“That you did, my little gardener. But I can’t have my two highest knights committing treason and getting away with it now, can I? I am still king after all.” He turns to me slowly, a predatory smile spreading across his face. Walking over to the cage, he leans down, trailing a finger along the silver bars.
“As for you. You aren’t going anywhere. You are my miracle. You will stay right here where I can see you. My little gardener, trapped in her cage.” Thrashing as much as I can in the tight space, my eyes fill with tears as I pull against the bars. My sobs pour out of me in thick waves. He smirks down at me, satisfied before standing and sweeping a hand down his cloak.
“Jones, see to it. I want the Warden’s blood on the cobblestone by nightfall.” Jones doesn’t agree straight away.
His face torn.
“But, sir…he’s my High Warden.”
“And I am your king. If you disobey me, you will die. I have killed my knights before, never forget that,” he says the last part to the room, the guards all standing at full attention. I am a bird trapped in her silver cage, forced to wait for a slaughter I can’t stop.
I have failed.
Chapter 28
Rowan
I’m done waiting.
My boots thud against the floorboards as I surge towards the cottage door. I have no plan, no escape route, nothing.
All I have is a desire so strong it burns through me.
I want her back.
Every second I spend breathing the stale, pine-scented air of this cottage is another second Elodie spends in the clutches of a man who has gone completely over the edge of madness.
If she’s hurt, I will burn that castle to the ground.
“Rowan, get back from the door,” Kael’s voice is like a slab of stone, heavy and immovable. He stands directly in my path, his frame blocking the exit.
“Move, Kael,” I growl.
I don’t even sound like myself.
My vision is swimming with pure red.
“Now!” I shout.
“What’s your plan, Ro, huh?” he asks, shaking his head at me as he pushes me back from the door. “You’re just going to show up and what… you can’t kill him. And you wouldn’t take the life of one of your knights. But I sure as hell can tell you the King will have you hung for treason.”
“I don’t care,” I roar. “I will tear everything in my path to get her back to me, Kael. Please, let me go.”
“He’s right, Ro. You know it too. You’re just too blinded by rage to see it,” a soft voice comes from behind. I turn to find Masen, his arms crossed, a tired expression on his face.
“I cannot just sit here whilst she suffers, Masen,” I seethe.
“Look, we’re going to get her back, I promise. But we need to do this right, otherwise we all die trying.”
He’s right.
I know he is.
I’m the High Warden, hell, I teach advanced extraction and siege warfare to the king’s own elite units. But right now, all I feel is anger laced with a fear I’m not sure I have ever felt before in my life.
“What the hell do you suggest we do if none of us can even harm the bastard?” I question him, my anger flying off me as he takes the full force of it.
“Neither of you can harm him,” he says. “But I can.”
