Chapter Nine
___ time later
Lycus walked with Sir Gerard grinding his teeth as the boy prattled on about how next to torment Kestrel.
Why was he so obsessed with her? It wasn’t as if they were a love match.
They’d only met the day before Mephistopheles’s attack, long after their fathers had done the courtship by proxy with quill and ink.
Lycus even remembered Gerard’s annoyance at having to become betrothed in the first place.
“Perhaps I can persuade Father to allow me to make her my mistress.”
Lycus bit back a snarl, surprised at how ___ he was at the idea. Composing himself, he instead replied cooly, “The King would take umbrage to that.”
“Why should he care what we do with her? She’s nothing but a woman, and not even from one of the higher-ranking noble houses.”
“Aside from him being from lands that value women more than ours and Kestrel being a high-ranking mage, the Queen Mother’s feelings alone would compel him to act.” Lycus blah blah .
“Ah yes, the Queen Mother,” Gerard blah blah . “It’s almost an insult that she came instead of the King.”
“A visit from a luminite queen was surely intended to be a great honor.” Insult?
Lycus shook his head. The heir was more stupid than he’d known.
Given that Kerainne Leonine was revered in Wurrakia nearly to the point of being perceived as a deity, King Zareth had expressed great care and strategy in sending her to find out why Aylmer hadn’t notified him of one of Wurrakia’s own citizens conspiring with Mephistopheles.
The question was, why was he being so careful?
Gerard blah blah , then ___ . “Making the chit my mistress is too much a bother anyway. They require a house and jewels. Perhaps I can suggest to Father that he wed her to someone who’d share her body with me.”
Lycus forced himself to shrug indifferently even though inner reactions. “I imagine there are some men who don’t mind being made a cuckhold, but I haven’t met any.”
Gerard barked out a laugh. “Good point, dog. And I presume you wouldn’t be one of them?”
“I have no plans of marrying. But, if the fates saw fit to saddle me with a wife, I’d make a man wear his own entrails before letting him touch her.”
The heir laughed again, then cocked his head to the side, eyeing Lycus with a sly speculation that immediately raised his hackles. “Did you at least have a little fun with the traitor bitch that day in the Lord’s Wood? I’d heard she returned to the castle with her dress torn and a marred face.”
Not this again . Lycus bared his teeth in a false leer. “I gave her a good scare, that’s all.”
“That’s probably for the best.” Gerard clapped him on the shoulder, then winced at the pain in his palm from striking Lycus’s armor. “Father would be furious if you deflowered his ward. Still, it’s such a pity that such a fine piece turned out to be so unsuitable for me.”
“You’ll find someone much more suitable.”
Lycus tried to conceal his bitterness. He’d been watching women panting after the Lord’s heir ever since the boy reached manhood.
The power and wealth that Gerard came with was a strong magnet.
However, the little shit also had the looks to complete the package.
Just like the Winter Prince who Wurrakia had allied itself to, people lost their heads and made the wrong choices for a handsome face.
And just like the Winter Prince, Gerard was a monster.
Once they reached the noble armory, where Gerard’s squire waited to remove his armor, Lycus left for the barracks where the midday meal would be served to the guards and fighters who weren’t nobles.
As always, once he joined the line, the men’s chatter hushed and they shuffled awkwardly and looked down at their boots as if fearing Lycus would engage in conversation, even though he never did.
Lycus accepted his tray and bowl and allowed the cook to drop a ladle of stew into the bowl and give him a roll that would only be semi-stale, and an apple that was beginning to shrivel. Kegs of hot tea and watered-down beer were on offer. He opted for the ale.
Taking a seat at the end of a trestle table farthest from the braziers where everyone else gathered, Lycus dipped his roll in his stew and silently prayed to the fates that the situation with Kestrel would be resolved soon.
Gerard’s obsession with her was getting more and more disturbing as the weeks passed.
When he’d forced her to stand out in the freezing cold and stare at her father’s severed head on a pike, it took every vestige of Lycus’s will not to push the lordling off the castle parapet.
The woman had been strong, though, standing resolute and not letting him see her revulsion, though Lycus had seen enough men vomit on the battlefield to recognize the grayish cast to her pallor.
He’d reported the incident to Lord Aylmer, and all the man could do was shake his head, mutter a few “oh dears,” and then double down on his scheme to find a man to marry Kestrel, thus putting her out of her son’s reach.
Lycus grimaced in disgust. The man was ruthless and stern to everyone else in his sphere except for his precious heir.
If the fates were sentient, or if a benevolent deity existed, either Mathurin or even Artavian would have been firstborn.
And some men were trying to court Kestrel, most because they wanted to become the next Lord of Raptor’s Roost, and not because they gave a damn about the woman.
Something Kestrel could see clearly, from the bitter glint in her blue eyes.
And those who did seem as if they’d treat her gently still appeared unappealing to her.
Because thanks to Gerard shattering her blah blah , she probably would keep her vow to never love again.
Because there was almost no chance she’d ever trust a man again.
Lycus couldn’t blame her. He damn well didn’t trust anyone either.
Suddenly, the bench groaned as someone sat beside him. Lycus looked up from his stew to level a glare at the intruder. To his surprise, it
Various men try to court Kestrel. Lycus doesn’t like that. He also doesn’t like the rumors that he’d done something to Kestrel in the woods. Especially because he had to let Gerard think so because if he didn’t, there was a chance the budding tyrant could enlist a different man to torment the girl.
When one man implies that Kestrel isn’t a virgin because of him, Lycus beats him bloody.
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