Page 102 of Tarnished Crown

We stayed that way the rest of the night, and I knew he was grieving, too.

Maybe for all the same reasons that I was.

CHAPTER66

It was hard to believe our party had been whole and happy just a few days ago. There wasn’t a trace of that happiness now, not for them, and certainly not for Evander or me.

I used the excuse of aggravating his wound to ride the horse that had belonged to Dmitriy instead of sharing Evander’s, and he didn’t question me. We had hardly looked at each other this morning--or rather, I had hardly been able to look at him after my embarrassing display last night.

Hollow. I was hollow, as if someone had carved out my insides with a dull, rusty spoon. It was the same emptiness that had threatened to devour me when Mac died, almost as if he were next to me, reminding me that he was still gone.

That he was never coming back.

That our family would never be happy and whole again either.

I closed my eyes against the thought. There was already too much grief going around. I wasn’t sure I could handle letting him add to it.

So, on we rode, none of us talking more than necessity called for. Taras and Kirill volunteered to deliver the news of Dmitriy and Igor to their families.

The weight of their deaths only felt heavier in that light. Someone would be grieving them the way my family did Mac.

All I wanted was to sink into Evander’s covers and never emerge.

But it was not to be.

We had no sooner shut the front door behind us than a shape emerged from the shadows, like a spider creeping down from its web.

Ava.

“Where have you been with our prisoner, dear Stepson?”

“Myprisoner, you mean, unless you’re contradicting my father’s edict?” he continued without giving her a chance to respond. “I see you’ve recovered from your...illness.”

I had never been more envious of his gift for appearing to be so unaffected on the outside. My eyes certainly reflected the fury I felt at this woman.

If I disposed of her while I was still Evander’spet, would he be held accountable? Probably, given the backward Socairan ways of thinking. Or, as he had pointed out before, it would start a war. That was the only thing that kept me from going for my dagger right then and there.

That, and the realization that if I failed, I knew now that she hadn’t been bluffing about having the capability to hurt Davin. I forced my gaze to the ground, forced myself to look cowed before she turned her stare on me.

“Indeed.” The word was coated in disdain. “I am feeling much improved, which appears to be more than I can say for a few of the men who were underyourcare, Evander. I understand there was trouble on the road?”

A muscle in his jaw ticked, the only sign that her words got to him. He made some kind of response that I couldn’t hear over the blood roaring in my ears.

To calm myself down, I pictured bringing Ava’s body to the funeral undertaker. Or perhaps we would just leave it for the wolves.

Someday, I vowed.Someday, I will watch the life bleed from this woman until I am satisfied she can never hurt another soul.

But until that day, I would keep my head down, literally.

At last, a gentle pressure on my arm encouraged me to walk away, to go up the stairs and into Evander’s room.

Taisiya came up only moments later. “You’ve returned, Highness.” She sounded oddly relieved, and I was a little surprised she cared so much. I nodded, too tired to say much more, and she left to order a bath drawn.

“You can take one first,” I told Evander.

“I wouldn’t dream of interrupting your busy schedule,” he said. “Don’t you have a nap in a strict half hour?”

He was giving me an out to pretend nothing had changed, and normally that’s a game I would have been happy to play, but I just didn’t have that kind of pretense in me today.