Page 128 of Onyx Cage: Volume II

I had hardly gotten the final word out when my lemmikki voiced her disagreement, having taken exactly no time to consider the merits of my plan.

Storms, but she was impulsive.

“Rowan.” Her father’s voice was soft, but a disagreement nonetheless.

She turned to face him, repeating herself with more vehemence. “No.”

He met her glare with all the stoicism of a man who had spent a lifetime surrounded by his temperamental daughters.

“It’s a good plan,mo bhobain,” he said evenly, nodding his approval at me.

It was the only real plan.

But she shook her head mutely back and forth.

“Rowan.” I called back from wherever her mind was taking her. “There is no other way. I told you before that I trusted you. I need you to trust me now.”

I met her gaze solidly, letting her see the honesty in my own. It was the only way I could try to make her understand. Every ounce of rationality in me was screaming that Iiro was arranging a way to take her out of the equation. I knew it with the same certainty that she had known that storm was blowing in.

She closed her eyes, taking in a slow, shaky breath. Several tense seconds ticked by. Her parents exchanged a worried look, and Avani shifted in her seat, poised to speak for the first time since we had entered the room.

Just then, Rowan sucked in a breath. All eyes turned to her for what I was sure was going to be another refusal.

But when she opened her eyes, they were shadowed with resignation.

“Two weeks,” she bit out. “And not a single day longer. Promise me.”

I calculated how much time that would give me. If I was on horseback, I could get back to Bear in half the time it would take her by wagon. I would have close to a month to figure things out.

“I promise.” I claimed her hand once more, squeezing it gently to solidify my words.

“When do you need to leave?” Charlotte asked, her tone neutral enough that I suspected she already knew the answer.

Rowan’s expression went cold, forming into a rare guarded mask, but not before I saw a wave of bitterness wash over her.

She knew also.

Still, it was harder than it should have been to say the words that would hurt us both. “Within the hour.”

So little time, but it would have to be enough.

All of it would.

CHAPTER FIFTY

My homecoming was commemorated with bloodshed.

With more orders to carry out my father’s vengeance. More villages to burn and executions to perform as retribution for the few moments of bliss I had stolen with my wife.

Punishment for my father’s insanity.

I drew my swords up in an arc before slicing them through the neck of yet another of his convictedtraitors. The man’s wife sobbed next to him, her eyes locked on the head that was separated from his body while I offered her the same end.

Today’s massacre was particularly brutal because the alleged rebels were brought to Bear estate where their deaths could be witnessed by the clan.

Fifty-seven men and women who were deemed too depraved, too vile to becomeBesklanovvy, were chained and carted like cattle to my home.

One by one, I severed their heads from their bodies, watched as the life bled from their eyes, watched as their spilled blood joined the veritable ocean of death that filled the courtyard.