A Dawn of Onyx (The Sacred Stones, #1)(56)

All three prisoners let out tandem exhales. Halden’s eyes never left mine. He mouthed something to me before being pulled out of the tent, but I couldn’t see through the blur of saltwater in my eyes. Kane seemed to catch whatever it was though and sneered in disgust.

“Everyone out,” Kane said with a snarl. The room quickly emptied, leaving just Kane, Griffin, and myself.

I was going to pummel Kane’s cruel, bored face.

Griffin let go of my arm, and I launched myself at him.

“You are a monster. What is wrong with you?” I seethed. “You were going to kill those boys? They’re barely men! And you knew I knew him? Cared for him? I can’t even look at you.” I just barely managed to stop myself from throwing my fist into his arrogant, despicable face. I would not stoop to his level again.

Kane studied me with cruel indifference. The only signs of his rage were his hands balled into fists, the skin of his knuckles white with pressure.

“They killed my men. They killed innocents. That doesn’t bother you?” he asked with quiet venom.

I shook my head. “You don’t know anything for sure. You sentenced them to die without a second thought. How can anyone who rules a kingdom be so impulsive?”

“The healer’s right, actually,” Griffin interrupted. “That was supremely stupid, my friend.”

I couldn’t believe my ears. “Thank you!” I turned back to the king, emphatic. “We can’t just kill people whenever we feel like it, Kane.”

Griffin shook his head. “No, now we absolutely have to kill them.”

“Exactly. Wait—what?” I spun back to Griffin. “Why?”

Griffin sighed and poured himself a glass of whiskey. “Kane just showed his hand. Your lover tested him, and he failed. Now all three men know that the king of the Onyx Kingdom cares for his healer, and that gives Kane a weakness. They can’t live knowing that information, I’m sorry.”

My head was swimming. There was far too much going on. Was Griffin right? Was Kane’s violence due to Halden’s implication that he and I had been in love back in Abbington? And did Halden do that on purpose? In hopes of saving his own skin? Did he know, somehow, in just the few minutes he was in here, that Kane valued me?

I was an idiot. Of course he did. Why else would I be in this tent with the King’s army, seated directly next to Kane, draped in an Onyx dress, black ribbons in my hair, sipping lavender whiskey with the rest of them…unless Kane had valued me?

I was a dirty traitor.

I slumped down into a leather chair and stared at the floor. Kane turned to Griffin. “They were dead men walking, regardless. If they made it to the vault, they already know too much to be allowed to go back to Gareth.”

I began to weep.

I couldn’t help it. I hadn’t thought of Halden at all in quite some time, but that didn’t mean I wanted to see him dead.

It was too horrible to fathom, the ending of his life. And it somehow being my fault.

Kane considered me with a quiet rage. “I’m sorry, Arwen. About the man you love.”

I peered up at him through tears, furious. “I never said I was in love with him. He is one of my oldest friends from childhood. One of my brother’s best friends.”

“No wonder he’s a thief too,” Griffin mumbled into his drink. I ignored him.

“He’s like family,” I continued. “I haven’t seen him since the day he was sent off to battle your soldiers in your bleeding, pointless war!”

I was getting hysterical, my pulse ratcheting up in my ears.

“But he’s in love with you and planned to wed you?” Kane pressed.

“That’s not the point!”

“I’m curious.”

Too bad, I thought. But I took a deep breath. As my mother always said, more flies with honey than vinegar. If there was ever a time to coax out the best part of Kane, the version of him from our day in the pond, it was this very moment.

“Yes, fine. We were—romantic. But then he left, and I didn’t think I’d ever see him again. I thought it was just for fun, not that he ever thought that way about me.”

Kane softened slightly. “How could he not?”

“Please,” I begged. “Don’t kill him.”

Griffin looked nauseated. “I think it’s time the healer returned to her quarters, don’t you?”

***

After a fitful night of sleep, I woke before daybreak and made my way down the stairs. My cloak fought against the morning chill, and I blew hot air into my hands. I had smuggled a few slices of bread, some dried meats, a needle and some bandages with me and wrapped them in the fur draped around my body.

I had to find a way to see Halden, and I figured sticking as close to the truth as possible was likely my best way in.

“Morning,” I chirped to the young guard on duty. “Just visiting the prisoner.”

“Which prisoner?”

I feigned confusion. “Mathis. The one with the festering wound.” Enough time spent in a kingdom run by a liar, and the lies were coming to me easily now.

“Who are you again?”

“I’m Arwen. The healer. Commander Griffin sent me here to stitch Mathis up.” I waved my medical supplies at the guard.

His brows knit together, lips pursed in doubt.