Chapter 44
HARK
His brother was here.
Hark’s hearing had sharpened in the days since they had locked him in his rooms. Any sound, no matter how small, had him lunging for the door, desperate for a way out.
So the sound of his brother’s footsteps on the other side of the door reminded him of a war drum, tugging at his weary mind. He was exhausted. He had pounded these walls with bloodied fists for hours and had contemplated more than once leaping from the window.
Reinhart would have done it.
He’d seen her scale the tallest of towers with her bare hands and no safety net to catch her, and he knew she would find a way to scramble down the sheer drop had she been the one locked in this room.
‘I know you’re there, Reuben,’ Hark said gruffly, running his fingers through his hair.
He wondered often why Reuben hadn’t been formally declared his father’s heir.
The gods knew Hark didn’t want it and he could surely be passed over if Elrod wished it.
Hark wouldn’t rule with a fist of iron like his father did, and they would walk all over him for it.
At least Reuben, a natural joker, displayed a nasty temper from time to time so that everyone inside Larkire bent to his will.
‘I … I’m sorry, Hark.’
He stilled at his brother’s words, so sullen and distant. If something had happened to Arla—
‘He’s a bastard, I know. And if I had a backbone I’d march down there and demand he let you out but…’
‘But you don’t, Reuben. You never have, have you?’ Hark snapped, slamming his fist into a wall already decorated with the results of his earlier outbursts.
‘It was always you. You were always the special one, you were always fawned over, you were always given the already divided fucking attention of Father—’
‘Oh, and you think I wanted that? Fuck, Reuben, you don’t get it, do you? I don’t want the fucking throne. I don’t want the kingdom, or the castle, or any of it!’
‘Because you love her?’
His blood stopped moving.
‘What did you just say?’ The words were lethally soft.
‘You love her, you stupid prick. I saw the way you stared at her over dinner. Don’t think I didn’t realise you got yourself so thoroughly pissed beforehand because you couldn’t stomach the thought of Father going head-to-head with the girl whilst you were still fucking sober.’
His own heart pounding was the only sound filling his ears.
Reuben scoffed. ‘I thought so. You’d throw it all away for her. Shame you couldn’t have done it for me, or Mother.’
Rage boiled in Hark’s veins with a force violent enough that nothing would stand in the way of him wrapping his hands around his little brother’s neck.
‘You think I don’t hate what goes on behind these walls!
I stayed for you and Mother. I went to Hadalyn under his orders to keep you safe!
I could have gone far away. I could have left you and escaped this hell and I didn’t!
’ He was trembling now, sweat beading on his forehead as a furious, pounding anger brought an unwelcome stinging to his eyes.
‘He told me he’d hurt her if I didn’t go!
Told me he would kill our mother if I didn’t go to Hadalyn and become the fucking ambassador. I didn’t want any of it.’
There was a click so soft he barely heard it.
His brother sounded weary when he spoke, as though his very soul had left him.
‘Go get her, Hark. Just don’t forget those who never forgot you…’
His feet were moving before his brother had finished speaking.