Page 19 of The Iron Flower

“I thought you were still in Valgard,” I say, surprised. Aislinn was finally going to tell her father the truth—that she doesn’t want to be fasted to Randall, the fastmate her parents have chosen for her. “Weren’t you going home to talk to your father?”

Aislinn nods stiffly, her eyes filling with anguish. Jarod puts his glass down on a nearby table and places his hand gently on her arm. A Gardnerian woman chatting with her friends nearby catches sight of the gesture, registers that there’s a Lupine in her midst and shoots us a look of deep distress. Their entire group breaks into alarmed murmurs and rapidly flees to another part of the hall.

Tears spill down Aislinn’s face, and she wipes them away with the back of her arm. “Father says I have to fast to Randall. As soon as possible. He was...very angry when I disagreed. It washorrible.” She chokes back a sob, her shoulders shaking. “He told me that a daughter who disobeys her father...is a daughter no more.”

“Oh, Aislinn,” I say, my heart going out to her. “I’m so sorry.”

Her face tenses miserably. “I’mtrapped.Father was going to pull me from the University. I had to apologize and beg him to let me stay, and he made me travel back here with Randall. We argued the whole way. Father has him watching me all the time now—I just escaped from him. I’vegotto get away.” She wipes at her eyes again, the silk arm of her tunic streaked with dark lines of tears.

“Come away with me,” Jarod says, his voice filled with calm authority.

Aislinn looks up at him, incredulous. “Jarod, I’d be cut off from my family.Completelycut off. You don’t understand. I...can’t.”

“Yes, you can,” Jarod insists, a courageous light in his amber eyes. “Aislinn, this is a mistake. Come away with meright now.”

Aislinn peers out over the crowd, then back up at Jarod, as affection and trust wash over her face. My heartbeat speeds up, and I sense that if Aislinn goes with Jarod now, there’s a chance she’ll leave with him for good.

“Go,” I urgently prod her with a quick glance to Jarod. “You should go with him.”

“Aislinn!”Randall’s arrogant voice calls out from the crowd, and my hope for her plummets. He rushes toward us, looking obnoxiously attractive in his cleanly pressed uniform.

“Unhand her, right now,” he orders as he approaches. When Jarod simply glares at him, Randall roughly grabs Aislinn’s free arm and yanks her toward himself.

“Let her go!” I exclaim.

Aislinn makes a hurt sound and instinctively recoils.

Jarod’s eyes go wild. His lips pull back over long, white teeth as a low growl emanates from his throat. He makes a slight lunge toward Randall, muscles tensed, and I flinch back.

“Get your hand off of her, Gardnerian,” Jarod snarls. “Or I willripit off.”

Startled, Randall lets go of Aislinn and stumbles back. “Aislinn!” he insists shrilly. “Get away from him!”

Aislinn stares up at Jarod, her eyes gone wide.

A metallic screech tears through the air as four soldiers unsheathe swords and close ranks behind Randall. Emboldened, his expression turns smug. “You are seriously outnumbered here, shapeshifter,” Randall says, artlessly drawing his own sword.

Jarod lunges forward, lightning fast, grabs up Randall’s sword and bends it in half with one hand, casting it to the stone floor with a deafeningclank. Randall and the other soldiers flinch back in alarm as a snarl works its way up from the base of Jarod’s throat.

“I am the son of Gunther Ulrich,” Jarod growls, teeth bared, as he grasps hold of her arm once more. “And I could take on every one of you. And win.”

Randall’s throat bobs as he swallows nervously, frozen in place. “Aislinn,” he finally croaks out in a halfhearted demand.

Aislinn shakes her head, as if trying to wake from a spell, her face agonized. “Let me go, Jarod,” she says hoarsely. “I have to go with him.”

Jarod’s head whips toward her. “No, Aislinn. Youdon’t.”

“Let me go, Jarod.Please.”

Jarod stares at Aislinn for a long moment, his face violently conflicted. He releases her arm.

“Get over here!” Randall orders, a slight tremor in his voice as he thrusts his hand out at Aislinn. She takes it without a word and lets herself be led away.

Jarod stares after her and, for a moment, I fear he’ll go after Randall, there’s such violence in his eyes.

I’m desperate to console him. “Jarod, I...”

Before I can say anything else, he shoots me a wild-eyed look, then stalks across the hall, through the mortified crowd, and out a back door.

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