Chapter Fifteen #4
“Zahid, Addax,” she whispered, interrupting him. “You will always have everything of me. But you must go, and you must leave me behind.”
“You ask too much.”
“I know. But it is all we can do.”
Addax felt as if he’d been hit in the chest. He audibly exhaled as if there had been an actual blow.
Emmeline watched his face for a moment, holding back the explosive grief she was feeling, but knowing it was the right thing to do.
Addax had to save himself. After attacking Maximilian, there was nothing else he could do.
“Essien?” Emmeline called. “Please come to me.”
Essien, who had been watching the situation from afar, quickly made his way up the stairs.
He stood a step below Emmeline and Addax, watching the two of them, seeing the naked agony in his brother’s face, and he knew why.
He’d always known. Addax was in love with Emmeline, and that love had overtaken him. He could no longer hide it.
Emmeline, this time, was the strong one.
“Essien, you must take your brother and get out of here,” she said quietly. “Gather your things and go now. Go back to the tournament circuit, and do not let your brother come back here. If he does, they will ruin him. And that must not happen.”
Essien could see that she meant it. Every word of it.
But Addax was about to crumble before his eyes.
The strongest man he’d ever known was having the weakest moment of his life.
But the lady was right—he had to leave before Bretherdale and Maximilian did something terrible to him, and Essien appreciated that the lady was trying to save him.
Even in her injured state, she was only thinking of Addax. But God… It was painful to watch.
After a moment, Essien nodded.
“We will go,” he said quietly, reaching out to peel his brother off Emmeline. “Ad, let her go. We must leave.”
Addax refused. He had her good hand, and he also had an arm around her waist, supporting her, but he wouldn’t let go.
“Oh, God,” he breathed. “I am not sure I can.”
Emmeline pried his fingers off her hand and tried to step back, weak as she was. “Addax, let go of me,” she said. “Please. I must go back to bed.”
That caused her to loosen his grip, and she staggered back so the cook could catch her.
Old Elza had her tightly, tears in her eyes because she’d heard what had been said.
The physic, however, hadn’t heard anything because he’d been further away, but he stepped forward to take Emmeline.
As the cook and the physic turned her toward the stairs that led up to her chamber, Addax spoke softly.
“Zahid, Emmeline,” he said. “For always.”
Emmeline couldn’t hide the tears. As the cook and the physic helped her take one stair at a time, Essien pulled Addax down the flight of stairs with him.
“Come,” Essien said. “We must go.”
Addax nodded dumbly, but he also gestured back toward the mural stairs. “My things are in my chamber,” he said weakly. “I must go get them.”
“Nay,” Essien said. “Go prepare your horse. I will get your things.”
“I can get them.”
“That was not a suggestion. Go prepare your horse.”
It was Essien giving the commands for a change, because Addax was incapable of thinking clearly.
After a moment’s hesitation, Addax headed out of the keep, into the night beyond.
Essien watched him go, making sure he wouldn’t try to double back.
When Addax was far enough away, Essien turned to Claudius and Maximilian.
“I am taking him out tonight,” he said quietly. “He will not come back.”
Claudius was quivering with fear, with rage. “See that he does not,” he said. “But he may yet feel my wrath for what he has done.”
Essien fixed on the earl. “If I were you, I would not start any trouble,” he said.
“Addax has the backing of de Velt and de Lohr. One word from him and they will march on Raisbeck and Alston and raze them both. If you do not wish to lose everything you have, then take heed—keep your lips shut and ensure that Lady Emmeline remains safe and sound for the rest of her life, for any word that she has been injured again, or worse, and there is nothing I can do to hold my brother back. He will come back, and he will kill you both. Is this in any way unclear?”
It was a heavy threat, but one that Claudius believed implicitly. There was no way he could defend himself against de Velt or de Lohr, and they both knew it. Therefore, there would be no retaliation for what Addax had done to Maximilian.
They were fortunate it hadn’t been worse.
With a brief nod, Claudius turned his attention back to Maximilian, who was in a bad way.
But Essien didn’t care. He headed back up to his brother’s chamber, gathering all of his things, before returning to the stable where Addax was already on his horse, mounted.
He was just sitting there, waiting. Waiting to start the rest of his life without the woman he’d been foolish enough to fall in love with.
Something went out of Addax al-Kort that night.
Something he would never find again.