Too stunned to move, he’d still been there hours later when the servants had come in for work, only to discover the carnage that surrounded him.
Since his father had been the leader of their tribe, Devyl had fully expected to be hanged for what he’d done. He’d expected no mercy whatsoever from anyone as his father’s men had rushed in to check on his parents’ remains.
Still coated in the blood of his father, Devyl had refused to answer any question. Refused to speak at all.
How could he explain it? He didn’t want to tell anyone their family secrets. Didn’t want to expose what had been done to his Elf or to Edyth. He refused to see his sisters shamed or harmed in any way. Their parents had wounded them enough. By the gods, their brother wouldn’t harm them, too. It was his duty to protect them.
Let their people damn him alone. It was a secret he would take to his grave.
And as the watchmen sought to drag him from the room and into their custody for the murders, Edyth had come forward to shove them away. “There were wandering bandits who broke in during the night! Duel fought them off by himself! You can’t take him for it. He’s our hero! But for him and his bravery, we’d be dead now, too. He saved our lives!”
Elf had backed her story.
It was the only time in the whole of his life that anyone had sought to protect him and keep him safe. The only time anyone had ever stood to defend him. While he’d loved his little sister before that, he’d become even more devoted to her.
And to Edyth. He would have done anything for her after that day.
When she’d died of a rare fever a year later, it’d damn near destroyed him. How cruel that they had finally become close, only to have something as pathetic as a worthless cold take her life and rob him of a very special friendship.
So he’d clung to his Elf after Edyth’s passing even more and with a passion that had oft left her so frustrated at him that she’d spent endless hours playfully teasing him for it.
You’re stifling me, brother! Can I not have a moment to myself? I swear it wouldn’t surprise me to find you sitting atop me one day as I do my morning business in the privy, like some great mother hen! Indeed, you’re so close that I eat the food and you burp for me. Words she’d spoken with humor and never with malice.
Unlike him, his Elf had never held any ill will or anger toward anyone.
God, how he missed her.
Don’t think about it.…
Because thinking about her even now, after all these centuries, still tore him apart.
“Captain?”
He looked over his shoulder to see Belle headed his way. “Aye, milady Morte, what can I do for you?”
“Be ye aware of what it is you’ve taken aboard the ship, sir?”
“Indeed. Why? Is she giving you trouble?”
“You could say that.”
He arched a brow at her evasiveness. “I did say that. What sayest you?”
“Well … she got a bit lippy with us.”
Ah, dear gods. He arched a brow as she paused in her recitation of what all “lippy” entailed.
“And?” he prompted when she failed to elaborate.
“Well,” she repeated, “be it all right with you if Mr. Death pins her to the wall?”
Devyl hesitated as several scenarios for those words went through his mind. William having his way with the beast in a corner.
Or Will literally daggering the hag.
Not sure which of the two would be worse for the lot of them, Devyl headed for the women’s quarters, where he quickly found his quartermaster one heartbeat away from killing the bitchington.
Grabbing the sword from Will’s hand, he arched a brow. “Really?”
