Page 32 of Fragile Oath

“I told you that I had a duty,” I said.

His eyes snapped back to mine. “And this is part of it?”

I took a fortifying breath, reminding myself all over again why I needed to keep up this ruse. “It’s nothing I can’t handle.”

Murder flashed through his features before he covered it with something calmer.

“I don’t believe that you had a sudden, burning desire to return to a man who hurt you without a single bit of coercion,” he said. “Not even for your precious sense of duty. Last chance, Galina. Tell me, or I’ll walk into his rooms and extract that information from him myself like I wanted to do from the start.”

Davin’s tone was low, deadly in a way I had never heard it. Though it should have been the furthest thing from my mind, all I could think about was howthiswas the thing that pushed him over the edge. That he would torture and likely kill a man, not for stealing his fiancée or invading his kingdom, but for hurting someone he cared about. For hurtingme.

I hesitated, though I wasn’t sure why. There was no real choice here. Davin was filled with nothing but resolve, and if he made good on his threat, then all of this would have been for nothing.

Frustrated at my lack of options, I threw my hands at my side.

“You can’t intervene. This is why I told you not to come.” Did he hear the way my voice cracked slightly at the end?

“So Alexei could use you as his punching bag without interference?” His indignantly raised eyebrow only ignited my own anger.

“So I could do what needed to be done without having to worry about you putting the people I love in danger,” I hissed, careful not to allow my voice to carry through the walls. “If you had respected my wishes–”

He shook his head, his ocean eyes hardening to ice. “Do not talk to me about respect right now.”

I wasn’t sure if he was referring to Alexei, or to the multiple and varied lies I had been telling.

“Just tell me what he’s threatening you with.”

There was a long silence where I held his stubbornlaskipaagaze. I hated him. I hated myself, and Alexei, and this entirestorms-damnedsituation we were drowning in right now. Most of all, I hated that I couldn’t even accomplish what I had hurt us both to do.

I was out of options, though.

“My parents.” My whisper was hoarse. I hesitated only a second before adding, “And you.”

Davin nodded, spinning to go without another word. My heart raced in my chest, my mind running through a thousand scenarios where one of the people I was trying so hard to protect wound up dead.

Because of me.

“You can’t kill him,” I called after him. “He can’t know that you know. It’s bad enough he’ll know you were in here—”

“He won’t,” Davin replied without turning around. “The guard has been otherwise occupied for a few minutes. And I’m not going to kill him yet.”

Theyethung in the air between us, filled with a promise. But Davin didn’t realize all that was at stake, the reason Alexei had been able to so neatly corner me.

“You don’t understand, he—”

“Is working with the Viper?” Davin cut me off. “Yes, I know.”

He was still facing the door, so I couldn’t be sure if the timbre in his voice was accusation or only frustration that I hadn’t believed in his ability to unearth Alexei’s secrets.

“What are you going to do?” I forced the question out through trembling lips.

Davin sighed, his fist clenching at his side.

“I’m going to take care of this.” He said the words like they were obvious, or rather, like they should have been obvious to me.

The barest trace of bitterness laced his tone, a tacit disappointment in me for not trusting him with that very thing to begin with. I wasn’t sure if that was fair. None of my choices felt clear anymore, let alone their consequences, and the people I loved were still very much in danger.

“Just…be careful, Davin,” I whispered. “Be safe.”

---