Page 146 of The Courting of Bristol Keats
Tyghan smiled. “Is that what I am? Well? No thanks to you.”
“Come on. It was only a little stab. I could have killed you easily. You know that. I wasn’t called the Butcher of Celwyth for nothing. I know my way around a blade—and a body. I only wanted to slow you down.”
“While you got on with your life.”
“That’s right. And I don’t regret it.”
You will, Tyghan thought.A thousand years from now, you will regret it.
“What about you, Tyghan? You must not regret it either. You’re fucking my daughter, after all.” Kierus was the master of delivery, pairing a smile with a blow meant to knock you off your feet.
Tyghan didn’t blink, returning with scathing insinuation, “Yes, I am fucking her. And I don’t regret that, either.”
Kierus’s weight shifted, his sword rising. Tyghan had found the sliver beneath his skin. He pressed a little harder. “I’m doing other things to her too. Shall I describe—”
“Leave her be, Tyghan! Do you hear me? She has nothing to do with this.”
“Too late to start acting like the protective father now, Kierus. I know what you did to her. I saw the tick. It’s grown to the size of a monster now. She’s so repulsed by it she can’t look at her own back. That’s whatyoudid to her, to save your own ass.”
“It was to protect my whole family. To keep you from hunting us down.”
“Sure, keep telling yourself that, thwart her magic at any cost. Luckily, we found her before Kormick did. She’s bloodmarked, you know? Just like her mother.”
Kierus paled.
Just like her mother.The trait was rare, usually skipping several generations, which made it impossible to track or predict.
“Don’t use her, Tyghan. Don’t do to her what Kormick did to my wife. I’m warning you—”
“Or what, Kierus? What will you do?”
His grip adjusted on his sword. His stance inched wider, but then, one by one, the other officers made their presence known, shedding their invisibility. They surrounded him from all sides, eager to use their poised weapons, cold rage sewn across their faces.
“So this is how it is?” Kierus asked. “Six powerful fae against one mortal? Do I make you that afraid, Tygh?”
“That’s right, Kierus. This is how it is. Do you know how many lost their lives searching for you, others risking their lives to save you, when you didn’t need saving at all? While all along, you were conspiring with the enemy?”
“She’s not the enemy. She’s my wife. The mother of my daughter you’re now doingthingsto. I knew you were capable of a lot, but I never thought you would stoop this low. I’m here to take my wife back home. That’s all. This time, for all of Elphame’s sake, walk away. I can right this. Please, I never wanted to hurt you. I’m asking you as a friend.”
Tyghan felt the force of the word like a sharp blow in his side. “A friend?That knife just accidentally slipped into my gut?A friend?”
“I told you—”
“It was a demon blade, Kierus! A fucking demon blade!”
Kierus’s brow furrowed, not comprehending—or refusing to. Tyghan raged with something so broken and empty he could barely see.
“We’ve got it from here, Your Majesty,” Kasta said. “You can go.”
And Tyghan did. There were so many things he still wanted to say, planned to say, but all he could do was turn and walk away. “Have your fun with him,” he told his knights as he left, “and then bring him to the palace.”
“Don’t do this, Tyghan!” Kierus yelled after him. “Don’t walk away from me! I’m warning you! Don’t do this—”
The screams continued, but Tyghan kept walking. He walked away, and he didn’t look back.
CHAPTER 101
The gallery was as quiet as a morgue in the middle of the night. It didn’t feel like a place to buy art, and Cat and Harper shuffled in, sticking close together.
