”
Glancing around at the other faces in the room, Keagan lowers his voice to barely a whisper. “Something more than their relationship should be. Something… possibly… romantic.”
Every muscle in my body seizes just at the thought of what he’s implying being true. Romantic? My love and my second? Could it be true?
My gaze sweeps the room. There are only a few others in the library with us, but they’re trying a little too hard to keep their eyes on their book pages.
I’m up and out of my chair at once. “Walk with me.” Pushing the letter into my breast pocket, I push past thetwo of them and trudge into the hallway. They follow, and once we’re far enough away from prying ears, I turn to them again.
“You believe my Haven and my most trusted and loyal second are…invested?” I can hear my voice shaking with fear and anger as I say it. My Haven? My second in command? What he’s proposing is the deepest kind of betrayal. “Impossible.”
Keagan and Cornelius glance at each other, but their silence only irks me more. It feels like my bones are trembling under my skin as I stand here just thinking of it.
“Do you have proof of this? This is a very serious accusation, after all. What you’re implying could be seen as treasonous.”
When they don’t respond, the relief is instant. Looks like their jealousy is clouding their better judgment. How immature and petty of them.
Rolling my eyes to the ceiling, I command my body to settle, reassuring myself there’s a good chance nothing devious is going on behind my back. But still, my temples pound.
“I don’t have time for suspicions,” I say.
Shuffling where he stands, Keagan continues more carefully. “But we’ve witnessed them talking…”
“Talking is nothing,” I snap, anger whipping through me. This is absurd. I’m starting to wonder if this has anything to do with Haven at all, or if it’s an attempt to alter my opinion of Avrum. A feeble attempt, mind you. Avrum is fiercely loyal. I’ve trained him to be so.
I step forward, now standing over Keagan, and lockgazes with him. I grab Cornelius by the collar of his shirt and pull him close, a growl rumbling in my throat. “Don’t interrupt me again unless it’s something important,” I tell them. “Do you understand me? I have no time for this nonsense.”
