Page 150 of The Courting of Bristol Keats
Sashka reached out and held her hand. “But it doesn’t change anything between us. We’re still a team.” The others mumbled agreement.
“Do the officers and king know that you know?” Avery asked.
Bristol shook her head. “Not yet. But they’re about to.”
CHAPTER 103
Eris sat at the council table with Dahlia and Tyghan, afternoon light filtering through the high cupola windows. He eyed the king, slouched in his seat, too silent for his liking. Tyghan had stopped asking,Where are they?lost in his thoughts again, his thumb absently stroking the arm of his chair. He had already told them what had happened, sharing details that he normally never would, like the sound of Kierus’s screams as he left the barn. The emotion Eris had seen twisting Tyghan’s face just minutes earlier had retreated, leaving only a hard mask. It tore Eris in two, seeing him this way, wanting to give him more than the guidance of a royal counselor. He wanted to hold Tyghan, comfort him, but their relationship had never been like that.
Tyghan’s thumb continued to stroke the wood of the chair like he was trying to erase something—a regret, a memory, a demon? He had never walked away from a prisoner before, but then, no prisoner had ever been a Danu knight. And never his best friend. Never a prisoner who had betrayed him so deeply. He had gone into that barn expecting finality, closure—maybe vengeance. Instead, he’d been gutted all over again.
It was only a little stab.
Perhaps those words had cut him the deepest.Only.Tyghan would have given his life to save Kierus. He nearly had many times. His voice was almost a whisper when he had repeated the words to Eris and Dahlia. They beaded on his lips like fresh blood.
The light inside the rotunda grew dimmer, the enormous expanse of the council table transforming to a black hole that swallowed their thoughts. Dahlia lifted her hand toward the torches on the wall, her long fingers flicking her whispered words to bring them to life. It didn’t lighten the somberness of the room. There was no satisfaction in this completed goal. No victory. It couldn’t erase the damage already done.
Just as Eris was about to ask,Where are they?heavy boots echoed in the portico and the door latch rattled.
Tyghan’s eyes froze on the door as it swung open and the knights filed in, first Dalagorn, then Melizan and Cosette, and finally Quin and Kasta.
There was no sign of Kierus.
Tyghan rose to his feet. “Where is he?”
Kasta glanced at Quin, then back to Tyghan, a scowl creasing her brow. She shook her head and stated simply, “He got away.”
Tyghan was silent for a moment, his lips parted with disbelief, but then he roared to life. “What do you mean,got away? He escaped? Is that what you’re telling me? How could he get pastfiveknights?”
“There was a shadow,” Quin said. “It came out of nowhere. And then he was gone.”
“I think it was a nightjump,” Cosette said.
“He’s a fucking mortal!” Tyghan yelled. “Even you can’t nightjump!”
“It happened!” Melizan snapped. “Don’t blame the messenger. We had him surrounded, and there was a dark flash ofsomething, like a cloak, and he was gone. Just like that.”
Kasta’s eyes glowed with fire. “We think someone took him the way Kormick took Bristol that night. Someone who wanted to help him.”
Tyghan paced, trying to comprehend how such a thing could happen. Arguments erupted over who it could have been. Trows were Kierus’s obvious allies, but they weren’t able to nightjump, and Kormick definitely would not help him. Tyghan raked his fingers through his hair, still pacing the rotunda. “I should have brought him back myself.”
“You can’t stop a nightjump any more than the rest of us can,” Dalagorn barked, heaving his hulk into a chair. It groaned under his weight. The others grabbed chairs from the outer walls of the rotunda and dragged them to the table.
Their frustration unleashed as they explained what happened, their accounts and curses overlapping.
“The barn.”
“The meadow.”
“Son of a bitch!”
“The nearby woods, too.”
“He had help.”
“We looked everywhere.”
“That traitorous motherfucker.”
