Page 55 of Mastering their Maiden

But it was Zander who held my gaze when they moved off. He smirked when he let go of my jaw and pulled a bow off his back.

Then dropped it at my feet.

He gave me a knowing look before jogging off, not waiting to see if I’d reach down to pick it up. Because of course I would. The last time the Skepna had come, I’d cowered in a building, clinging to my sister as though she’d be able to save us if they tore off the door to find us there.

Never again. I would never be that girl again. And Zander knew that.

They all did.

They hadn’t wanted me to leave them, and I had. Now there was a good chance they could be taken from me.

But not tonight. And not by these beasts. Not when I could save them just as they had come to save me.

CHAPTER 20

Kaiden

Thirty.

That’s what Dex and Zander said. They’d counted at least thirty before they had to stop.

My squadron stood in a tight circle, all eyes on me while I gave directives and assigned posts. Two men at the gate, two armed with bows to all four towers. Five to the barracks where the women and children would be hiding, three around the other barracks where I kept Ryne’s men imprisoned. That left me with seven men counting Zander, Dex, Umber, and myself. Seven men on the front lines against thirty Skepna. Well-trained men. Ferocious men.

Outnumbered men.

“We need to let Ryne’s soldiers out,” Makan insisted when I’d finished assigning posts. “They can fight with us. We need as many swords as we can muster to protect—”

“We have no guarantees—none—that they will not turn on us,” I snapped, refusing to bend on this. Aria would call me an idiotic fool and I would deserve it more than I did already.

“How do you expect us to guard them and guard the villagers?” Makan pressed, and I could see that Kaze and Ellis agreed. I knew deep down they were right, but thanks to years of sitting in on scheming meetings with Ryne, I also knew how loyal some of those men were to their king. Proximity to power was still power, and Ryne knew exactly how to play on the fears of his soldiers to keep them under his spell.

“Kaiden.”

Umber’s voice came from behind me, and I turned to find him staring at me, expression solemn, before his eyes flicked to the barracks then back to mine. “We can’t just leave them tied up.”

My gut twisted, but I pointed angrily in the direction of the building. “They could attack us alongside the Skepna, or tuck tail and run back to Ryne. We have barely enough men to—”

“There are enough men in Ryne’s ranks to make things even. Most of the soldiers want to turn on him,” Kaze said. “Even before they learned Quade and Klev are returning and going to fight, they wanted to turn on Ryne.”

Makan nodded in agreement. “And after the way Rober acted about our—Summer’s boy,” I caught the look he gave Ellis at the mention of their woman’s child, “he hasn’t been able to keep them in line. They’re just waiting for you to ask. They’ll fight with us, Kaiden. I know it.”

I gave them both dubious looks, and turned my head toward where Aria was urging people out of the market and toward the women’s barracks. The Elders were walking around, spouting lies about her overreacting. Trying to cause a scene. Spreading lies.

But the people trusted her, so they listened.

I looked back to see my soldiers were also watching her, though Makan’s eyes were fixed on the woman walking beside Aria, her little boy wrapped in a carrier on her back. His gaze was protective. Fiercely so. It matched the ones on Kaze and Ellis’ faces.

I knew that expression. It was the same one on Zander’s face when he looked at Aria. The same one on Dex’s and Umber’s. The same look on my face when I gazed at her.

The three of them—Kaze, Ellis, and especially Makan—were proof that Ryne’s conditioning could be broken. They’d fallen in with each other, and the puzzle piece that brought them together was a woman. A woman who strengthened their bond. A woman whose submission and loyalty helped them break free of their own subjugation.

Those men in the barracks had never seen, let alone experienced, a bond like that. One made of loyalty, devotion, and passion. It was what all Kavari longed for deep inside. What our goddess had meant for us when she and the other gods brought us to this plane. What Ryne denied them time and time again.

They never would experience that joy if I let them die tonight.

“Gods be damned,” I snarled, gesturing toward Ellis. “You, come with me.”

Ellis followed when I stalked off toward the barracks. My fists clenched, and fiery anger surged through my veins, threatening to burn all logic in its wake. We needed them, I knew that. They could be freed from Ryne’s corruptive hold; I knew that as well.

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