Obviouslyperched on the tip of my tongue. Rather than draw further ire, I settled for a short nod.
The men watched her as if they’d unexpectedly found themselves in a pit filled with writhing vipers.
Grandmother’s sightless gaze settled on each man in turn. “You are fools.” Her lips twisted into a cruel grimace, and she chuckled, as if whatever horror she saw amused her. “You will regret every cutting remark, every cruelty. You will try to break what is most precious to you. If it were me, there would be no forgiveness.” She chuckled darkly. “You think you hold the leash, but the hound has already slipped her collar.” Then she turned to me, and her eyes returned to their usual mossy green. “You must go with them, my love. It is the hard choice, but it is also the right choice. The only choice. The road will be torturous, but you must persevere. No matter how tempting it is to give up, to choose eternal rest, do not falter. Choose life.” She opened her arms, and I rushed into her embrace, savoring every precious second.
“We could fight them,” I whispered.
“We’d lose.” She stroked my hair. “Besides, you are needed. Your future is not in Grimswood.” Again, she took a moment to study the men who’d invaded our home, then she whispered, “Stay strong, my darling. If you need me …”
“I know,” I whispered back. “I’ll be in touch.”
Grayson swept his gaze across the room one final time—cataloging threats, memorizing the layout—before his hand closed around my arm.
I got one last look at Grandmother before the guards dragged me away.
Chapter
Three
GRAYSON
The men I called brothers gathered in the sitting room that connected our bedrooms. The room was luxurious. Thick carpets covered the stone floors. Comfortable furniture centered around a cold fireplace. Soon, in a month or two at most, we’d keep a blaze to ward away the chill. Bookcases covered one wall, and a table topped with a chessboard sat near the large window. The place smelled of lemon polish—someone had been in to clean while we fetched the shield.
Flynn lounged on the couch, his arms stretched along its back, his legs spread wide, claiming every inch of space. He grinned when he saw me. “The princess is settled?”
“Princess?” He’d seen the place she lived. The shield was no princess.
He shrugged. “There’s something about her. Those eyes. Those lips. That ass. A princess ready for plucking.”
“Leave her alone,” I barked.
His brow furrowed as if I’d confused him. “Since when do I leave shields alone?” He meant the shields at the front.Women. For all his faults, Flynn never dallied with the young shields in training.
“Since today.”
“I make no promises.”
Unexpected, irrational anger seared my veins. “There are hundreds of women in the compound. Pick another.”
“But I want that one.” Flynn’s voice took on the same petulant tone he’d used when I’d forbidden him from seducing the councilman’s daughter. “You never let me have any fun anymore.”
“That’s because your last idea of fun involved a councillor’s daughter, three bottles of wine, and somehow ending up naked in the fountain,” Teal reminded him.
“You nearly got us court-martialed,” Pierce observed without looking up from his book.
Flynn grinned. “The naked part wasn’t my fault. Teal dared me.”
“I dared you to climb the statue, not land us in the soup.”
Flynn shook off their teasing, raking his fingers through his hair and hitting me with a hopeful expression. “Please?”
“No.”
He slumped into the cushions and crossed his arms. His lower lip jutted forward like that of a toddler who’d been denied a treat.
The new shield was already sewing discord. “We are at war, and she is a weapon.”
“What’s the issue, Gray? Why not let him have her?” Pierce, who leaned in the entry to his bedroom, closed his book and crossed his arms over his chest. Somehow, he leaned and maintained perfect posture. His back was ramrod straight. The man had never slouched, not once in his entire life.
