Chapter 47
HARK
Kase’s knuckles colliding with the side of his jaw had sent his head fucking spinning, which for such a slight woman was surprising.
He deserved it, of course. He’d been an insufferable prick. But, gods, Arla had been so stupid, and he hadn’t been able to see straight when he’d found out she’d kept the secret of the Red Blades from him. And when he’d watched Noah bleed to death in the fucking living room.
Perhaps locking her away had been the wrong decision, but what she’d said, that she was going to leave and go to Hadalyn…
Well, no matter how angry he was with her, he couldn’t stomach the thought of her leaving.
Not that locking her up had helped.
‘Are you listening?’ Kase snapped in his ear. He turned slowly towards her, dragging his eyes from the direction of the mountains where the other half of his heart had apparently flown off to.
Her balcony doors were still open and rattling in the wind.
‘HARK!’ Another crack to the side of his head, softer this time but powerful enough to capture his attention. Kase glared at him with enough ire to go to war with the gods.
‘What?’ he demanded angrily, raking a hand through his hair.
It was all a fucking mess.
‘I said we need to make a plan. Arla’s gone to Hadalyn, but she’ll be back, you know she will.’
‘AND WHAT IF SHE DOESN’T COME BACK?’ he roared as the words that had been swirling round his head for the past hour finally burst free.
What if she didn’t come back…
He didn’t think he knew how to exist without her anymore. He’d gone fucking insane without her whilst she was in Malarye. The thought of her never coming back…
‘Hark.’ Seb stepped forwards, a solemn look on his usually jovial features.
‘I know you regret what happened – we all do. But standing out here wishing she would come back doesn’t help anything.
We need to calm the people. They know something went on last night and them being scared doesn’t help things here. ’
‘He’s right,’ Jaz said, stepping out of the shadows of the hall and into the morning sun.
Hark hadn’t expected Jaz to be down here, not when he’d spent every waking minute in the library trying to find out what it was Arla was supposed to be doing to end this punishment the gods had delivered to the land.
Hark knew he needed to assuage the fears of his people and yet … he couldn’t think past the regret of what he’d done.
To lock her away…
Arla feared small spaces more than anything. She’d been locked away and forced to watch her parents die, and even now could barely breathe whenever she was in confined spaces.
And what Hark had done…
There was no doubt in his heart that she would never, ever forgive him.
His fears only increased when a grey mare galloped into the courtyard.