Page 83 of The King has Fallen
I got to my feet. “I bet he couldn’t destroy you! Look at you! You’remagnificent. Why do you hide the fullness of what you are, what you can be, and cower in his shadow?”
“I do not cower!” he snarled. “I lead!”
“Lead straight into his sweaty palms and wet prick,” I seethed. “Lead his kingdom to victory and place the crown that should rightfully be yours on his head again, and again!”
“It is not rightfully mine!” he roared, slapping the water as he began marching towards me, the water roiling around him but seeming not to slow him in the slightest.
I scrambled to my feet, clutching the towel around me.
“Of course it is! These men follow you, not him!Youare the one who has earned their trust. You are the one who makes them feel safe and sure so that they forge into battle with confidence—and win!”
“They win because we are blessed by God, not because of me—”
“Bullshit!If there is any blessing it comes to you and so they follow in your wake.”
He’d made it to the shallows and was still coming for me, furious, rushing towards me onto the shore, water flying fromhim in every direction. I stared him down, refusing to take a backwards step as he stormed all the way up until he stood over me, toe-to-toe.
He was only more impressive up close—vital, furious,male.
And deep, deep in the back of my head a little voice whispered that, unlike the other men in my life, he did not restrain himself from me. That he came at me as an equal. Not making himself less. Not challenging me more softly than he would any Nephilim.
He measured me strong enough to take him in his full strength.
I swelled, lifted my chin, and stared at him down my nose though I had to tip my head right back to meet that hot, furious gaze. And I let my eyes blaze just as brightly.
“You think God choosesthatperversion and self-indulgence?” I hissed. “You think that is God’s will?”
“Of course my people live outside of God’s will—we are the offspring of the rebels—”
“And yet, here you stand with honor and a soul! And you lead—and they follow. Why? Why do you continue to hand your power to that heathen every day?”
“Because the power washisbirthright, and if God holds any delight in me, any blessing, it is because I serve him as I should!” he growled.
I shook my head but did not drop his gaze. “Then we do not serve the same God.”
“Of course we don’t!”
I narrowed my gaze at him, knowing he felt as I did that we certainly did.
“My God would exalt a man like you.” I poked his chest. “Integrity to his word, protection of the weak, love for those who could never match him. My God would urgethat manto lead hispeople to the honor and integrity he holds. Not turn a blind eye to the perversion and debauchery. The brutality.”
“I do not turn a blind eye—I saved you from it!” he harshed.
“Exactly! You contradict yourself. So, which is it, Melek? Are you a man of God, a leader of honor, and a warrior for truth, or are you the lapdog of that piglet?”
“My God says serve even the emperor who is unreasonable.”
“What a fucking cop-out.”
His eyes narrowed and his lip curled back from his teeth. “So easy for you to say, so easy to judge—you, a simple thief, a spy, anassassin.No responsibility or burden beyond your own hide! I have observed before how quickly the lowborn judge those of us who carry the future on our shoulders. It is easy to sneer when your steps affect onlyyou.”
“You know nothing about my life!”
“Oh, of course, Yilan, you’re the only one with insight, the only one who observes. No man could possibly know a crumb of you unless you spoke it clearly and slowly first, right?”
“No, they couldn’t—” I snapped. “Because men are obstinate pigs, dragged through their lives by their pricks and their stomachs.”
He just stared at me then, raising one brow in a challenge to that, and Iknewhe was thinking of that fucking vision thatIstarted.
