Chapter 11
Chapter
Eleven
GRAYSON
“We should check on her.” Teal’s hair was wild. Again. Probably because his new hobby seemed to be raking his fingers through the strands.
“If we open the pit before seven days have passed, Carron will extend the time she spends in there.” Spending days alone in the dark messed with people’s minds. If the shield didn’t die, she might come out broken beyond repair.
“Do you feel anything?” Teal demanded. “Guilt? Remorse?”
I looked to Pierce for help, but he’d propped himself against his usual doorway with a pensive expression on his normally impassive face.
I rubbed the back of my neck. “The situation was not ideal.”
Teal barked a laugh. “Not ideal? We allowed Drake to torture a woman, then did nothing when they threw her in a pit to die. We’re supposed to be the good guys.”
“We’re fighting for more than one woman.”
“The end justifies the means?”
I didn’t answer.
“Let me understand. We can justify murder and torture and rape because it’s for the greater good?”
“Enough talking!”
“Teal’s right. We’re the villains.”
I stared at Pierce. Of all of us, he was the least likely to give in to some maudlin sense of regret.
I wasn’t foolish enough to believe my friend cared about the order the way I did.
Late at night, when I couldn’t sleep, I wondered if he was just biding his time, waiting to exact justice.
But he had to see the truth. “Either Drake whipped her, or she died by Carron’s hand. ”
Annoyance flashed across Pierce’s chilly features, and he pushed away from the doorframe. “There was another option.”
“Really?” Sarcasm dripped from my tongue. “What was that?”
“We stood by her.” Something flickered across Pierce’s features—too quick to identify, but it looked almost like pain.
No one said a word.
Pierce had lost his bloody mind. I suppressed the urge to shake some sense into him. “She’s just a shield. Shields exist to protect us, not the other way around.”
“Says who?”
“The king.”
Pierce rolled his eyes. “That’s bullshit.”
The silence stretched between us like a chasm. Years of brotherhood, and we’d never been this divided. Over a woman we’d known for days.
“Careful, Pierce. You’re flirting with treason.” I turned to Flynn. Had he also taken leave of his senses? “What say you?”
“She has a nice ass. If she doesn’t die, I want to fuck her.” Flynn’s words didn’t match the visible tension in his shoulders or the way he avoided looking at any of us directly.
“No!” I wanted to jam his head through a wall. But the walls were stone, and his head was so hard he’d reduce them to rubble.
“Why not?” He grinned at me. “She’s just a shield.”
Did he mean that, or was he using my words against me? A bit of both? The truth was, I couldn’t stop thinking about her laughter in the face of Carron’s rage. No shield had ever affected me like this. If she survived the pit, my feelings—I hated acknowledging them—might be a problem.
I gripped the nape of my neck and rolled my head until I heard a crack.
“If she lives, we proceed with her training. She will learn to follow orders. She will learn to hold her tongue.” Gods above, the mouth on that woman.
It was a wonder Carron hadn’t killed her for the things she’d said. “She will submit.”
Teal chuckled.
“Something funny?”
He smirked at me. “Do you actually believe any of that?”
I didn’t. Our shield pushed back, and sassed, and demanded respect. She would never submit. Not to us. Not to the general. Not to the king. “If she doesn’t submit, Carron will kill her.” That I believed without question.