The willow branches hung in the water, and the dragon pulled me east and then north, upwards along a rutted road that climbed out of the river valley and into a group of buildings that was barely large enough to call a village. There was a mill, a smithy with a cold forge, and three or four cottages with their shutters closed against the cold morning air.
How the dragon knew where to find her, I had no fucking idea. But it did and that was all I was going to focus on.
Soon we reached a tavern. The sign over the door was so worn that I could barely read the name:The Old Goat Inn.
The heat within me surged so suddenly that I had to breathe through it.
Our mate is here.
I raised my fist, and the riding party stopped. No one spoke. Lance pulled up beside me as he read the building, read my face, and drew his sword without being asked. The sound of steel leaving a scabbard moved down the line like a sharp whisper.
I dismounted, and the others followed. Then I handed my reins to the nearest man, Percival.
“Four at the back,” I said quietly. “The rest with me.”
CHAPTER TWELVE
-ARTHUR-
My men moved.
They always moved quickly when my voice dropped like it just had. I pushed the tavern door open, and everyone inside turned to face me. Clearly, they were shocked to see their king in such a place. I didn’t care.
The stairs.
I walked over to them without a word. Lance was directly behind me and the knights behind him. We took the stairs two at a time.
The door at the end of the hall.
The door was closed, most probably locked. I didn’t slow down to test the latch. Instead, my boot connected just below the handle, and the wood split inward with a crack that shook dust from the rafters. The hinges screamed when I pushed through them, one hand on my sword.
The first thing I saw was the bed which was low and narrow, shoved against the far wall beneath a ceiling that sloped with the pitch of the roof. In it were two shapes, one on top of the other.
ANOTHER MALE DARES TO TAKE WHAT IS OURS?!The dragon screamed in my mind. IS THIS THE SAME MALE WHO TOOK HER INNOCENCE?
I ignored the dragon. Instead, I focused on her white hair, which caught what little light came through the gap in the shutters. At our abrupt entrance, the man above her moved immediately. But my attention wasn’t on him. It was on her, where she was now sitting upright.
IF HE DARED TO FUCK HER...
She was dressed. That was when I realized the man was moving quickly, already rising from the bed, one hand reaching back, reaching backfor her. He put himself between her and the door, between her and me. And I knew that gesture, knew it so well I didn’t even have to look at his face for confirmation.
I’d watched that gesture save my life twice. More than twice if I were being honest with myself. I knew the exact angle of those shoulders, the way he always led with his left, and I knew the specific tilt of his head which meant he’d already calculated three ways to kill whoever was in front of him.
The floor seemed to shift as the shock overcame me. When he turned and I saw his face, my stomach fell for the second time in the course of the last two seconds.
“Corvin.”
His name on my tongue came out rough. No, it was more than rough. It was scraped raw, like I’d dredged it up from somewhere it had been buried for a very long time. It wasn’t even an accusation; no, it was just the word, just his name.
“Arthur.”
His voice sounded the same as the last time I’d heard it. Or maybe it was older. Quieter, yes. But it was still the same deepness, the same register, the same tone. It was the voice that had talked me down from two sieges and more than one catastrophic decision. I’d never thought I’d hear it again, and definitely not in a circumstance like this, with my sword at my hip and his hand braced at the small ofherfucking back.
DESTROY HIM! HE STOLE OUR MATE!
She stood behind his shoulder, one hand pressed flat against the wall. Her eyes, those fucking haunting eyes, moved between us like she was already calculating, already plotting a way out. Little did she know, there was no way out.
My knights filled the room. Lance posted himself at my right, and Tristan was to my left. The others arranged themselves in a loose arc behind us, swords not yet raised but close enough to it that the intention was clear.
