Page 73 of A Kiss of Embers
He planted his feet and stared back at the man who had wreaked havoc on his life, on his family.
He released the arrow. Several gasps and screams echoed around him. The arrow whizzed through the air, flying toward Cranky Cricket faster than a blink. But instead of striking him through the eye, the tip of the arrow scratched the side of his face before embedding in the trunk of the tree behind him.
Bastien lowered his bow, even as Cranky Cricket stared back at him with wide eyes. The area hushed once again as everyone leaned in to hear him speak. “You are responsible for the death of my mother. For the maiming and death of my father. For the separation of my family. You are responsible for dozens of deaths of good people, and I’m not only speaking for myself when I say we have rolled over and let this happen. But no more. No more ceaseless bloodshed. No more lives lost.” He gestured with his bow to the path leading out of the forest. “You and your lackeys are hereby exiled from Attleglade and are never to return again, lest you seek a worse punishment to fit your crimes.”
“You can’t do this!” Cranky Cricket cried in outrage. “This ismyhome. You are the outsider, half-breed.”
The title spurred anger through his body, and he blindingly fast reached for a second arrow, took aim, and released.
The arrow shot through the air and scratched the man’s opposite cheek. Droplets of red trickled down his face.
He reached for a third arrow and aimed, but this time he didn’t release it. “I suggest you make haste and pack your things. The third arrow might not be so kind as the last two.”
The other council members scrambled away, with patrol guards acting as their shadows. Cranky Cricket stayed behind.
After a brief, disbelieving scan of their people making no move to help him, the older man asked, “Where will I go?”
“Anywhere as long as it’s nowhere near the forest.”
“But…but…winter is fast approaching.”
Bastien waved Ashryn and Sylvain closer until the three of them stared the man down. “These two will take over as Chiefs when I leave the forest myself. I think they should have a say in your sentence.”
He stepped back but made the mistake of meeting Seraphina’s gaze. Devastation lingered in the position of her parted lips, and disbelief lit in the fiery ring around her eyes. He couldn’t bear to lose her. But a concubine? Could he truly live such a life?
Ashryn’s response pulled him back to the situation at hand. “I will give you two choices. You can either stay in the forest, living as a hermit away from the village. Or you can leave the forest entirely. The choice is up to you.”
Cranky Cricket glared at all three before pointing a finger at Bastien. “Your mother was a dirty Sun Fae harlot. She deserved her fate—”
Bastien released the third arrow, and this time it struck the man in the shoulder, bringing him to his creaky knees. “Never speak of my mother again. Unless you want a fourth arrow to hit true. Now, release me from my blood oaths and be on your way.”
This time, the tyrant flicked his own blood to the ground at his feet to break the oaths, stumbled away, and paused only once to scream when a patrol guard broke the arrow in half and pulled it out of the man’s shoulder.
Bastien strung his bow around his shoulders and clapped his hands together to rid himself of a dirty job. “I’m done. That’s it. I’m out of here. You’re the chief, Ash. Don’t bungle this too badly.”
She offered him a smile and gripped his arm in hers, and he swallowed a lump in his throat when he realized they would part ways. For good. But their friendship wouldn’t end because of distance. He planned to visit often. And perhaps she might visit him, too, with her soon-to-be husband and maybe even some strapping young children.
“Take care of yourself, Bas.”
“I will.” And then he took Sylvain’s arm next.
The other man’s eyes hardened with determination the same way they had days earlier as if he wanted to prove himself. “I would like to ask permission—”
He pulled Sylvain into a headlock and playfully roughed his knuckles along his skull. “Of course, you can have Ashryn’s hand in marriage. Duh. If I declined, I would sooner find two daggers in my back faster than I can run.”
When he released him, Sylvain grinned from ear to ear as if the anxious weight on his shoulders had been lifted. “I’ll see you two soon, I hope,” Bastien said with a final wave before he marched over to Seraphina.
Ignoring everyone watching him, especially the two men still holding Seraphina between them, he cradled her face in his hands, pulled her to him, and kissed her with as much passion as he could muster despite their audience and to convey all his conflicting feelings churning inside his belly.
He broke the kiss faster than he wanted to, and not giving her a chance to speak, he whispered a breath away from her lips as he made his final decision. “If the only way I can be with you is to be your concubine, then I’ll make the sacrifice.” He gazed into her beautiful green and orange eyes. “I’ll go with you wherever you need me to go. My home is with you, wherever you are, if you will have me.” He sucked in a breath and pushed the words from his mouth before his courage fled as he nodded to the two men still holding her. “Even if I have to share you.”
The two men glanced at him, then at each other, and then they burst into laughter, one elbowing the other in the ribs. Seraphina grinned unrepentantly as if what he said was hilarious. It certainly was not. The farthest thing he wanted was to be her concubine. But he would take what he could get.
Seraphina pushed away from the two men and linked her arm with his, though her weight sagged against him as if she still hadn’t gained back all her strength. “Bastien, I know we all have black hair and look a bit similar to you. But can’t you see the family resemblance?”
His jaw dropped as the two men guffawed. “Family?”
“Yes.” She laughed. “These are two of my brothers, Eben and Jude. They’re tolerable, I suppose.” His skin prickled as she ran her hand up his arm. “I would like to speak to you privately.” She shot her brothers a look. “Come with me.”
