Page 50 of A Kingdom of Fire and Fury
He looked awful. He’d always been rail thin, boney, and fragile looking, but now… now his skin looked waxy and paper thin. Bruises marred his exposed skin, and dried blood dotted his temple. His eyes found mine. There was so much sadness and even worse… understanding. Terrible understanding and kindness. A kindness I didn’t deserve.
My breath quickened. Nausea hit me fast, and my legs quivered.He’s been tortured for three days. And Gareth’s been patching him up so he could endure more.
Bile rose up my throat. I bit my tongue so it wouldn’t escape. William always helped everyone when he could. From buying people an apple here or there, giving them water… or just pointing toward someone who might be hiring. The man struggled to feed himself and yet… and yet he always had room in his heart to care for others.
There’s no way he’s behind this. There’s no way.
I hadn’t realized I had tried to step forward until a hand grabbed my wrist in a bruising grip. “Don’t,” Nimue hissed. There was no amusement in her tone, no softness, only steel and a hint of fear. “Don’t take another step.”
“He’s innocent.” My mouth tasted like ash. “He didn’t do this.”
William couldn’t hurt a fly, let alone another person. And if he were to, it’d never be against anotherstreet rat. When we could, we looked out for our own. “He wouldn't do this.” My voice raised ever so slightly, still a whisper, but enough to where the rest of the dragonsguard looked at me. I ignored Kieran’s warning look. “This is bullshit.” No wonder everyone kept me in the dark. There was no way they bought this shit.
Kieran’s jaw flexed. “He has conspired against the kingdom.”
I saw red. “He didn’t do that, and you know it.” I looked at Nimue, at her hand still gripping my wrist. “We have to do something.”
“We can’t,” Nimue whispered, her grip sending a shockwave of pain down my bones. “He’s the only one we were able to trace back to you, and multiple people named him. Selena, we have to do this. It’ll set the public at ease. They’ll know we won’t tolerate any slight against you or the dragonsguard.”
“So what, we’re just going to execute him for the crime of talking to me? And you’re all okay with this?”
“Of course we’re not,” Ben said in a low voice. “But we needed a fall guy.”
“You could have picked someone else. Someone that actually did something awful. How could you harm that man?” I stiffened when a cool, shadowy tendril crawled up my shirt and circled my neck. It squeezed and stole my breath for the briefest of seconds. I jerked my head to Kieran, but his expression remained blank. The warning was clear.Act out and die.
I knew he wasn’t as noble as he said he was. If this was what it meant to serve the greater good, I wantedno part in it. “You all are murderers,” I hissed. “This isn’t—”
Hesperos roared. The flames exploded over the pavilion, consuming William in an instant and leaving behind only cuffs. A numbness settled over me.This isn’t right, and they know it.Time blurred. My mind settled off in the distance as I mounted Umara. She stopped before the cave entrance, not even moving once I dismounted.
“It’s that sort of day, huh?” I rubbed her thigh. “You don’t have to go in there if you don’t want to.”
She chuffed, leaning down to nuzzle my cheek before launching herself into the air. I walked down to the caves where the others were dismounting their dragons. The buzzing sound in my ears grew louder. William spent the last decade of his life—possibly even longer—helpingeveryonewho needed help. And what did it get him? Tortured, branded a traitor, and burned to death.
I bit my tongue when we walked through the secret passageways, but I dragged behind the rest. All of them were silent, but I had a feeling it was more because of my reaction. The thought of it made my blood boil. All of them were just as guilty, just as culpable. Kieran might have pulled the trigger, but they all had participated in his torture.
As soon as I stepped inside our quarters, I exploded. “You’re a monster.” I narrowed my eyes at Kieran. “And a coward. You knew he wasn’t the one who did this. He's an old man.”
“Was,” Aurelia corrected.
Fuck all reason, all restraint. I lunged forward, raising my fist. But I didn’t even get to take a step before a shadow snatched my wrist and yanked me back. I snarled. “Stop doing that!” I tugged my wrist away from the shadows, surprised when he actually let me pull away from the binds.
“We did what we had to do.” Gareth tugged at the edges of his gloves, a haunted look in his eyes.
Bullshit.If he really felt bad, he wouldn’t have done it. “I don’t care. You call yourself protectors, and yet you dothatto someone. He didn’t deserve that. He was the kindest person I’ve ever met, and you burned him to death. Youtorturedhim—an old man who didnothingwrong.”
“Yet again, you prove why you can’t be trusted with anything,” Kieran taunted in that low voice of his. “You only know how to act with your emotions.”
“Well, at least I have them.” I balled my hands into fists and ignored the tingling in my wrist from where his shadow had touched me. “You’ve been working with Luther for so long you forgot what it's like to do the right thing. No protector would do that. I don’t know why I let myself think you could be anything more than Kieran the Executioner. Someone who cares for the commoners wouldn’t execute an innocent man.”
“The public didn’t know he was innocent. They only knew that two men attacked you.” Ben frowned. “Both of them were seen talking to William. He was the most obvious choice to put the public at ease. We have a reputation to uphold—an attack against thedragonsguardcannotstand.”
My eyes burned. The one man that had ever shown me kindness was dead. All of his kindness, all of his pointless little offers of assistance, I’d always brushed it off. But it meant something. He helped when he had nothing. And his kindness backfired on him. “You should focus on finding who’s actually behind it instead of slaughtering innocent people. You’re all so fucking incompetent.”
“Watch your tone.” Kieran’s eyes flashed. “You don’t know what you’re talking about, and if you keep reacting like this then you never will. If we can’t trust you to control your emotions like any ten year old can, then you’ll never be a true dragonsguard.”
“Maybe I don’t want to be.” I couldn’t stop shaking, but I never felt surer than I did in this moment. I slapped Nimue’s hand when she tried to touch my arm. “If you do things like this, then I don’t want to be.”
Kieran stilled. “Go cool off. Now.”
