Page 83 of A Queen's Game
“Are you okay to walk by yourself? Oryck can grab Az, and I can take you to get help.” Sylas’s brows were drawn together, his voice gentler than she expected from a male who spent the day scowling and rolling his eyes.
“The infirmary isn’t far. I’ll be fine by myself,” she said, giving him a sad smile. “Just get him out of here before he does anything else.”
Sylas nodded, hesitating before entering the library. The indistinguishable yelling from the males echoed down the hallway as Elyse took off.
Even with healing, Elyse’s arms ached. The stinging from the cuts irritated her, but she refused to take medicine for the pain, even when the nurse dug through the wounds looking for shards.
Across from her was another pain. Keyain ran through the night’s events with her. Again. For the fifth time. Elyse stifled a yawn behind her hand as Keyain recited his questions. “And at no point, you felt threatened by Brynden?”
“No.”
“Even as he resisted you after you told him to leave? When you fell?”
“No, Keyain.”
“Okay. And earlier in the day, when he saw your bruise, he wasn’t forcing himself on you?”
“For the last time, no.”
“Look, Elyse, I understand that you’re upset, but we need to talk,” he said, setting his notebook and charcoal into his lap. “How many times has Gyrsh done this since the end of our betrothal?”
“Once.” Elyse left out the times he had threatened to inflict harm.
“Is that why you want to marry Brynden?” The question was a trap, one set in the middle of questions she was routinely answering at that point.
“No, but it helped make the decision easier.” That part was true enough.
“Okay, I’m going to lay out the situation from how I see it. Your father, who is abusing you again, introduced you to Brynden, a foreign lord only he knows. You meet him three times, then decide to marry him, a stranger, and move to a city-state you don’t know. Then—”
“If you’re going to patronize me, then you can just leave.”
Keyain furrowed his brows, frowning. “Just listen, please. Brynden has fought me, hit your father, and nearly launched himself at King Wyltam in the library. We know nothing of this male, save for what your father tells us, which at this point means nothing.”
“Just say what you mean.”
Keyain brushed a hand through his hair, mussing it, giving Elyse a sobering look. “King Wyltam and I talked. Brynden is banned from the palace and your betrothal is over.”
“Funny,” she drawled, picking at her nails. “I thought I ended the betrothal, but sure. Let’s give you credit.” Her heart squeezed at the thought. The decision to walk away from her only chanceto be free of Satiros was painful, and she didn’t even get the credit for deciding it.
Keyain nodded his head. “Something is off about him, Elyse. I don’t know what you saw in him but he’s completely unhinged.”
Elyse laughed dryly, shaking her head. “I would do almost anything to leave here, Keyain.” Her voice cracked with emotion.
“What do you mean?” Keyain asked, his tone softening.
“This palace, this court—it’s a prison. If I stay here, I won’t make it.” Elyse’s heart ached as she spoke the truth. “Brynden was my chance to escape, to be free.”
“You want to leave Satiros? And not just your father?”
She took a steadying breath as tears fell. “How is that news to you? How could you, the person who knows me better than anyone else, my only friend, not understand how much I hate it here?”
Keyain stared at her in silence, contemplating his words. “Perhaps you would hate it less if you made friends with the other—”
“Fuck you,” Elyse snapped, her glare cutting to Keyain. “Did you forget why I don’t talk to them? How you wanted toinvestigatewhat happened that night? I will never forgive her.” She swallowed hard. “Now that you have Marietta, I’m truly alone again.”
“Is that what this is all about? Me ending our betrothal?”
“Is that a joke? Our betrothal was never real, not when you were already married to Marietta. And I never wanted to marry you, not really.”
