A look of shocked horror crossed Tor’s face. All the men were silent, watching with stunned faces while Tristan’s beast went insane, emerald scales flickering in slow waves up his arms. “Stop it. No one is going to hurt you.”
Nim spun toward him and laughed. But the sound held no joy, only grief and rage. “So you say. But you’re the worst hypocrite of them all. You knew exactly who I was and came after me anyway. Don’t pretend you’re not here to drag me back to Grendel. What do you think Grendel will do when he gets his hands on me? Why not take a turn? No one will be surprised. Especially not after what you did to Val.”
“WhatIdid?” He couldn’t help the harsh growl, ignoring the rest of her horrific accusation to deal with later.
“Yes. You. He loved you like a brother, trusted you, and you abandoned him when he needed you most.”
“No. He betrayed us, led us into an ambush, and then ran, leaving good men to die. The king to die.”
“That’s not what happened.” She was emphatic. “Val would never—”
Tristan cut her off, so enraged it was all he could do to get the words out. “You. Weren’t. There.”
“I wasn’t at Ravenstone, but I was there when he came home a few weeks before. Silent and depressed, worrying himself sick. I was there when he told me of his fears that nothing could prevent another war. Val told me never to trust the king. And to make sure that I never, ever spent any time alone with Ballanor or Grendel.” She slowly lifted her purple wrists once more. “And he was right.”
“No,” Tristan began, “he fled with Princess Alanna, leaving us all—”
“He was her personal guard, yes? His job was to take her to safety, yes?” Her voice was thick with outrage.
“Yes, but—”
“He did what any soldier with honor would do. He got the princess away from danger. And you condemned him for it. Used that as an excuse to accuse Val of treachery. You, his best friend, left him, without even once asking him what had happened.”
Nim looked slowly around the silent clearing, meeting each man’s eyes. “When Val came home, that last time, he said goodbye to Papa. Such a long, careful goodbye. As if he knew something bad was coming. I begged him not to go back, and do you know what he said? He told me that if good men refused their duty, however hard it might be, then evil men will be allowed to rule.”
She wiped her shaking hand down her face, her eyes bright with grief and horror. “Val told me that everything I had ever heard about Princess Alanna was a lie and that he was the only person who could protect her. That he had to do his duty to her, or he couldn’t live with himself. He told me to start preparing for war. And then he went back. Now you all want to tell me that a man who puts honor before everything would betray his own people. The men he saw as brothers. It doesn’t make any sense.”
Tristan clasped his hands behind his back, trying to control the roiling emotions churning through him. Confusion, anger, and the first nasty prickles of doubt.
“No.” He shook his head, remembering everything Ballanor and Grendel had said. The proof they’d offered. “Val and Alanna were having an affair. He betrayed his brothers for her.”
Nim laughed again, the sound deep with scorn. “Val? Seduce a married woman? You know him even less than I thought.”
Tristan glanced at his men. When she said it like that, it didn’t make a lot of sense. Val had been obstinate about never fucking a married woman, even when they threw themselves at them. Out of respect for Tristan. For what adultery had done to his childhood.
Was it possible that he had made a mistake? Had he truly abandoned his friend like she thought he had?
No.
She was wrong. People changed. Val certainly had. And he wouldn’t be the first man who went insane over a woman. Tristan’s father was an excellent example.
Around him there were multiple frowns and scowls. Everyone was thinking back, trying to decide if they had missed something crucial.
But they didn’t need to wonder. King Ballanor had been certain. Lord Grendel too. The two highest-ranking men in the kingdom—the men they owed their loyalty to. They had evidence, eyewitnesses to Val and Alanna’s affair. No one would accuse a princess of adultery without fucking good reason. And then there were those Verturian arrows. It was impossible to deny.
It was going to be terrible for Nim, but the truth was that her brother was a traitor.
He rubbed his forehead, wishing he could reach to the stabbing pain starting behind his eye. He couldn’t think clearly about any of this. And making it even worse was the look on Nim’s face. The way she bit her trembling lip. The tear streaks down her face as she showed them her neck.
But he did know one thing deep in his gut—this was not a woman who was party to some great deception. Whatever Val had done, she had no part in it.
Instead, someone had hurt her. Badly. Someone had done the things she accused Tor of planning.
He hadn’t wanted to believe the old cook, but he couldn’t deny it anymore. And now the Hawks were party to it too. Looking at her, he knew the truth. They had hunted down an innocent, wounded woman.
The thought sent his scales flickering along his arms in horror. Guilt churned, bitter at the back of his throat.
Nim’s wings fluttered as she wrapped them around her body like a protective blanket, and he wished he could do something, anything, to take that look off her pale face. The look that said she’d judged them and found them lacking.
