Page 135 of My Noble Disgrace

“Father!” I shouted, running onto the deck and down to him.

But before I could reach his side, he fell back over the edge of the boat and landed in the clear blue water with a sickening splash.

I leaned over the side of the boat to see blood swirling from the hole in his heart, the underwater lights illuminating it into a bright poppy red.

He stared back up at me as I reached down to him with my cuffed hands, but he didn’t reach back. He didn’t move at all.

I was ready to jump in after him when someone grabbed me from behind, pulling me back.

“No! Let go!” I shouted, fighting back while my father sank to a grave I couldn’t keep him from, the remote he’d taken from Cael sinking with him.

“You’re handcuffed!” said Graham as he kept me from jumping. “You can’t go after him!”

I struggled to get away, but he held me back with a strength I didn’t know he had.

I looked over my shoulder.

Cael still stood on the rocky ground, looking blankly at the gun in his hands as if in a daze.

I hated him with a rage I’d never felt before. He’d been cruel a thousand times, butthiswas beyond anything I thought he could do.

I stopped struggling long enough for Graham to loosen his grip.

When he did, I reached down and pulled the golden metal quill from my boot and flung it toward Cael like a knife.

My aim was perfect and the quill was sharp. It spun through the air in a straight line, heading straight for Cael’s throat.

But just before it found its mark, he ducked to the side.

The point of the quill landed in his shoulder.

He let out a howl of fury and reached up to rip the quill from his skin, the tip of it glistening with blood.

He lifted the gun back up. This time, he pointed it at me.

“Don’t!” said Graham, stepping between us.

“Move aside,” said Cael. His voice trembled, but he kept the gun up.

“Spare her,” said Graham, his voice desperate, “and I’ll do anything you want. I’ll swear my loyalty until my dying day.”

“Your loyalty gives me nothing. You’ll never be king—” He clutched at his stomach and doubled over, vomiting onto the ground. When he finished, he looked down at the deep pool where my father had fallen, his expression softening almost imperceptibly.

Suddenly, he stepped onto the boat and grabbed me by the cuffed hands, shoving me to the deck. “I’ll let you live, in case you ever have the chance to be useful to me again—but nothere.” His voice broke at the end of the sentence as ifI’dbeen the one to kill my father, as if I were the monster.

I got on my knees and peered over the edge of the boat into the water one last time, but I couldn’t see my father anymore.

My ears heard the gunshot. My eyes saw him fall. But my heart was far from accepting the truth that my father was dead.

“Sit down.” Cael pointed the gun at Graham. “I want you both out of my city.”

Chapter

Thirty-Eight

Cael cuffedme to the boat’s metal cleats, then did the same to Graham on the opposite side of the boat, securing us so we could no longer fight back.

I didn’t know if I physically could, even if I wasn’t restrained. I started to tremble, and it became a struggle just to take a breath. I soon grew numb, wondering if all of this was a nightmare. Reality retreated from my grasp and my body no longer felt like my own.

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