I raised a brow at the crossbow he held. “What kind of problem?”
“The remaining guards are attempting to run off with your Maiden,” Naill answered, frowning at the body on the floor.
“What the fuck?” I spat, snapping into action. I stalked forward. “Where are they?”
“In the stables,” Naill answered, and Delano and Elijah rose, their long-legged gait keeping pace with mine as I entered the hall. “Cas, we have a bigger issue than just the guards trying to run off with her,” Naill added. “They saw Kieran.” Bright golden eyes met mine. “In his wolven form.”
“Fuck,” Delano rasped.
Ice drenched my veins. “How? How did that happen?”
“From what I could quickly gather from what I saw, Phillips tried to take her. She put up a fight, and Kieran intervened. He was wounded—he’s okay,” Naill quickly added.
That odd sensation earlier—
“But he shifted,” Naill continued. “He’s at the stables. They barred the door from the inside.”
They.
Poppy.
For a moment, I was frozen where I stood in the hall of the keep. I couldn’t move. Something akin to terror exploded in my gut. I could’ve told her. I should have told her. It would’ve prevented her from finding out this way, but it was too late. It was over. Everything with Poppy. The closeness. Her warmth. The ability to be in the now and not the past, not the future. The peace I’d found with her. I knew it immediately. It was over. I moved then, staggering back under the weight of the pain. It felt like a hand had gone through my chest and ripped my heart out. I looked down just as Orion had, but there was no gaping wound. Still, I felt pure agony.
“Kieran couldn’t control it if he was wounded,” Delano said, and I looked at him somewhat dumbly. He was eyeing my fists. Worry filled his tone. “It kicks in our instinct.”
I knew that.
“You didn’t tell her anything, did you?” Elijah asked.
Finally, I found my fucking voice. “No. I didn’t get…I didn’t get the chance.”
“Okay, then what’s the game plan?” Elijah’s eyes were narrowed, alert—watchful and knowing. “Do we let them make a run for it? Get them out there? We can have Kieran lay low for a while, play it off as if we had no idea what he was. That would give you time to deal with your—”
“No.” There was no point in doing that. It was over. “They will not take the Maiden. She stays here.”
I shut it down like I had under the willow—all of it. The pain. The guilt. The terror that she would forget that what we shared wasn’t a lie. That it was real. I had to pull it together. There would barely be time for any explanations, let alone a convoluted lie to temporarily soothe Poppy. I put all those emotions behind a wall so thick that I couldn’t even feel them. Ice filled my chest and gut, and I felt nothing when I took the crossbow from Naill’s hands. That wouldn’t last, but right now…
I was nothing.
“Delano, circle around the back of the stables.” I glanced at Naill. “Go with him.”
Both nodded.
“They won’t be able to get the horses through the back doors,” Elijah told me. “If they plan to make a run for it, they’ll need to be on horseback.”
“If any of them have truly discovered who we are, they’ll go on foot,” I said, then turned to Naill and Delano. “Take out the guards, but do not touch her.”
“Understood,” Delano answered.
Pivoting, I prowled out of the keep and onto the frozen ground. The snow had stopped. The night was quiet, except for the sound of wood cracking coming from the stables. My jaw locked.
“Hold on,” Elijah said.
I kept walking. The stables came into view, the windows glowing with the yellow light of lanterns. A large fawn-colored wolven was at the entry, clawing and digging at the door.
“Dammit.” Elijah grabbed my arm. “Give me a sec.”
I stopped, looking down at where his hand was around my arm. Slowly, I lifted my gaze to his.
“Yeah, I know. I just saw you tear a man’s heart out. I probably shouldn’t be grabbing you, but you need to listen to me,” Elijah said. “I don’t know what the hell is going on between you and that girl, but it ain’t nothing. Don’t even bother telling me it is. I know better.”
My jaw locked.
“And I don’t care about that right now. What I do care about is you—what you’ve been working toward for years. Not just your brother. What you have going on here and at Spessa’s End. It’s been working because these men and women are loyal to you. They believe in you,” he said, his face inches from mine. “And right or wrong, they will only see the Maiden for what they know her as: a symbol of what has taken so much from them.”
His stare held mine. “And while they will follow your orders, more than a few brows were raised when they heard about what you did to Jericho. And more than a few tongues were wagging after you all arrived, with how you were acting with her. This keep is big but not so big they don’t know where you spent several hours tonight.”
Fucking gods.
“And I’m betting that was also what Orion was being fed before he decided to bring his ass to my study,” he said, the wind catching the snow on the ground and whipping it into a frenzy. “You go in there, treating her like anything other than what she is supposed to be? With your father making his way here? Wanting her head?” Over his voice, Kieran rammed the wood. “The people here will even stand against their King for you, but if they think you’ve gotten yourself wrapped around the godsdamn Maiden, you run the risk of losing their support. You don’t want that.”
Elijah was absolutely correct. My father was coming. He wanted her head, and he was the King. His command superseded mine, except for here. In Solis, they were loyal to me. It was the only reason I was even standing where I was. But if I lost their support?
Poppy lost her life.
That panic and pain threatened to return, but I didn’t allow it. I would do anything to make sure that didn’t happen. Anything. Even if it meant becoming what she loathed the most.
The Dark One.
“I know,” I told him.
Elijah nodded and dropped my arm. I turned and rounded the corner of the keep.
Kieran backed off from the barn doors, his head whipping toward me. His growl was low and furious.
“It’s okay.” I ran my left hand over his back as I passed him. Fury at the scent of blood and the sight of it matting the fur on his leg and waist broke through the ice encasing my insides.
I let that anger in as I went up to the barn doors. I wasn’t keeping my strength in check as I leaned back, kicking the center of the door. Wood splintered and gave way. The doors swung open, and all I allowed myself to feel was the anger as I quickly took in what was playing out in front of me.
I saw the guards. The rearing horses. Fucking Jericho. And Poppy. I saw her, brave and bold as ever, the bloodstone dagger in her grasp.
“Hawke!” Poppy cried out, relief evident in her voice, and I didn’t let myself feel a damn thing. She started for me. “Thank the gods you’re okay.”
Phillips lurched forward, grabbing her arm. “Stay back from him.”