He dropped to his knees beside his brother’s corpse, his hands hovering uselessly over the fatal wound. They trembled in the torchlight, reaching and then pulling back as if he couldn’t bear to touch what remained. His shoulders shook.
Leona stood frozen, still pressed against the courtyard wall where she’d stumbled after Keith had grabbed her. Her throat ached where the dagger had pressed, and her mind felt sluggish, trapped in the horror of what had just unfolded. The violence. The blood. The way Murdock had moved through Keith’s guards like death itself.
The way he’d walked away without looking back.
Ragnall’s head snapped up, and his eyes locked on her. They were green, like Keith’s. But while Keith’s eyes had held cruelty and calculation, Ragnall’s burned with something rawer. Grief. Rage. Hatred.
“Ye did this.” His voice shook with barely contained fury. “Ye helped him escape, and now me brother is dead.”
Leona’s mouth opened, but no words came out. Her mind raced, searching for something to say, some explanation that might defuse the violence she saw building in his expression.
“I didnae—” she started, but he cut her off with a sharp gesture.
“Didnae what?” He rose to his feet, fists clenched at his sides. “Didnae unlock his cell? Didnae lead him through the castle? Didnae stand by while he butchered me brother like an animal?”
“I didnae mean for this to happen,” Leona managed. “I only wanted?—”
“Wanted what? Freedom?” He spat the word like a curse. “Ye were to be Keith’s wife. Ye were to be the lady of this clan. And ye threw it all away for what? A monster who kills without feelin'?”
Leona’s hands curled into fists. “Keith was nay saint. Ye ken what he was. What he did.”
“He was trying to make this clan great again!” Ragnall’s voice rose, echoing off the stone walls. “Everythin' our faither workedfor, everythin' Keith planned, it was all for the clan. For our people. And ye destroyed it.”
He took a step toward her, and her back pressed harder against the wall. There was nowhere to go. Nowhere to run.
“I’ll nae let him down,” he said, his voice dropping to something more dangerous. “Everythin' Keith planned, everythin' he worked for, I’ll see it through. The clan will be great again, and ye…” He took another step, close enough now that she could see the tears streaking through the grime on his face. “Ye’ll marry me instead. His dream will come true through me.”
The words hit Leona like a physical blow. For a moment, she couldn’t breathe, couldn’t think. Just when she thought she’d escaped one nightmare, another rose from the ashes of the first.
But this time, something inside her snapped.
The fear that had paralyzed her shattered, replaced by pure, incandescent fury.
She’d risked everything tonight. Had freed a prisoner, had watched him kill six men and her tormentor. Had stood in a courtyard soaked with blood and chose to survive.
She wasn’t going to bow to another Gilmore. Not ever again.
“Like hell I’ll marry ye.” The words came out steady and sharp, ringing with a conviction that surprised even her.
Before he could respond, before the shock could fade from his face, she turned on her heel and ran. Not toward the gates where Murdock had escaped. That way was blocked by guards, by torches, by men who would drag her back to Ragnall without hesitation. Instead, she ran back into the castle, her feet flying over stones she’d walked across a thousand times.
Behind her, Ragnall’s voice boomed with rage, “Stop her! Stop her now!”
Leona was already through the door, already racing down the corridor toward the keep’s interior. Behind her, she heard the sounds of pursuit. Boots pounding and voices shouting. The castle coming alive with alarm bells and running feet.
But she had one advantage. One thing Keith and his brother could never take from her.
She knew every secret passage, every hidden door, every route her father had shown her as a child for exactly this kind of emergency. He’d called it her 'rabbit’s warren', a network of servants’ corridors and forgotten passages that honeycombed the castle’s bones.
Leona ducked through a tapestry, into a narrow passage that led behind the Great Hall. The sounds of pursuit grew muffled, then faded. She kept moving, her breath coming in ragged gasps, her mind racing.
Rufus. She needed to get to Rufus.
Her fourteen-year-old brother was the rightful heir to their father’s seat. But he was still a boy, gangly and awkward, no match for Ragnall’s ambition or his sword. If she left him here, if she ran and saved only herself, Ragnall would use him. Control him. Or worse.
She reached her chambers and slipped inside, barring the door with shaking hands. The room looked exactly as she’d left it hours ago, before everything had fallen apart. Her bed neatly made. Her belongings arranged on the chest. As if the world hadn’t just turned upside down.
Leona moved quickly, her hands steady now that she had a purpose. She grabbed a worn traveling cloak from the wardrobe, her mother’s silver necklace from the jewelry box, and a small pouch of coins she’d been saving. Not much, but it would have to be enough.
