Page 141 of The King has Fallen
My blood ran cold.
“What… what are you doing here, Gault? It’s not safe for you to roam around camp with no one but Gall as a guard,” I said as casually as I could. “He’s strong, but he doesn’t have the skill in subterfuge. I know it’s the Peace, but still—”
“I gave my guards the day. I was bored, and he was returning from… somewhere. He knew where your lair was,” Gault said flatly. His eyes had returned to Yilan and the heat in them made my hackles rise.
No.
Absolutely not.
I cleared my throat to get his eyes back to me. “You needed me? You could have sent a messenger—”
“This isn’t a game, Melek. I needed to see what you were up to. Now I know.” he smiled again. “Interrogation,indeed,” he said huskily.
Yilan paled, but bowed back as she was, she couldn’t move away from his gaze.
My heart broke. She must have been in so much pain. Her hands were turning bright red because the loops on the cotton were cutting off her circulation. I needed to dosomething.So I pushed off the bed towards Gault to cover her at least a little, and picked up one of the furs as I moved. “We were just having a conversation,” I said honestly.
Gault guffawed. “Is that what you call it? I call it rutting.”
Disgust and rage burned through my veins and my instincts began to scream. My throat wanted to scream.
I am not apredator.
I’d always known this about my people—especially during war. Especially out of the city. The Nephilim were a cultureliterally born of the rape of women by fallen angels. Of course their offspring were casual about it.
But I had chosen differently. Had led differently. Had seen changes in those closest to me. I had hoped that, with time and generations, our people could become… redeemable.
Then I’d see something like this—from the King, no less—and it turned my stomach and washed me in despair.
Tossing one of the furs over Yilan’s back and praying she could allow at least one of her hands some relief, I turned to face Gault and spoke through gritted teeth.
“I have only hours until I need to go. If you’re just being social—”
“Oh no, I’m not just being social,” he said, his eyes gleaming, licking his lower lip as he stared atmy mate.“I need you to leave earlier. I have had some urgent news and it requires my immediate reply. Since you’re going anyway, and you have one of the beasts, you can travel faster and take it with you.”
I shuddered, hands clenched at my sides, twitching because I wanted to clamp them on his throat.
“That’s… well, I’ll be disappointed to miss the last Day of Peace, but I suppose I can pack now and then get moving. I’ll deliver her to you in an hour. Two at mo—”
“No, Melek,” Gault said, taking the last strides to the side of the bed and extending a hand.
There was a shining, crystalline moment where everything within me recoiled—and roared, my hands actually rose as I instinctively moved to catch him as he reached for my mate with his thick fingers.
But Yilan shot me a dark look past him and I froze.
Unaware of how closely I’d come to restraining him, Gault tipped up her chin and forced her to meet his eyes as he let that long tongue of his snake out to slowly lick his upper lip. He rattled an approving growl.
“The message must be delivered immediately. And I find I’m feeling like… celebrating. You go. I’ll have a servant pack for you and follow. Your things will reach you by tomorrow. I’ll take her now.”
Her eyes were wary and locked on him from under her lashes. She shivered. But I reminded myself that she wasn’t actually bound under that fur.
If only I’d given her a weapon.Fuck!
Then Gault hummed and pinched Yilan’s chin between his thumb and forefinger. “I will make you scream,” he said in a low, guttural rasp. “Even more than the General. I will make you wish you’d never been born.”
Panic and revulsion lit a fire in my chest. I had no way to slip her a weapon as he watched. And no believable excuse to take her away. But there wasno fucking wayI was leaving her with him.
When I looked from her to him and realized his breath was getting shorter, rage hit me in the solar plexus like a charging bear, so hard that I grunted.
