Page 77 of Fragile Oath

“Don’t get carried away,” Gwyn said, raising an eyebrow, but the corner of her mouth twitched in amusement.

I took a breath, focusing my attention on Malishka while I wiped away the errant tears on my cheeks.

“How did you know to come in here?” I asked after a moment.

She looked at Malishka, then the door, then away. “You’ve been walking around like a lit powder keg for days. It was only a matter of time.”

I nodded. That wasn’t quite an answer, but I didn’t press her further. I suspected Malishka had alerted Avani, and I didn’t want to think about the entire stars-damned family knowing what a mess I was.

“But why would you bother?” I asked pointedly.

She sighed, settling next to me on the opposite side of Malishka. “You know, I genuinely like Gracie.”

Of course she did.

“Even if her personality is a little more wet toast than I usually prefer in my friends,” she added with a shrug.

I felt my lips turn up in the smallest hint of amusement.

Gwyn’s tone turned more serious. “But there’s no way she would have stared down the wrath of the lairds, her own uncle, and even Davin, then stood at his side while he was accused of murder. I’ll confess, it took me a while to understand what he saw in you, but I think if you could ever pull your stubborn head out of your arse and learn to let some of this—” she gestured to all of me “—out before you combust, you might actually make it work.”

I shook my head, the drowning feeling returning in spite of her words. “If he even wants that anymore.”

She looked over at me in a challenge. “You won’t know what he wants if you aren’t willing to give him the options he deserves.”

“What if I don’t know how?” Another admission that nearly froze on my lips, but I forced the words out somehow.

“Then you learn.”

It was so matter of fact, so very Gwyn. If you don’t like something, change it. If you don’t know something, learn it. Her black-and-white practicality was a welcome reprieve from the maelstrom of my own mind today. Though, I couldn’t help but wonder if any of it mattered now.

“Will there even be time for any of this?” I asked in an undertone.

Time to make this right before the people punish Davin for something he didn’t do, to focus on whatever we are before the kingdom goes to war.

Her features hardened. “Our family hasn’t let the rebels win yet.”

Maybe it was only her abundance of self-assurance speaking, but it still eased something inside of me. So I nodded, and she abruptly stood to go, getting to her feet with all the deadly grace of a predator.

“Well, that’s all the togetherness I think either of us can stand.” She strode over to the door, turning just before she opened it. “Just so we’re clear, I still don’t like you.”

I smiled, hearing the almost-lie. “I’d be disappointed if you did.”

ChapterThirty-Four

DAVIN

Every day,it was getting harder to convince myself that we were going to find a way out of this. The investigation was going nowhere, and we were lacking solid leads, or any leads, really. Even Gracie had doubled down on her lie, insisting I was chasing shadows. She had made it clear she was done entertaining any further questions on the matter, and I couldn’t very well force her to talk.

She was understandably loyal to him. MacBay as the Viper still felt wrong, in any event, so it wasn’t worth alienating her by pushing the issue until I had more information. Something I was short of these days.

It seemed ridiculous that between Lochlann’s entire royal family and its spymaster, we couldn’t ferret out who was behind this, but as usual, none of the rebels were talking. There were still bodies cropping up in the villages, though, still whispers about the Viper who had to be connected to this somehow.

I went over the facts I had relentlessly in my mind.

At the festival, Tavish had looked terrified when I mentioned the Viper. He had glanced into the crowd, like someone there was watching him. Then he died, the same night Galina was taken by someone who was working with the rebels.

Did the Viper pave the way for Alexei to take Galina as some sort of distraction? Was Alexei involved to begin with? Tavish couldn’t have been in the way of Alexei trying to break into Lithlinglau. My cousin was killed in his rooms, already incapacitated by a slow-acting poison.

---