Lies in Blood (Dark Secrets #4)(125)
Author: A.M. Hudson

I nodded, standing on my toes as he pressed his lips to my head. “You’re a good man, Jase.”

“No. I’m the man who destroyed my brother. I’m not good, but I love you, and I’d die for you.”

“What is the meaning of this?” David roared, thrusting both doors open at once.

We broke apart, Jason tucking me safely behind him. “It’s not her fault, David.”

“I don’t care whose fault it is. She is to come inside at once.”

“We’re just talking. She—”

“Do not test the lengths I will go to to keep you and her apart, brother. I will—”

“It’s okay.” I patted Jason’s arm, stepping out from the shadows. The moonlight moved up from the ground, over my dress and lit my face, and the anger in David slowly simmered down. “I’ll go inside now.”

“You will do no such thing.” David rushed forward and grabbed my arm. “You’re to go to bed. Now.”

“But I’m not tired.”

“I don’t care.”

I tried to twist my wrist from his grip, searching everywhere for one of my Guard. But they were all distracted—even Falcon. “You can’t make me go if I don’t want to.”

“Try me.”

“I. . .” I studied my feet. “I’ll tell Arthur.”

“And what’s he going to do about it?”

I looked David right in the eye this time, pursing my lips, then said, “Try him.”

“What’s going on here?” Falcon cut in, wrapping my hips and drawing me away from David.

But David wouldn’t let go. In one tug, he yanked me back onto his side of the line.

Falcon’s hand fell onto the sword in his own belt. “Where are you taking her?”

“To bed,” David said coldly, then motioned to the guards by the door. “See that my brother makes it back to his room, and stays there.”

“Yes, Majesty.” They bowed, and the jig was up.

“Forget it, Ara,” Jason said with a dismissive headshake. “He’s not worth it.”

I nodded. Jase was right. We could sort this mess out tomorrow. Now wasn’t the time. “It’s okay, Falcon. I’m just gonna go to bed.”

“But you haven’t even eaten yet, you’ll—”

“She can grab an apple on the way out.” David turned and dragged me along behind him, snatching a red, shiny piece of fruit from a bowl as we hurried out the doors by the fireplace, the painted Lilith looking down on me like she found it all so amusing.

“What are you smiling at?” I asked her spitefully.

***

“I don’t like having to treat you like a child, Ara,” David said, pulling me up the stairs by my wrist. “But you can’t expect me to stand by and let you fraternise with the very man who ruined your marriage.”

“He didn’t ruin it, David. I did.”

David stopped walking and looked back down at me. The music lilting out from the doors of the Great Hall just in front of us carried all the joy and excitement of those still allowed in the room. I felt cold and empty and left out from where I stood now. “It takes two to tango,” he said coldly.

“Yes, but his reasons for “dancing” in the first place weren’t the same as mine.”

His brow slowly creased in the middle and he moved down a step so our eyes aligned. “What do you mean?”

I tried to wriggle free from his grip, but it tightened. “He wanted me to carry his child.”

“Why?” he asked, his voice cracking with confusion.

“Because then he could use the Dagger and kill Drake, and I would never have had to lose you.”

His grasp on my wrist loosened, but didn’t drop. “But the law doesn’t work that way.”

“I know. But we didn’t know that at the time, and—”

“That’s what he tried to tell me—that day in Eve’s room, wasn’t it?” He stepped closer, grabbing my other wrist, the apple tucked between his pinkie and his ring finger. “Ara, that’s what he wanted to say. He—”

“He realised then that he’d made a mistake. That even if he had got me pregnant, it still wouldn’t have saved you.”

He dropped both my wrists and took a step back, turning away with the back of his hand over his mouth. “But . . . he’s in love with you.”

“Yes. That’s why he chose to die and leave me with the only man I wanted.”

He looked at me then, but the hatred was still fierce in his eyes. “And what about you? You said you that your reasons for sleeping with him were different to his. What—”

“I won’t lie.” I clutched the edges of my dress, looking down. “I’ve lied enough to you, David. And—”

“Look at me when you speak,” he said, thrusting my chin up. Our eyes met and mine filled with tears, not ready to see him break all over again.

“The truth is, I laid with him because I wanted to save you. But at some point in . . . in that time, I realised I loved him too much to lose to him. And—”

He sighed and stepped away again.

“And then, I decided that I didn’t want to love him. And I was angry at myself for feeling anything for him. I thought—”

“Just stop.” He put his hand up. “I can’t hear any more of this.”

“You need to know the truth, though, David.”

“I know the truth,” he yelled. “You love him. And that’s all there is to know.” He grabbed my arm again and spun me on the spot, leading me up the stairs faster than before. I tripped on the front of my dress, stumbling a little as my shoe slipped off my foot and fell a few steps down. David didn’t notice, though, or he didn’t care. He just dragged me along, tossing the apple he was carrying in the first plant he saw. “You’ve taken everything away from me, Ara,” he said as we reached the third floor corridor. “I have no reason to live now, and no reason to die. The Dagger is gone. My wife is gone, and I’m nothing but a king without a purpose.”

“Well, at least you’re still king,” I said spitefully.

“You think that’s all that matters to me?”

“It seems to be.” I folded my arms as we stopped by my bedroom door. “It was always your greatest dream.”

“Ara. You. Were. My. Only dream.” He laughed incredulously, looking off to one side for a second. “You just never understood that.”