“What are you going to do?” Caius asked.
“Handle this.” I walked off.
Caius quickly caught up to me. “Something you should know.”
I faced him, eyes narrowed.
“A couple days ago, Krull and Hanne had some kind of altercation. By the time I noticed something was going on, she’d drawn a knife on him.”
That’s my girl. “Good.”
“I told him off, and he left.”
“Why are you telling me this now?”
“Well, she asked me not to say anything.”
Fuck, she was proud. And fuck, I liked it.
I left Caius and found Krull first because I believed he was more capable of this than Allegra. She could be emotionally unstable, but not destructive and spiteful.
He sat at the table and watched me come closer, indifferent to the pissed-off look on my face. His arms were folded on the table in front of his empty bowl of stew, ready to face off with me in a stubborn fashion.
“Get up.”
He remained seated. “Do you have orders for me,Chief?”
“I said, get up.”
He didn’t move, his angry eyes full of resistance. “I didn’t do it.”
“Do what?”
“Destroy your little weapon and mess up your pretty garden.”
“You sound pretty defensive.”
“I’m just saying I didn’t do it.” His eyes moved to another table before they darted back to me. “Maybe you should ask your old toy over there.”
I lunged ahead and flipped the table over like it weighed nothing. The bowl flew through the air. The girls screamed and got out of the way as I barreled down on Krull, who’d fallen back in his chair in surprise.
I grabbed him by the front of the shirt and yanked him up before I clutched his neck and threw him hard on his back. “Say that again.”
He stilled, looking up at me with furious eyes like he wanted to lurch up and kill me.
“Fucking say it.” I stepped forward.
He quickly crawled back and fumbled to his feet.
The Gathering was dead silent, watching us face off in the light of the bonfire.
Krull looked at me with wild and open eyes, his nostrils flared with his labored breaths. We’d never seen eye to eye, but we’ve never openly opposed each other like this. It looked like he wanted me dead. “I said I didn’t do it. I’d fucking say it if I did.”
I came closer.
This time, he didn’t move back, his arms tense by his sides, ready to punch me if necessary.
We faced off with an audience that watched without taking a breath. “Come near my girl again, and I’ll burn you alive.”
