Page 38 of An Archer's Reckoning

I blinked a few times. “Put that way, I suppose not. Still, it is the murder of family and a grand theft.”

“Grand is an understatement, but I will give this one to you.”

We sat in silence, enjoying each other’s comforting presence and the fire’s blessed warmth.

My mind traveled a different road as I stared into the fire until my tortured thoughts tumbled out.

“I couldn’t save him,” I rasped.

Atikus turned his head. “Save who?”

“Justin.” My head lowered, and my voice broke as I spoke. “He was just a boy, and I couldn’t save him.”

“Son—”

“I saw his guards die. I . . . I knew he wouldn’t make it. Atikus, I should’ve pressed the King when he decided to let him join us. He should’ve never been there in the first place. And now Jess . . .”

I gathered myself and continued. “Now Jess has no father, one less brother, and a mother who wants her dead. I don’t . . . I don’t know how to protect her.”

Atikus waited for me to say more, but I had run out of words.

“Keelan, look at me.” He waited until my gaze turned upward. “It isnotyour job to protect everyone. That is not even possible.”

“Yes, itismy job.It always has been.” The heat in my voice surprised us both. “I’m sorry, Atikus, but it is my job, literally. It’s what I know I’m meant to do. It’s what I’m good at. I was given a Gift designed to keep others safe, to guard the truth. All those years in the Academy, I shielded Declan . . . from so much.”

I sucked in a breath and stared into the fire. “I failed him, too. He could barely stand to be in the room with me back in Grove’s Pass. You saw it. You should’ve seen the look Ayden gave me.”

“Keelan, stop this. It is one thing—”

“Oh, Spirits. And Tiana. You see how she fared.” I wrung my hands so tightly that my knuckles whitened. “I know it sounds ridiculous, but . . . I think . . . I think I was falling for her. We’d never been on a real date . . . at least, not one outside of her infirmary, but she was special. I lost her, too.”

I buried my face in my palms.

Atikus held his tongue.

I rarely expressed much emotion. Even as a boy in the guild, I’d refused to cry—or, at least, to be seen crying. I grew into a strong, stern man. Ihadto be strong. Ihadto protect.

Atikus placed a hand on my shoulder.

By the time we moved again, the fire had died to embers. When I finally pried my head out of my hands, I was surprised to find Jess staring in my direction. An unreadable mask cloaked her usually expressive features.

“Do I need to get more firewood? Is that in my queenly duties now?” she asked, a bit of snark biting through her voice.

I shook my head. “I’ll get it, Your Majesty.”

My own peevishness bit back as I rose to my feet. My own grief made it difficult to handlehersfor the moment. “She’s all yours,” I said to Atikus as I disappeared into the night.

Chapter 13

Declan

Ayden’s head rested just above my chest, where I could nuzzle him with my chin and press a kiss into his flaming curls. As soon as I lifted myself off him, he reached up and pulled me down next to him. Within minutes of wrapping my arm around him, he’d nested and drifted to sleep. The steady rise and fall of his chest calmed me almost as much as the odd sensation of sleeping with another wrapped so tightly in the cocoon of my own personal space.

Had I been alone so long that the touch of another against my skin felt foreign?

The absurdity of the question almost had me laughing out loud, but I was determined not to disturb my lordling’s sleep.

I could just see his lidded eyes as they twitched and darted. The corners of his mouth were curled in a grin. Even the tender skin about his eyes seemed to smile.

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