Page 205 of Ashborne: Defiance

Gil’s cheeks were reddened. He’d already had three ales, and his voice was louder than usual as he tucked me under his arm and squeezed me close.

I gave a shaky laugh as Jhoare stepped up to my other side. “I know we don’t have Bren’s refinement, but we won’t let you be lonely,” he smirked.

I smiled up at both of them. I hadn’t asked Voski if he’d told them. And they hadn’t mentioned anything. But he’d named both of them as men who could help me overcome the events of that dreadful night. And ever since the first day, they’d drawn closer. Their easy friendship was a balm. Particularly when Voski was distant.

If they knew what had happened, they’d remained discreet, and I was grateful for it. If they didn’t… well, I enjoyed them. Their funny camaraderie. Their incessant teasing, mainly of each other. And their strength.

I loved riding Koa alone, and growing in skill. But something cold and uneasy still rode the pit of my stomach every waking hour—and half the sleeping ones, as well. I was grateful that they’d taken an interest in me. It felt safer.

“Two brass coins says you’ll both make fools of yourselves tonight,” a low, dark voice muttered to my right. I leaned past Gil to see Voski, standing on his other side, lifting a tumbler to his lips, watching Bren and Donavyn, who stood at the edge of the open floor at the front of the room, alongside the queen, while the rest of us watched on.

There was talk of music and dancing. I was thrilled. This, finally, was a place in which I could excel.

I was quite a good dancer.

And I quietly hoped Voski might ask.

I silently prayed that he would.

If only so I could feel those steel arms around me in daylight.

~ VOSKI ~

My skin felt too tight. I was starting to itch.

On one side of the room, Donavyn stared at Bren as if she were the Creator’s gift—which I supposed, he considered her to be. The two of them had eyes for no one else, and his words about the bond, about a mate, about the feelings, wouldn’t leave me. They circled my skull like a vulture over a carcass.

My heart has taken a body and now walks on its own, outside of my chest…

She is beauty, fierce joy, bolstering strength.

She is my delight.

My heart has taken a body…

For the dozenth time that day, I cursed and turned away from the happy couple, only to find myself drinking in the sight of Grace.

Beautiful, pink-cheeked, giggling Grace. With Gil on one side, and Jhoare on the other. The two of them had taken a particular interest in her since her assessment, and it threatened my limits.

Gil, with the flirtatious, knowing smirk.

Jhoare with that smile women always returned, and the fucking flexing he thought no one noticed.

I would have rolled my eyes, but whenever I caught sight of Grace’s sparkling gaze on either of them, I wanted to breathe fire.

I knew Gil was taunting me. Pressing. Making a point.

Jhoare just loved to flirt, and Grace made an easy target, who wouldn’t hold him to his words.

She took every advance as a joke. And every compliment the same.

And she let them touch her. Only simple gestures. Harmless affections. But still, it burned.

I cursed both Donavyn, and Kham, for planting ideas in my head. Making acceptance of the bond seem possible. Even right. Because now, the idea clawed at me.

Normally, as we walked through our days of training, meals, and patrols, I could bear to watch Grace be touched and smiled at by my brothers. I knew they’d never harm her. I could turn away. Ignore it, though it burned behind my ribs.

But today Grace was the Grace I’d seen in the castle at Fyrehold. The lady. She wore a simple, but luxurious blue gown that made her eyes seem like even deeper pools. Her hair was coiled high, and while the curls that tumbled down to brush her collarbones were not as refined as those she’d sported in Fyrehold, she was, without question, the most beautiful woman in the room.