He rolled his eyes.
“Please, please, Ash, don’t send me away.” She darted out and grabbed his arm. “I would go if I thought there was anyone else you could trust, but there isn’t anyone. The whole guard …” He turned away from her and started across the room, but she chased after him, her panic rising. “The whole guard is under Huxley’s thumb. Whoever you hire will try to kill you. Don’t make me go—I’m the only person you know doesn’t want to hurt you.”
He spun on her. “Magdala, Ido nottrust you!”
Magdala lifted her chin. “You have to. You don’t have a choice.”
He passed his hand over his mouth and groaned. “Alright then. Alright. But only until the coronation is over and all this nonsense about curses is behind us.”
Magdala dropped into one of the chairs by the fire and let out a tremulous breath.
They stared at each other in tense silence. At length, Magdala asked, “What do we do about Zeph?”
Asherton shrugged. He crossed to her cot, gathered her blankets in his arms, and tossed them on his bed.
Magdala's brow pinched. “What are you doing?”
Lifting the cot, Asherton started toward the door.
“Asherton?”
“You’re moving,” he said.
“Ash!” she shouted after him. “I have to be near you if I’m going to protect you!”
“I’ll be fine,” he called over his shoulder. She followed him out into the corridor, then down a long line of doors to a room at the far end of the hall. Kicking the door open, he strode inside and dropped the cot in the center of the unfurnished bedroom.
Magdala stood in the doorway, her arms hanging at her sides. “This is ridiculous.”
“That’s easy for you to say.”
“And what about Anton?” Magdala asked. “Which room does he stay in?”
Crossing his arms, Asherton leaned against the wall. “My room every other weekend and on holidays.”
Magdala huffed. “This is a lot of caution from someone who, only yesterday, wastryingto get shot.”
“Someone has to raise Anton, and you’re not a fit mother.”
“You can be such a …”
“YOU TRIED TO MURDER ME!”
“IT WAS AN ACCIDENT!”
“THEN YOU TRIED TO HUMILATE ME!”
“TO PROTECT YOU!”
Asherton held up his hands and pushed past her, into the corridor.
“Where are you going!” She followed him, but he reached his room first, tossed her blankets into the hall, and slammed the door in her face. She pounded it with her fist. “Let me in!”
No reply.
Magdala pummeled the door until the paneling shook. “I’ll break the lock!”
Still nothing. Shaking with rage, Magdala stormed down to the first floor and out the front door. She rounded the house and stopped under his window. Casting around in the overgrown garden bed, Magdala found a rock and hurled it at the window. The glass shattered, followed by an angry exclamation.
