Chapter 44
‘Arla!’
It was the fourth time Kase had called her name since she’d arrived back at Claret Hall, slinking through its hallways as if she could keep herself hidden from the dozens of people rushing past her in the direction of the infirmary. In the direction of Noah.
Arla had done well to avoid that wing of the hall, but Kase had been wandering the hallways too – likely filling Jack in on everything that had happened – and though Arla had tried her best to stick close to the shadows of the walls and avoid the silver-haired woman, Kase’s keen eyes had spotted her.
Fine. If Kase also wanted to tell Arla how wicked and selfish she was, it was the least she deserved. Hark had already hurt her with his words, what was one more?
But when Kase caught up to Arla, there wasn’t hostility in her eyes, only solemn understanding. And, not for the first time, Arla wondered what had happened in the young woman’s past to place that look there.
‘He’s just angry. He’ll calm down soon. He knows you didn’t mean to put anyone in danger. We all do.’
Kase’s voice brought anguished tears to Arla’s eyes.
The two women had hated each other not too long ago.
But now … now Kase’s loyalty glowed like a flame in Arla’s heart.
She had been the first to show her support when Reinhart became Dragonhart, and for that Arla thought she might love the girl forever.
‘I didn’t want Sylvie to convince our people to go to war, Kase. They’ve spent their lives at the wrong end of Elrod’s blade, and they deserve peace.’
‘You did the right thing.’
Arla snorted. ‘Did I? Should I have kept it a secret? Should I have kept this from you all?’
Kase sighed, her eyes darting down the hallway in the direction of the infirmary and the shouting coming from there.
Arla did her best to block the sound out.
‘I know you kept it from us so Hark wouldn’t worry.
But that was your only mistake. We’re in this together.
We knew running a kingdom wouldn’t be easy.
We’re all here to shoulder its burdens, you know?
You aren’t King’s Assassin anymore. You don’t have to keep everything to yourself. ’
A single tear slid down Arla’s cheek, and she brushed it away quickly. What had she done to deserve this kindness when it was her fault an innocent man lay fighting for his life with an arrow in his chest? But Kase’s words … they were true.
She wasn’t King’s Assassin anymore, no matter how she longed to cling onto the title. She could admit it now, finally. How she missed that role. How she missed that life even though it had all been a lie.
But that didn’t diminish her other feelings, did it? It didn’t change the fact that Castle Grey had been home, and she felt as though it had been torn from her. And she’d never got the chance to say goodbye.
‘Thank you,’ she whispered, swallowing against the onset of more tears.
‘I just wanted it all to be okay. I thought if … I thought if Hark knew there was an army on our borders, it would force us into war and I’m not ready for that.
’ Her voice cracked, the words fighting her throat as she whispered. ‘I didn’t want us to go to war.’
Kase smiled sadly. ‘I’ll come and find you once the sun is up. Why don’t you go to sleep?’
Arla nodded, breathing deeply as she watched Kase head in the direction of the infirmary. Gods, she hoped Noah was all right. That the arrow had just missed his heart.
She climbed the steps to her rooms, silently hoping the commotion hadn’t woken Lilith and Rheia, who slept down the hall. Upon finding the bed sheets crumpled exactly as she’d left them, Arla concluded her maids must still be asleep.
She tried not to think of Hark in that bed with her only hours before. How she had fallen asleep beside him and sworn it was all she wanted to do forever.
But maybe Kase was right. Maybe he would be calmer now, and he would kiss away every worry and regret she had in not having shared the information she’d kept hidden about the Red Blades.
A soft knock on the door tore her out of those spiralling thoughts and for a silly moment she thought it might be Hark until the slight frame of Hyacinth slipped inside the room.
The princess didn’t say a word as she approached Arla, and when she wrapped her in a hug that felt so safe, Arla finally let the tears fall. Hyacinth held her steadfastly, stroking her hair and whispering that everything was okay.
When she finally had the strength to stand unsupported, Arla stepped back from her friend and smiled.
‘Sorry, it’s all a big mess,’ she choked out. ‘I hoped coming to Flambriar would be pleasant for you.’
Hyacinth laughed. ‘Kingdoms are never pleasant, Arla. I learnt that from my mother.’
The princess’s eyes held a wisdom that Arla hadn’t seen before, as if stepping into Flambriar’s mess had provided clarity for Hyacinth. ‘People look past my beauty here. Not one person has told me I’m beautiful. It’s … nice.’
