Page 187 of Heart of the High King
Chapter 70
“Idon’t suppose you’re going to change your mind about this?” Aleksander asked.
Rafe smiled and squeezed his hand. “Nope.”
“Mortis bite.”
“You want to stay out in the hall?” Rafe asked his wolf. They walked toward a room in the prison normally reserved for family gatherings. While there were going to be many different people in there and the one next to it as the afternoon wore on that were related to D’Vaires, it was not a happy occasion.
“Mortis be good.”
“You’re a sentinel. Act like it,” Rafe told him.
“Is everyone going in?” Brogan asked.
“I can’t. I will wind up arrested myself,” Worth remarked.
“Somerly and I will stay out here for now too,” Dre’Kariston added.
“I don’t care what any of you think; you’re all my children, so I’m damn well going in,” Saura stated with a glare.
Lex D’Vairedraconis laughed. “I’ll stay out here with Somerly. I’ve nothing to say to these asshats.”
“Kendrick, did you want to go in or stay here in the hall?” Noirin asked.
“This is the last time I’ll get to see them, so I think I’ll go in.”
Rafe was surprised he was able to get the words out without yelling. Never believing the extent of what happened to him, Kendrick likely blamed him for the death sentence leveled on Charlton and Sullivan.
“Dray and I can wait out here, too,” Killian said.
“Bridger and Hadley, if you would stay here to help protect our family, Gedeon and I will accompany Aleksander and Rafe,” Gavrael stated.
The two sentinels nodded, and Aleksander pulled an unresisting Rafe into his arms. His big hands swept over Rafe’s back, and he absorbed the comfort of the first person to genuinely love him. As he’d reconciled his family, he’d come to realize that Molly hadn’t cared either, otherwise she couldn’t have so easily cast aside his friendship.
“Love you,” Rafe murmured, though he hated saying the words in front of Kendrick since he was a judgmental ass.
Aleksander framed his face in his hands and kissed him. “I love you too.”
“Whenever you’re ready,” Dra’Kaedan said when Rafe stepped out of Aleksander’s embrace.
Closing his eyes for a moment, Rafe found the unbreakable part of himself that had survived the impossible. Lacing his fingers with Aleksander’s, he strode inside after Brogan pushed the door open. Two men with hard gazes sat there in dark jumpsuits.
“Kendrick, how are you, boy?” Charlton asked. “Introduce me to that beautiful woman at your side.”
“Seneschal Duchess Noirin D’Vairedraconis, this is my father, Charlton.”
“King Charlton.”
“You were stripped of your title,” Gavrael stated succinctly. “Criminals do not honor Fate.”
“Well, Rafferty, are you done toying with us?” Sullivan asked. “Or are you still pissed at us and want to blame us for whoever hurt you? You were my best friend, and sure I might’ve picked on you occasionally, but you’re taking this too far.”
“As you know by now, the Order of the Fallen Knights wanted more than my word, and Juris Knight Mitchell Brooks is incapable of dishonor. He’s the one who gave you a death sentence. Nollan and Neil told the fallen knights everything. The men I called my brothers, though they aren’t at all, led them to the cave. You were sloppy, and there was evidence left behind. I can’t say that I’m surprised; the two of you have shit for brains and never did bother picking up after yourselves,” Rafe said. His words were calm, but his heart was racing. It wasn’t fear—it was adrenaline telling him these were hateful men and he should get away as fast as he could.
Sullivan shook his head. “You accuse me of having shit for brains, but you never figured out they were my kids.”
“No, I didn’t,” Rafe replied. “But I didn’t know you were raping the servants, and that’s how a fifteen-year-old girl wound up pregnant, then died bringing her sons into this world. And I’m not the stupid ass that bragged about that to my own twins because I was furious they didn’t want to go to Court Ethelin with you. It doesn’t take much of a leap to figure out that the girl Charlton married off to King Varius’s son was yours as well.”
