Page 28 of Dark Night of the Soul

I swung. My fist connected with his face. There was a sickening crack as his head snapped back. Blood spurted from his nose. He was disoriented long enough for me shove him through the Fae wards and against a tree. Arm at his throat.

His smile widened. Blood dripped from his nose.

“You like fucking her?”

I shoved the knife into his gut, then slashed upward from navel to neck. Then stepped back and let him fall to the ground. Blood smeared the edge of the blade and along my hand.

But he was dead.

This wasn’t a warning.

This was a confirmation.

I heard the creak of the bow before I saw the Fae archers. They had an uncanny ability to blend in with the trees and shadows. I’d breached their wards, and they knew it. Likely they were there before I finished killing him.

I dropped the knife and held my hands up in surrender. Waiting.

Killian stepped through his guards holding the Sword of Light by his side. We stared at each other a long moment. His gaze flicked from me to the dead man at my feet then back to my face.

“He came for her.” Not a question.

I nodded.

His jaw hardened. I saw her enter the forest earlier that day to speak to him. Likely to ask for an alliance.

To his men he said, “Stand down.” They lowered their bows. Then to me, he said, “You bring war to my forest.”

I didn’t point out that this forest belonged to her estate. “I ended a threat.”

His expression was flat, unreadable. “You killed him here so she wouldn’t see.”

“She doesn’t need to see.”

“And if another comes?” he asked.

“I’ll end him, too,” I said. “As many as it takes.”

He regarded me coolly. A slight lift of his chin. “She told me she was preparing for survival. Is that what you do, too? Prepare for survival?”

“I’m prepared to do whatever is necessary to keep them away from her.”

It didn’t matter how many of Sebastian’s men I’d kill, I’d do it again.

“If she asks for asylum, I will give it to her.” His gaze flicked again to the dead man. “But I don’t think she’ll ask.” Then back to me. “And I will not send my people to fight your war.”

“I’m not asking you to.”

“But she did,” he said. Cold. Unflappable. Then, “Do you think you’re sparing her? Protecting her from making a decision that will put her in danger?” He shook his head then. “You’ve decided what she’s allowed to face.”

“I’m deciding who’s allowed to touch her.”

The Fae king’s face hardened then. “We’ll discard the body, so she doesn’t have to know.”

But something the way he said it told me this was the one and only time he’d grant me that favor.

He motioned to his men. Two of them picked up the dead Watcher, then moved deeper into the forest. The other guards followed leaving me alone with the Fae king.

“When she burned herself out with the Ark—”