‘Tell me about Sebastian. You two seem to be getting on well. You’ve only been here two days.’
Pink spread over Hyacinth’s cheeks, a girlish laugh spilling from her.
‘Well, he is kind. And handsome.’
Laughter bubbled from Arla then, proper laughter. ‘I just knew—’
A dull knocking turned both their heads to the balcony, where a falcon perched on a chair Arla had left by the doors, something gripped in its beak as it tapped the glass repeatedly.
Arla hurried over, opened one of the doors and allowed the bird to drop the object into the palm of her hand.
Her stomach sank as she turned it over.
‘Arla, what is it?’ Hyacinth asked, a cloud of peony-scented air surrounding Arla as her friend moved closer and looked at the object in Arla’s hand.
She didn’t think she could move – certainly couldn’t catch her breath as she stared at the wooden horse.
Halos.
‘What is it?’ Hyacinth asked again.
‘Please leave,’ Arla said, her body so still she might as well be dead as she tried to figure out what this meant.
None of the conclusions she came to, she liked.
‘Arla—’
‘Please, Hyacinth,’ she urged, trying to keep the bite out of her voice.
The click of the door was the only signal that the princess had left.
Arla paced for what felt like forever with that tiny wooden horse clenched tight in her fist.
Was Halos in trouble? Is that why she’d sent the horse?
What about the twins?
‘Do not give way to panic, Dragonhart. Breathe, and then we will deal with what is to come.’
Arla didn’t bother with a response. Thara could likely feel her fear anyway. Was this why Halos hadn’t been replying to Arla’s letters? Because she was in danger?
She could think of no other reason her friend would send this to her. And that dream—
‘Noah’s dead.’
Her blood stopped pumping.
Arla turned slowly, a rushing sound filling her ears that had her on the verge of collapsing. Hark stood in the doorway, his shirt splattered with crimson, his eyes tired and oddly flat.
‘What?’ she managed to say, her grip relaxing on the wooden horse so that it clattered to the floor.
Hark made a sound low in his throat, ripping his shirt off over his head and tossing it to the floor before moving to stand by the balcony doors. She could almost feel the ire radiating off him, a warning that she was treading on thin ice just by being close to him.
She stopped herself from reaching for his arm.
‘Noah is dead,’ he ground out. ‘A good man is dead because of you.’
Her chest was too tight. ‘I did it to protect us! I thought if I could make them go away before you found out then we wouldn’t have to get involved with the Red Blades and they wouldn’t spark this war. Hark, I—’
‘I don’t want to hear it.’ He whirled on her and he …
he looked dangerous. ‘You kept that from me. You kept the fact we had an army camped on our borders a secret, and you cost a man his life. You cost multiple men in our army their lives. You are entirely unpredictable and wild, and I should have known it from the very start.’
A roaring opened up in her chest, that violent thing stirring. It was all too easy to let that anger and violence consume her. All too easy to remind Hark Stappen of just who she was. Of just who he had decided to get into bed with.
She took a step towards him.
‘Was I just an idea you liked, Hark? Something to tame? To bend to your will? Well, I don’t know what pretty ideas fill your head, Stappen, but I am not good, or kind, or tameable. I am unpredictable, and I always have been. You thought that by bringing me here I would change?’
He exploded then, the chandelier rattling with the force of him.
‘Yes! I thought you would fucking change! I thought you would stop being so self-important and realise there’s more to life than you and your own agenda!’
A deep calm settled over her, siphoning away the rage that had been ready to fly from her tongue. ‘Well, if that’s how you feel, then I won’t bother you anymore.’
Tension settled thick like curdled milk over the room. Hark’s voice was loud in the silence.
‘And what the fuck is that supposed to mean?’
‘I’m going to Hadalyn.’
A barking laugh erupted from him. ‘Like hells you are.’
Thara growled through the bond as Arla spoke.
‘If you try and stop me, you will see just how wild I have become.’
‘Is that a threat?’
Steel lined her spine as she uttered the words, ‘It’s a promise.’
Hark’s face softened then. And perhaps that was worse than him shouting at her. Than him screaming at her. Than him calling her every wicked name he could conjure up.
Because in that softening, she knew something irreversible had happened.
She watched it happen in his eyes, watched him recognise it too.
He didn’t need to tell her what she already knew.
That there was no way the two of them had ever been destined to work.
Not like this. Not when they were always at war with one another.
He lifted his hand gently to brush a loose curl from her face.