The King (Black Dagger Brotherhood #12)(109)
Author: J.R. Ward

But he did manage to free it.

Letting the cleric fall back down to the earth, he clamped a hold on the male’s throat and began to squeeze.

“My lord…” The cleric started to struggle, clawing at Wrath’s wrist. “My lord, no! You vowed—”

Wrath lifted his arm high—

And realized he’d blocked a clear shot at the heart, the jugular, and the major organs with his hold.

“My loooooooooord—”

“This is for mine blood!”

He thrust all of his strength into the downward arc—and was meeting the horrified stare of the cleric as the razor point of the dagger pierced the male’s right eye and proceeded apace into the brain behind it, stopping only when the entirety of the blade was embedded within that skull.

The body beneath his own went into immediate spasms, arms and legs thrashing, the remaining eye rolling back so that only the white showed.

And then all went still except for some minor twitching of the facial muscles and the hands.

Wrath slumped, falling off the now-dead body.

As he regarded the sight of that dagger protruding from a male’s face, he was o’ercome with nausea and had to wrench around, brace his palms on the cool dirt, and vomit until his arms could no longer hold him up.

Rolling to the side, he laid his hot face on the inside of his muck-soaked arm.

He did not cry.

He wanted to.

As the realization that he had killed another being hit him, he desired to go back to the world he knew before this—where his father had died of natural causes, and his shellan had simply had a dizzy spell because of a pregnancy—and the worst thing he had to worry about in court was that others gossiped over his choice of mate.

This new version of reality was nothing he wanted to be a part of.

There was no light on this side. Just midnight black.

“I have never killed someone before,” he said in a small voice.

For all his fierceness, Tohrture’s tone was gentle. “I know, my lord. You did well.”

“I did not.”

“Is he not dead?”

Yes, indeed he was. “I meant what I said about his shellan and son. They shall be spared.”

“Of course.”

As the listing of names ran through his head, that urge to kill rekindled, even as his stomach was barely settling—and his efforts were a mockery compared to what the Brotherhood could do.

And indeed, he would not be alive the now if Tohrture had not stepped in.

Wrath pushed himself off the dirt, his head hanging low. How was he going to—

A large palm presented itself before him. “My lord, allow me to help you.”

Wrath looked up into those bright, clear eyes—and thought that they were like the moon, shedding light upon the darkness, showing a path out of the wild.

“We shall train you,” Tohrture said. “We shall teach you what you need to know such that you may ahvenge your bloodline. I shall remove that body and stage it as if an accident befell him—that will give us the time we need. And from now on, food shall be prepared in your receiving quarters by our own personal doggen, not anyone affiliated with the court—and any and all victuals shall be brought in from the fields and sky by a Brother’s own hands. We shall each eat and drink of it in your presence before you do, and sleep outside your rooms. This is our solemn vow.”

For a moment, all Wrath could do was stare at that palm, outstretched unto him like a benediction from the Scribe Virgin Herself.

He opened his mouth to offer thanks, but there was naught that came out.

By way of reply, he clasped that which was before him … and felt himself lifted up to stand squarely upon his own two feet.

FORTY-THREE

Fresh air was good for the mind and the soul.

As Layla strode out into the garden, she was careful across the ice-covered terrace, splaying her arms out, going slowly: She didn’t want to run the risk of falling.

Funny how her assessment of everything from potentially slick surfaces to stairs to selecting food had intensified.

“Off into the night,” she said to the young within her belly.

It was, of course, crazy to speak to that which had yet to be born. But she had some thought that if she could only keep the dialogue open, mayhap the young would continue to choose to stay around. If she could just eat the right things and not fall and get her rest … somehow, at the end of however many months, she could hold her son or daughter in her arms, and not just in her body.

Walking down onto the snow-covered lawn and away from the glow of the house, she found the boots she had snagged from the back hall to be warm, solid and comfy. The same was true of the parka and the gloves. She’d left the hats and scarves behind; she’d wanted the chill to clear her head.

Farther along the grounds, the swimming pool was sporting its winter cover, but she imagined it full of water lit from underneath, the azure waves inviting and soft upon the skin and joints. She was going to swim as soon as she could—and outdoors. Much as she appreciated the pool that was in the training center, the air there smelled of chlorine, and after having been used to the crystal clear, naturally fresh baths above in the Sanctuary, she didn’t favor …

Abruptly, she stopped walking. Stopped with the distracted thinking. Stopped everything except the draw in her lungs and the beat of her heart.

Closing her eyes, she replayed what had happened in the dining room, seeing the anguish on Wrath’s face as the announcement was made, hearing the indignation and aggression in the Brotherhood’s voices, watching how Rehv kept staring at the King as if he were reading things she could not sense.

Xcor was behind it all.

He had to be. One did not go from orchestrating an assassination attempt to sitting back idly whilst the glymera gained procedurally what one wanted. No, he was lurking behind the scenes. Somewhere.

Stomach churning, she resumed her restless promenade, heading past the pool area and into the geometrically constructed formal gardens. And she kept going on their far side as well, linking up with the twenty-foot-tall retaining wall that ran all the way around the compound.

Continuing ever onward, her ears were numb. So was her nose. She didn’t care.

Images of Beth appearing in the archway of the dining room and Wrath looking down the vast table at her warred with a far more traitorous and just as tragic montage of …

That which she refused to think of.

Or at least tried not to.

Had she really allowed Xcor into that car? Had he really sat next to her, unarmed, his menagerie of weapons left on the hood of the Mercedes … and talked to her? Held her hand?