Page 22 of Fragile Oath

The corner of Davin’s mouth tugged upward, the expression almost cruel in its perfection. He looked between Alexei and me, something glinting in his gaze I knew I wouldn’t like.

“What kind of a former fiancé would I be if I didn’t escort you myself? After all, it is the peace of two kingdoms at stake here.”

A wave of heat washed over me, anger beginning to edge out the panic and guilt that had been suffocating me only moments ago.

When Davin had first walked into this room, it had taken everything I had not to confess the truth and throw myself into his arms, but now it was a fight not to strangle him.

I had told him not to follow me, had asked him to leave, and whatever reasons he had for staying anyway were going to make an already impossible situation downright unbearable.

How was I supposed to sit across from him for days in a carriage, to go back to the inn at night knowing he was only a room away while Alexei was hurting me? I couldn't even feel relief over my interrupted wedding night, knowing it would be so much worse now that Alexei was furious and had something to prove.

And that was the best-case scenario. That was if he didn’t decide to punish one of my parents for what he presumed to be my disobedience. If his newfound friendship with the Viper didn’t get Davin killed.

I shot Davin a look, somewhere between angry and pleading, opening my mouth to protest before I remembered that Alexei would not welcome my direct interference. He was furious enough as it was.

Forcibly, I clamped my lips shut, putting an unbothered expression on my face just in time for Alexei to turn to me, his eyes boring into mine. I tried to convey that I had done my best, that I hadn’t asked Davin to come, that I would keep this ruse up for as long as it took. But perhaps I conveyed that a little too well.

Or more likely, Davin had just donehisjob a little too well. Alexei was entirely up against a wall, something he must have known.

Finally, he nodded, turning back to Davin.

“If you wish to escort my new bride and me to our home kingdom, I see no problem with that,” Alexei said.

If Davin was bothered by Alexei’s words, he didn’t show it. He only nodded once, his lips tilting up in a bare imitation of his usual smirk.

“Excellent. We leave tonight.”

ChapterTwelve

DAVIN

I stayed behindafter the happy new couple stormed out – well, he stormed out, pulling her along with him. Gallagher followed, but I couldn’t quite move my feet from the room –theirroom, where I stood staring at the bed I might have found them in had I arrived only moments later.

The flickering firelight cast long, menacing shadows on the shabby furniture and threadbare curtains of the dingy bedroom. Other than their shared trunk of clothes, there was only a delicate gray scarf left in the room.

I swallowed down my revulsion at the significance of it. Gray. For Clan Wolf. Likely a wedding gift from Galina’s newhusband. It still didn’t make sense. She had said she was tired of running in circles, and that she would stay. Instead, she had left to marry someone else.

Out of desire? Duty? Part of a deal she had struck to return home?

The heady scent of lavender and rosemary wafted off of the fabric when I picked it up. Had she removed it herself? Or had she whispered that she was his as he unwound it from her perfect skin?

Another scent clung to the scarf, fainter and more masculine than hers.

Bile rose in my throat, and I hurled the entire length of fabric into the fireplace. It did nothing for the gaping void that was expanding in my chest, a pain I hadn’t felt since Mac died.

Feather-light footsteps sounded behind me, and I knew who it was without turning around.

“Gal catch you up?” My voice was almost even.

“He did.” Gwyn stepped closer, watching the fabric turn to ash.

“I had to destroy the evidence that we were here,” I explained, not bothering to make it sound truthful.

“Of course,” she said flatly. “We wouldn’t want the rebels who told usexactlywhere to find them to know they were,in fact, at this inn.”

I nodded like she was being serious, soaking in the momentary reprieve her presence offered. “I’m glad you understand.”

“I don’t understand any of this,” she muttered darkly.

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