Page 53 of Till Kingdom Come

“I want to know how long,” Killian said, looking directly at me and speaking so softly I barely heard him.

I turned sharply to look at him. “What? What did you say?” I asked him.

“I said, how long would you want me to stay if I agreed to do this?”

Hendris interrupted his reply. “No, sire. I can’t let you do this!”

“It’s my decision to make, Hendris.” He turned to me again. “Well? How long would you want me to stay?”

I laughed out loud. “For as long as you live, Killian. I’ll never let you go.”

My father spun around in his saddle to stare at me as did the council members. But I barely noticed any of them. As far as I was concerned, it was just me and Killian there. No one else existed. No one else mattered.

“Well?” I said. “Do you agree? Or are you afraid?”

He gazed at me a long time and then sadly nodded. “I’m not afraid of you, Bracca. I agree to your terms.”

“You agree, knowing that you won’t have your freedom? That I’ll keep you locked up for the rest of your days?”

“Yes,” he said, his voice so soft I could barely hear him. “Whatever you say. Whatever you want. But remember—you have to win first.”

“Bracca,” my father said in an urgent voice. “We may need to talk about this.”

“No! I have one other proposal to make.”

Killian was still looking at me. He raised his chin bravely. “What other proposal?”

“Killian likes the tournaments. In fact, he had one planned for his coronation. So we can have a melee. The Elves against us, but this time, the winners take all.”

His eyes widened at my suggestion, and he hesitated. In that moment I almost relented and took it back. I had mostly been taunting him, but it looked as if he were taking my proposition seriously. I hated that hopeless, despairing look on his face, but I knew his bleeding heart would take me up on it. He’d want to be the hero and keep the casualties to a minimum. He would ask for blunted weapons. I sat on my stag and watched him, waiting to see what he would say.

Hendris looked worried and held out an imploring hand to Killian. It was obvious he’d fallen in love with my beautiful boy. Who wouldn’t? But Killian belonged to me. And I’d never let him go.

Killian looked over at Hendris and smiled, as if he were trying to comfort him, and once again the jealousy I felt almost overwhelmed me.

“Look at me, damn you! Only at me! Do you agree to my proposal or not?”

“Yes. All right,” Killian said, after a moment. “I agree to your terms. We’ll have a melee. Winner takes all.”

A gasp went up, but I nodded and held his gaze, and I was gratified to see he couldn’t look away.

“But the fight won’t be to the death,” he said. “Do you swear it? Give me your word on it.”

I shrugged. “Injuries and deaths do occur in melees. You know that. But to the extent we can, we’ll minimize the injuries with blunted weapons.”

“Do I have your word on it?”

“If my word means anything to you, then yes, you have it.”

But then, Killian asked, “What if we win the melee? Do you promise to leave and not return?”

I smirked at him. I couldn’t see any way they could ever win against me and my men. “Is that what you want?”

“Bracca, I need you to go away and never come back again. We have to separate, darling. We have to divorce, and I can never, ever see you again. It’s the only way for either of us to survive. Otherwise…”

“Otherwise, what?”

He shook his head, looking down at his feet. I was surprised at how much what he’d said had hurt. He wanted me gone, huh? He wanted me to never come back so he never had to see me again. I glared at him with something like hatred sweeping over me.

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