Page 186 of Ashborne: Defiance

‘She will,’ I interrupted him, bristling. ‘She’s not stubborn like I was.’

Kham gave a huff that under any other circumstances I would have called a laugh. It didn’t seem the time for levity. ‘What’s funny?’

‘You said was,’ Kham sent with a little whistle that Koa echoed. ‘As if stubbornness were no longer a part of you.’ Then he huffed again, and Koa joined him.

I shook my head. ‘I can’t believe you’re teasing me right now!’

If he’d been human, he would have shrugged his shoulders. ‘Life doesn’t cease to be amusing, even when we’re in grief.’

‘I’ll tell that to Grace when she’s throwing up later.’

Kham rumbled again, this time chiding me. ‘I wouldn’t tease her at such a time.’

‘But—’

‘Voski, we have been here. I knew what was needed then. I know what is needed now. I will not let you sink into this and lose yourself again. As you walk this path again in defense of another… I’m here. You won’t be lost.’

The image he sent then was one of me, turning back down a path I had already walked, and him tugging back, turning me around, carrying me forward once more.

I had to clear my throat. ‘Thank you.’

‘You are always welcome, my brother.’

I closed my eyes and took a deep breath. It tightened my chest every time he called me that. I knew I’d been hard on him recently, and would be again. I was already walking a tightrope. The thought of what was to come made me sick. But as Grace clung to me, and Kham began to descend to the launch hollow, I couldn’t think about that. I had to figure out how to get her to the only place she felt safe, without having to answer questions.

And I had to pray that no one had witnessed her throw that blade.

64. The Darkness of Good

~ VOSKI ~

“Grace, can you walk? I’ll take you in the back way. So, we won’t meet anyone.”

She took a deep breath and bit her lip, but nodded. I let her feet drop, then held her by the shoulders until she was steady.

She looked up at me and I understood the haunted shadows in her eyes. ‘Kham, can you make a bit of a ruckus when you go into the stable? Nothing worrisome. Maybe chase Koa around? Just enough that the stableboys will be distracted and I can sneak Grace in the back way?’

Kham and Koa trotted away as I led Grace, trembling like a leaf, from the launch hollow, to the trees, to circle the stable and approach Kham’s wing from the cleaning yards.

There was no one in the trees, and I knew moving would help Grace steady for a time. Yet, the Keep never truly slept. We were forced to pause and wait in a small thicket, while a squad wandered past, laughing and bantering, on their way to the launch hollow.

As the shadows of the men passed, Grace shivered. I held her hand, pulling her into my side, nervously watching until I was confident they wouldn’t hear us if she couldn’t stay silent. Then I drew her forward, whispering encouragement.

“I’ll get you to your loft. No one will bother us there.”

Grace nodded, but her eyes, now dry, darted left and right. I tugged her with me, and she didn’t drag, keeping pace. But her breath hitched every few paces, and I knew if I didn’t get her alone soon, she’d hit her limit and all hell would break loose.

She couldn’t be forced to face this. A Furyknight killing a man in battle was admired. And if I’d been on patrol and saved a citizen from a thief, his death would be regarded as the price paid for the overall good. But for a Flameborne—not even Furyknight—to disappear, drunk, from a tavern, then knife a man in the throat?

The questions would hang in the air like a bad smell.

No one could know.

We had a close call as we entered the stable wing. Kham had chased Koa into the main aisle, trailing half a dozen stableboys, all laughing or shouting at him to stop and let them remove the harnesses. I kept us to the shadows at the edges of the aisles, but just as we reached Koa’s doorway, one of them came racing back and saw me.

“Sir! Mister Voski, sir! Kham is—”

I slung Grace into Koa’s stable, hissing at her to get up the ladder if she could, and turned on the kid.