AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Griffin. Waiting for me, alone and loyal in Daybreak. How could I have done this to him?
18
A commotion outside snapped me out of my reverie. But it wasn’t coming from the front room of the king’s quarters—it was outside. Shouts and snarls, and the tell-tale crack of sword pounded against steel breastplates in intimidation. A sound I knew well from the training grounds at Daybreak.
But the wolves of Nightfall wore leather.
I hurried back into the bedroom and threw the curtains open.
Outside, the dark wolves of Nightfall snarled and growled, pawing at the dirt near the edge of the forest. Standing against them, emerging from the tree-line, were Daybreak scouts on foot in their human forms. Daybreak soldiers rarely, if ever, shifted. The Nightfall guards were hulking and bestial, jaws open like they might lunge forward at any moment. But this wasn’t the front of the manor—the king’s quarters overlooked the back. If there were scouts here… What was happening?
My blood ran cold. I rushed back out into the front room, heart pounding, only to see Elias still in deep conversation with Roth, shoulders set as the role of king fell back on him like a cloak.
“Tell them to allow the interloper into the throne room,” he growled. “Keep him guarded. I’ll be down soon.”
“Sir,” Roth said. He turned on his heel and strode down the hall.
Elias closed the door behind him and whirled to face me. His eyes blazed with anger, ferocious enough that I took a stunned step back across the threshold into the bedroom.
“What is it?” I asked. “What’s happening?”
“Soldiers from the Court of Daybreak are at the gates of the Efra,” he said. “Led by an insolent little brat who calls himself Griffin, claiming he’s here to free his betrothed from the prisons of Nightfall. Might you know anything about that?”
My heart stopped. I stood frozen in his bedroom, standing by the mattress with the sheets we’d just mussed, with his gaze that was so tender just minutes prior now burning through me with rage. Rage and something that looked almost like betrayal. Bile rose in my throat, and for a moment I felt like I might throw up.
How could Griffin be here? Why would he do this?
“Tell me,” Elias growled. He stalked toward me, and I instinctively stepped back, back, until I was pressed against the cool stone wall of his bedroom. His eyes flashed gold as he loomed over me, his wolf close to the surface. This time it was from anger, though, not arousal. My wolf was conflicted internally, still wanting to be close to him, wanting to soothe away this rage, while my own fear of the king’s anger cut through me like a knife.
“Little wolf.” Elias placed his hand by my head, caging me in against the wall. “Have you a betrothed in Daybreak?”
“No,” I said immediately.
He bared his teeth.
I tipped my head back against the stone wall, baring my throat in a subconscious sign of submission. “No, I mean—it’s nothing official.”
“Then what is it?” he demanded.
“He’s—he’s my boyfriend, in Daybreak,” I said. The words felt childish even as I said them. “He has been for years. We never thought—the Choice was not supposed to happen in our lifetimes.”
“And you came into my bed without telling me this?” he said. “That you belong to another?”
“I don’t belong—”
The animal growl that sounded from Elias’ throat silenced my protests as if he’d physically grabbed me. But it wasn’t like I’d planned for this—it just happened! I’d intended to have dinner and then return to my quarters, but I’d just gotten swept up. This was never supposed to happen.
A sudden swoop of anger rushed through me. Navigating the Choice was my responsibility. Griffin had said he trusted me. Sure, I hadn’t written past that first letter—but there was nothing in that letter that suggested I needed rescue. What was he thinking?
He suddenly stepped back and shook his head roughly, then pushed both hands through his dark hair. “I should send you down to the jail where your betrothed” –he spat the word like it tasted foul— “believes you to be. I should leave you there to rot.”
“You can’t—”
“But,” he continued as if I hadn’t spoken, “I find that would be almost a kindness now.”
I swallowed. My hands clenched to fists at my sides.
“I cannot let a deception like this go unpunished.” He pulled a shirt roughly on over his head. “And there’s something that appeals to me about knowing your underwear is still somewhere in my sheets, while you stand in my throne room and watch your betrothed die.”
