Page 142 of The Courting of Bristol Keats
Did she even want his answers? He abandoned them, but he loved them? None of it made sense.He faked his death.She was trapped in a mathematical conundrum, a place where two and two no longer equaled four, an Escher drawing where stairways led you in circles. There was no way out. No logic.
He stared at her. Hurting. Desperate. That much was not fake.
She reluctantly nodded and righted a toppled milking stool and sat down to listen.
He leaned forward, his elbows resting on his thighs, his hands weaving together in front of him. “I didn’t want to leave you all that way,” he explained. “It tore me apart, I swear, but my death had to be believable. It was the only way to keep you safe. Your grief had to be believable, or it would put you all in danger. And honestly, I wasn’t sure I would ever make it back. I was going after your mother. I had to—”
Bristol dug her fingers into her scalp, despair and frustration gripping her again. “Mother is dead,” she moaned. “Why can’t you accept that? She deserted us, and she’s dead. How many times do I have to say it? You identified the body yourself.”
An unexpected laugh jumped from his throat, and Bristol wondered if he had truly gone mad. That would explain the shadows beneath his eyes and his belief that he’d had to chase after his dead wife. Was he still stuck in some grief-twisted world? But then just as quickly, his mirth turned sharp, her cunning father returned, a different kind of amusement in his eyes.
“He didn’t tell you about us. Who she was, or who I was, did he?”
“He?”
“The prince of Danu. Tyghan.”
“You mean the king.”
“Now he is. He wasn’t then.”
Her skin prickled. “You know him?”
He nodded. “Better than most.”
“But he’s only twenty-six, and you’ve been—”
Jasmine’s voice slammed into her.Time in Faerie can pass quite differently in the mortal world.The words hit her with new clarity, making twisted stairways suddenly make sense.
“I left six, maybe seven months ago,” he said, “when I was twenty-five. At least here, it’s only been that long. In our world, I’ve been gone a lifetime. I wasn’t running from trows all those years. I was running from Tyghan. He sent an army of hunters to track me down.”
Bristol’s mouth went dry. She knew what he was going to say next,howhe knew Tyghan, but she didn’t want to hear it. Her mind was already trying to back away from his next words, but it was too late. He spoke her worst nightmare.
“At one time, we were like brothers,” he said. “Tyghan was my best friend.”
CHAPTER 98
Kasta and the other officers gave Tyghan a long second glance.
He was as cold and methodical as a timepiece, his movements precise and unforgiving.
He had changed these past months, like he was trying to find a new version of himself. Kasta thought this version suited him. Sharp. Sure. Vengeful. A Knight Commander.
“Now?” Kasta mouthed.
He only replied with a single nod and pressed a finger to his lips.Quiet.He went invisible then, and they all followed his lead, leaving the cover of the forest and spreading out around the barn to their assigned places until it was surrounded.
Tyghan had already set the orders. Wait for someone to emerge. No one said it, but it was understood—none of them were certain which side Bristol was playing on anymore. A secret rendezvous with her traitorous father planted doubt in all of them. All contingencies were covered. Tyghan left nothing to chance. He said if Bristol emerged with her father they were to grab her before her father could.
You really think he would harm his own daughter?Cully had asked.
Tyghan only answered with a cold, dead stare. Cully understood the message. Look what Kierus had done to his best friend. He was capable of anything.
If Bristol should come out alone, they were to stay put and invisible until she left and was out of sight—then move in. He didn’t want Bristol to know they had followed her to the valley or laid a trap for her father. Cully would follow her to make sure she went straight back to the palace. Once the others moved in on Kierus, they were to kill anyone with him, but under no circumstance were they to kill Kierus. He wouldn’t get off that easy.
Kasta was glad for it. Like Tyghan, she had loved Kierus, too. She had believed him,in him, but she paid a hefty price for that belief. She wanted Kierus to pay a price now, too. A price that would never let him rest.
Before he took his position, Tyghan walked over to August, who was nibbling on the low branch of a hawthorn tree. August startled, sensing Tyghan’s approach even if he couldn’t see him. “You useless bag of dog bones,” Tyghan whispered close to his silky muzzle. “You betray me for an apple?” August replied with a guilty snort. “You will take her straight back to the palace, no matter what she tells you. Do you understand?”
