“Doesn’t matter.”
“If someone threatened you, what would you do?” We both knew the answer. Grayson would defend himself to his dying breath.
“We’re not talking about me.”
“If you hadn’t kept me in my seat, I’d have stopped Drake before the situation escalated.” I’d interrupted Drake before. Ifa shield’s quad didn’t step in to help her, I did. The way Drake terrorized new shields sickened me.
“It’s too late, now.” Grayson’s voice was flat.
“Why did you stop me?”
He stared at me. I didn’t usually question his orders. Or him.
“I wanted to see what she’d do.”
“She’s a woman who ran five laps with an injured shoulder and a broken rib. What did you think she’d do? Take his cock without a fight?”
Grayson grimaced and raked a hand through his hair. “I didn’t think she’d kick him in the balls. Especially not in a room full of guards.”
My stomach tightened. “What did Carron say?”
The corners of his mouth pinched. “Twenty lashes. Four days in the pit.”
The punishment did not fit the crime. “She doesn’t deserve that. She’ll die.”
“Maybe not. But if we don’t do as Carron says, he’ll kill her himself.” Grayson pinched the bridge of his nose. “And if, by some miracle, she survives, and we don’t break her spirit …”
“Carron will kill her.” I finished his sentence for him. Carron had no patience for shields who refused to submit. And when Carron lost his patience, shields died. “We shouldn’t have taken her.” Haven had a happy home, and we’d dragged her from it.
“Questioning my judgment?”
“This is wrong.”
“If Carron suspects you have a soft spot for her, he’ll destroy her. She won’t last an hour.”
Grayson was right. Carron thought affection for shields weakened his guards, and he didn’t tolerate weakness. But Grayson was also wrong. I didn’t have a soft spot forHaven. Not wanting to see the skin flayed from her bones didn’t mean I had a soft spot. It meant I was decent. I leaned against the wall and closed my eyes, my hands unconsciously reaching for the earth magic that always steadied me. Tiny vines sprouted between the stone blocks—a nervous habit I’d never quite conquered.
“Teal?” Grayson was reining in his impatience. For me.
Could I do it? Could I stand by as a woman, whose only crime was defending herself, was beaten within an inch of her life? “Give me a minute.”
“We don’t have a choice. Not if we want to keep her alive.”
“She’ll hate us.”
Grayson gave a bitter chuckle. “We took her from her home. She already hates us.”
He wasn’t wrong. I bent over at the waist, resting my elbows on my knees. My mind whirled, desperately searching for an alternative. If there was another way, I couldn’t see it.
“We need to do this. Now. If we don’t?—”
“Carron will kill her.” Knowing that didn’t make much difference to the bile burning the back of my throat. “Fine,” I ceded, straightening till my spine was as stiff as a steel rod. “Let’s get it over with.” The words tasted like ash in my mouth.
Chapter
Seven
HAVEN
