Page 256 of Night's Fall
“Good,”Imurmured.Thenlouder,Inoted, “IheardBainonandCormacare here.”
“They are.”
“Um…”Myattention drifted to the wall beyond, which was the princess’s bedroom.Ilooked back at him. “Thereare staff moving my clothes.”
“I’ll be busy with a number of things,” he stated. “Verybusy.Thiswill meanI’llget to bed late, wake early.Andmy sleep will be fitful whenIhave time for it.I’dlike to save you from having to deal with that.”
This was a weak excuse.
I didn’t call him on it, and that wasn’t entirely about giving him room to sort his head out.Itwas also about me being in so much pain at this decision,Icouldn’t address how weak his excuse for it was.
Instead,Iinquired, “Hassomething happened?”
“Take a seat,” he invited, likeIwas an employee standing before my boss.
I didn’t want to sit.Iwanted to stand.Theeasier to run ifIneeded to.
But considering this was far, far worse than his fractiousness had been, andIdidn’t want to irritate him to see how much more fractious he could be,Itook a seat.
He rested back in his own, studied me a moment, his expression bland, and that was yet another cut, becauseIdidn’t think he’d ever looked at me without open interest, warmth, amusement, desire, or, more recently, love, since we met.
“NurseFitzgeraldturned herself into the authorities atSheerDropthis morning,” he announced.
My torso jerked in surprise at this news.
SheerDropwas a city in theCenter.
“She’s been transported toNocturn,” he carried on. “She’snot saying anything, but instead, demanding a trade of information for leniency.”
“Oh,”Isaid stupidly becauseIdidn’t know what else to say.
“I’m against this.Ideologically,Ihave an issue with this practice across the board.Youdo something heinous, you shouldn’t get a deal to experience fewer consequences because you rat out your accomplices.Iunderstand it can be expedient, as it saves time and resources that are always stretched too thin, but committing a crime is committing a crime.Youshould pay the penalty for it.”
“Okay,”Isaid, simply because he stopped talking.
“In this instance, since her crimes were perpetrated against you,I’mexperiencing even deeper emotions around it, and have no desire in the slightest to be lenient.”
Well, at least it was good he could say, even in the monotone he was using, that his feelings for me made this difficult for him.
“However,” he continued, “we’re piecing the puzzle together, and the more pieces we have, the clearer the picture, soImight not have any choice.I’veordered them to use threats first, in the hope she’ll understandIwill use all my power to see she gets the maximum penalty, which, for high treason, since she’s the first to commit it in centuries, would be the resumption of the guillotine.”
Lord in hellfire!
I was so shocked at this, even my beast lurched at the news.
“Obviously, we won’t be doing that, but she doesn’t know it,” he concluded.
I pushed out the breathIwas holding. “You’re, uh…piecing it together?”
“WhatIsay next, you can tell no one,” he warned.
“Who wouldItell?”
“Your females.”
“I don’t tell them this kind of thing,Aleksei,”Isaid softly.
“Continue in that vein,” he ordered inflexibly.
