Amalee exhaled loudly behind me.
“When are you coming to dinner, Col?” Dolcie purred. “I miss the night we?—”
“Kissed!” Edith said in a singsong voice. “Mother wants you to kiss her more!” The girl mimicked kissing noises against the back of her hand.
I grabbed Dolcie’s wrist and tossed it to the side. “That was more than a year ago, after copious amounts of wine. And I don’t intend to make that mistake again.” My eyes darkened to black as my emotions raged. I was on the edge of destroying everything in my path, including the woman in front of me.
“You have to be careful of the big bad witch.” Edith’s eyes went wide as her mouth formed into an O and made an Ooooh sound. “She knows where we live,” she whispered.
Amalee stepped forward, and I threw out my hand to stop her.
“Tell me exactly what happened or your child will not only be fatherless, she will be without a mother as well,” I growled.
Dolcie’s chin quivered for a beat before she replaced her expression with a sweet mask. “Audryn brought Edithiya home, and there happened to be a witch there.” She batted her eyelashes and shrugged.
“And then what?” I snarled.
“And then mother said, 'take Audryn because Col loves her'.” Edith bounced on the sofa. “But you love Mama and you’re gonna get married. Mama’s going to be the queen.”
“Tell me you don’t have your daughter believing your delusions,” my sister snorted, and then lowered her voice. “I would destroy your insides, but it appears they’re already rotten.”
The front of Dolcie’s pants darkened as she quaked from the threat of Amalee’s magic humming through the air. I was theKing of Mercy, but my sister was the Princess of Brutality and everyone knew it.
I turned to the jumping girl. “I’m sorry, but I love Audryn, and she’s going to be my wife. She will be our queen.”
“I love Audryn too!” The girl was becoming breathless. “She put me in a trash can!”
I laughed at her imagination, and it was enough to lighten my mood just a fraction. With a rogue smile, I turned to Dolcie and leaned in close. “Approach my love, or even look in her direction again, and I will hang you in the square for all to see. Get out of our house.”
21
COLGRAVE
Ireclined back, letting the warm water envelop us, and reveled in the moment of calm. The early mornings were set aside for just Audryn and me, while the rest of my day was spent discussing Kuroden’s response to the attacks. I’d yet to address how to deal with the Graystorm coven, but after positioning the military more strategically, the tampering of our seeps had halted.
The material of her sleep dress and my shorts felt like a thick barrier between us. Dozens of times I’d thought about having Audryn naked in front of me, yet now I couldn’t think of anything I wanted less. The next time her bare skin was pressed against mine would be because she had the will to make the decision to do so herself.
“Okay, love,” I mumbled into her ear. “Almost done, and then you can rest.”
Passing a soapy rag over her skin was the least I could do while she’d lain too injured to be submerged in a tub. But when Micah closed the wounds and gave the go-ahead, I quickly provided her with a proper bath. Still unconscious, I couldn’trisk her slipping under the bubbled water, so I joined her in the tub the last couple of mornings.
I drained the water and waited for the gurgle to conclude. Carefully, I wrapped her in my arms and headed to the bed where I’d laid out a fresh towel to pull around her. After drying her off, I changed her into freshly laundered sleep clothes and pulled the blankets up to her neck.
“Can I come in?” Micah waited behind the newly hung door.
I twisted the knob and swung it open.
“She looks good, she?—”
“Is still unconscious,” I grumbled, and wrapped her mother’s chain and pendant around her neck. I carefully tilted her head to the left and moved half of her hair to one side. Sky had taught me how to care for Audryn’s locks after we’d washed out the blood and spent hours painstakingly removing the knots.
“It’s probably going to take a bit more time.” My brother pulled back the blanket and placed a hand against her stomach. “Everything looks good, she just needs more rest.”
I didn’t want his hands on her, but the alternative would have been bringing the healer from the castle, and I wanted that even less.
“Go change,” Sky said as she strode into the room toward the wide chair in the corner. “I’ll stay close.”
I turned my gaze back to Micah.
