Page 88 of Under the Lion Star

“I didn’t want to die,” I said quietly.

“That’s my girl,” he smirked. “I should have known you weren’t a damsel in need of rescue.”

“He was going to kill me,” I blurted out, my eyes going wide.

“No one will ever take you from me,” Leor promised.

“Leor–”

“Shh,” he pressed his lips to my forehead. “You need time to process. But you’ll be sleeping in my bed from now on. I won’t let anyone hurt you.”

I swallowed harshly and tried my best to nod. My body started shaking again, but I managed to wrap my arms around Leor’s neck. He held my upper back and slid his other arm beneath my knees, pulling me off of the floor and walking me into the washroom.

Without a word between us, he stripped me of my blood-stained nightdress and carried me into the warm water. He didn’t seem to care that he hadn’t removed his sleep shorts. With tender movements, he guided me wherever he wanted me through the water, tilting my head back and washing my hair.

He wrapped me in a towel before scooping me into his arms once more and laying me down in his bed. The smell of blood clung to the air, but I found no evidence of its source. Leor slid under the sheets at my back, turning me to face the wall of windows. His arm snaked over my middle, tugging me back to his firm chest while he buried his face in my hair.

“Sleep,” Leor whispered.

I’d stabbed a man. The thought ran through my head, along with the reality of the danger I found myself in. Leor had warned me, but the fear wrapped itself around my lungs. My body trembled in his hold, grappling with the knowledge that I could wake up one morning and find my husband dead. Or not wake up at all.

Chapter 30

Leor

Tension in my jaw caused my head to throb, but it was nearly impossible to ease the way my teeth clenched. One of these fucks had tried to kill my wife. My eyes scanned the room, taking note of each face and wondering if I should just agree to Atlas’s plan to slaughter every single one of them in the most painful manner we could devise.

He’d been furious when he found out what happened. Zialda had finally fallen asleep when he barged into my room, demanding to know why Orin and Liras were carrying bodies out of the castle in the middle of the night. I quietly gave him the moment-by-moment, keeping my voice low so as not to wake my wife, who had finally stopped shaking.

His eyes were murderous, and I hadn’t seen much of him since then. Likely because he was spending all of his time in the dark catacombs of the basement where Liras had stashed the one man who lived.

I focused on the lords around the table once more. How easy it would be to end them all right here.

Zialda probably wouldn’t like that.

My wife sat at my side, looking unaffected despite fighting for her life just a few nights prior. A sick part of me wondered what she would have done to her assassin had I not intervened. Would I have found her coated in the elf’s blood after she’d cut him to ribbons?

I adjusted myself under the table at the thought.

“Food stores are stable since we’ve begun trading crops with Krannar. More supply but also more variety,” Merhan said proudly as if he had played any part in the matter.

“How heavily are we relying on traded food,” I asked the council.

“At the current agreement with the humans, roughly thirty percent of our food will be of Krannari origin,” Gamril answered.

“Why are our crop yields so low?” I questioned. “Is it likely to be remedied with the rural healthcare initiatives we’ve recently begun?”

“No,” Zialda answered before anyone else could. “It will help, but it is unlikely to account for that large of an increase. A big issue is that most farms are centrally located between Galvord and Hinterholm, purely as a convenience. The soil is not as fertile in that area.”

I nodded, glancing as Orin and Liras stood. I fought the urge to laugh at my wife’s perfect segue into whatever secret plan my siblings had been working on.

“We have a potential solution,” Orin spoke, the first time he had done so in front of the council.

Everyone remained quiet, waiting for him to continue.

“Orin and I would like to propose a rebuild of Haerbor,” Liras explained.

Several council members scoffed, and I slammed my fist onto the table to silence their protests. All eyes drifted back to Liras.

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