20. Chapter 20
Chapter twenty
Gavrin planted himself between the soldiers and us. Kaed was a steadying presence at my back as my breath rattled. The dizzying effects the fae wine had on me fizzled away as the air thrummed with magic.
Were we in danger from guards in a place like this? Their bellicose fae light felt at odds with the soft luminescence of the party lights.
Celeste pushed her way to the front of the crowd that had gathered to watch whatever spectacle was about to unfold.
Bronze and golden armour glinted in the fae light of the garden lanterns as the soldiers held steady, unmoving as they faced Gavrin and Kaed.
“Lord Kaedian.” One of the guards stepped forward. “You are to be taken to the council for your crimes.”
“What’s the meaning of this?” A male with night-drenched hair and dark bronze skin pushed through the fray.
“Lord Daeghan. Apologies for the intrusion. But we are under orders.”
A female I took to be Pearl, came up beside Lord Daeghan, draped in imperial blue.
Murmurs and a few gasps sprouted in the crowd. There were only four guards. Kaed could dispatch them if he wanted, I was sure of it. But there were no shadows invading the garden.
“You will come with us.” The umber magic in their palms hummed in warning.
There was a palpable tension in the air.
I felt a hand on my back then as Kaed moved past me. His eyes gave nothing away as he looked at me.
Gavrin gave him a look that said We should have left sooner.
But Kaed quirked his eyebrow at Gavrin and just stepped into the space in front of the guards, his hands slightly raised.
No shadows.
Two guards rushed him and pinned his arms behind his back. The third guard clasped manacles around his wrists.
I didn’t mean to, but I gasped. Kaed’s head turned, and he smirked at me when he noted my reaction.
“What’s going on?” I demanded, to no one in particular.
The guard who’d spoken stepped in front of me and cut me off from Kaed. Gavrin bristled beside me.
“Lay one finger on her”—Kaed angled his head back to the guard, almost casually—“and you will lose every single one of them.”
The guard’s skin paled at Kaed’s threat, and he dropped his hand.
Gavrin urged me back as the guards ushered Kaed from the party without further explanation.
“Where are they taking him? Why didn’t he fight back? He could have crushed them.” I couldn’t place my feelings, but they were strangled by the sudden shift in events of the evening.
“And make it worse for him? He’s cooperating. Unusual for him, I know. But smothering the entire party in darkness would not have been the way out of this.” Gavrin was unnervingly calm about this.
“Right now, they probably have him for kidnapping you—this time. Not the first time,” he clarified with a grin. “But …” Gavrin chewed on his words.
“But?” I urged.
“Kaed doesn’t leave things unpunished. The men from the docks …” Cold whispered across my skin, and my hands absently rubbed the places I’d washed the blood from.
“But he didn’t kill them?” My voice pitched.
Gavrin shook his head. “He didn’t. I got there in time. But …” He paused to examine me.
“Tell me.”
“Kaed didn’t kill them, but maybe he should have.
” Gavrin blew out a breath. “Kaed wanted to take his time for what they did. I stopped him before he could kill them. He—For the way they …” His eyes were strained.
“For what they did to you … he left their severed limbs in a pile beneath them.” Images of viscera and blood spilled over my eyes.
The pain of their blows flooded my memory.
The broken bones. The blood pooling inside me, pouring out from me.
“When the city guards found them strung up on the masts they were bleeding out—”
I held up a hand to stop Gavrin as I felt my skin pale.
Audrie had been so upset over the event, that I hadn’t pushed.
He’d have killed three people had it not been for Gavrin.
And this was because of me. I had no pity for the men who were irrevocably maimed.
They’d taken from me, and some very dark part of me was glad Kaed had taken something from them too.
“But surely their attacking me is in his favour? He was saving me?”
“It depends. Some of the councillors have been watching Kaed and his brother for years.”
“What do you mean?”
“Nothing. It’s not important right now.” Gavrin waved a hand and headed for the iron gates of the garden.
“How do we stop it? This.” My hand flung in the direction Kaed had been taken.
“You care all of a sudden?” Gavrin lifted an eyebrow at me as he tilted his head.
“No.” I didn’t. I … “He is paying for what I caused,” I said, my head hung in guilt. “It was my fault he was there in the first place.”
Gavrin regarded me.
“What are you thinking?”
“He’s thinking of a way to break Kaed out. And it’s stupid.” Denora came up beside us and gave a withering look to a few stragglers who were still watching, hoping for some sort of show.
“You haven’t even heard my plan.”
“I don’t need to,” Denora countered. “It’s yours, Gav.” I looked between the sentinels, and something more than rank flowed between them. Something more than respect. It was tender in a moment of pure tension. If they weren’t so physically different, I’d have thought she was his older sister.
Gavrin folded his arms.
“Where are they taking him?” I looked to the exit, but Kaed and the soldiers were long gone.
Denora grimaced before she spoke. “The Cage isn’t somewhere you break out of. And even if we could do that”—she held up a hand to Gavrin—“we are going to do this the right way. Kaed could already be in enough trouble with what his father has just done.”
It made sense why she was ranked Head Sentinel. Denora was calm. She could see the moves beyond moves. She could play out the games in more ways than one. Gavrin would have blown a hole in the wall and been off. Effective, but not a strategy. More of an overture to more problems.
“The trade lockdown,” I said. I couldn’t imagine someone giving Kaed that much sway or being that important to foreign policy. He was everything a courtier or a lord should be. Arrogant and decadent. And nothing like a politician. Nothing like Eryk or Celeste.
Denora nodded, and Gavrin slumped a little as if to say Are you joking?
I chewed my lip. “What can you do?”
“Nothing for now. But we’d best leave.” Denora glanced at the crowd that wasn’t dissipating.
Gavrin escorted me to the exit while Denora stole a moment with Celeste. I had no idea what they said, but I was too knocked off balance to really care.
This night had been so many things. And it had ended with what I thought I wanted.
Kaed gone and out of my way.
And yet …
I knew it felt callous to leave him there for choices I’d made.