Dark Deceptions: A Regency and Medieval Collection of Dark Romances(134)

“Gryffyn came to me earlier this evening,” she said, her voice tight with emotion. Then she held up her right hand, the one clutching the dirk Gryffyn had given her, and extended it to Keller. “He told me I had to kill you. He told me that if I did not, he would consider me a traitor and kill me and Izlyn and my father. He said he would kill us all if I did not abide by his command.”

Keller eyed her a moment before taking the dirk. It was small, but sharp enough to do damage. He inspected it a moment, struggling not to feel an inordinate amount of hatred towards Gryffyn. Emotions were misplaced in warfare, and this was definitely war. Gryffyn had challenged him since nearly the moment he had entered the walls of Nether, and now the game was increasing in intensity. It was growing deadly.

Gryffyn was including his sister in his games, instructing the woman to murder on his behalf. The fact that she had divulged her brother’s scheme told Keller that she wasn’t allying herself with her brother, which relieved him tremendously. She could have very easily obeyed him, but she hadn’t. Instead, she had come to Keller for help. He knew she had done it more out of fear of her brother than of her loyalty to her new husband, but it didn’t matter. Trust went both ways, and now it was time for him to earn her trust. She was placing her faith in him and he would not fail.

“Why did you not send word to me in the bailey that he had come to you?” he asked calmly.

Chrystobel shook her head. “How?” she asked. “You have taken all of the servants away and I could not leave Izzie alone. I knew you would come to me, eventually. But there is more you should know.”

“What is that?”

Chrystobel felt terrible telling him such things, ashamed at her brother’s appalling behavior. “He admitted to being behind the attempt on your knight’s life,” she said. “From what I could gather, he meant the arrow for you.”

Keller wasn’t surprised to hear that. Rather than be angry about it, he thought the entire circumstance ridiculous. It was a coward of a man who stood in the shadows and directed others to do his deadly deeds only to fail at them.

“I am sure it was but, like a fool, he entrusted other fools to do what he should have done himself,” he said almost philosophically, glancing up at her to see her genuinely contrite expression. He felt rather sorry for her. “Do you know where your brother is now?”

She nodded. “He is in the storage vaults,” she said helpfully, relieved that he wasn’t taking her brother’s nasty behavior out on her. “There are many places to hide in there but only one way in or out. You will find the door to the stores on the level beneath this chamber, cut into the floor of the small feasting hall that my father sometimes uses.”

Keller nodded, absorbing the information, and turned to leave. Chrystobel, however, reached out to grasp his arm.

“Please,” she begged softly, blinking back tears. “He means what he says. When he discovers I have betrayed him, he will kill me.”

Keller put a big hand over her small one, feeling her warmth as it seared through his glove. For a moment, he was so caught up in her magnificent eyes that he almost forgot what he was going to say. Quickly, he regrouped.

“Nay, he will not,” he said quietly. “I will send my men up here to guard your chamber. No one will get past them, and once I catch your brother, he will understand the meaning of my wrath. I swear he will never be a threat to you or your family again, my lady. I will not betray your faith.”

Chrystobel believed every word. There was something about the man that was deeply sincere. She nodded her head.

“I believe you.”

He took her hand and, removing it from his arm, kissed it softly before letting it go. “Return to your chamber, now,” he instructed. “Bolt the door and do not open it for anyone but me or my knights. Is that clear?”

Chrystobel was still reeling from the kiss to her hand but managed to nod. “It is.”

He smiled faintly at her as he pointed to the door. “Go inside,” he told her. “I will not leave until I hear the bolt thrown.”

Chrystobel somehow managed to make it back into her chamber, dutifully locking the door as he had instructed. She leaned against the door, listening to his boot falls fade down the stairs, before looking at the hand he had kissed. She could still feel his lips against her flesh, a gesture that had made her heart race and her knees tremble. There was something overwhelmingly powerful about the man, something she had never before experienced. All she knew was that his presence was growing stronger by the minute.

She should have been rightfully nervous about trusting him to subdue her brother. She should have been terrified that all would not go as planned and that Keller would fail her in spite of his declaration. She knew what her brother was capable of. She had yet to know what Keller was capable of. Perhaps he would be weaker or less cunning than Gryffyn, but somehow, she didn’t think so. Keller de Poyer was anything but weak. She hoped that her brother had finally met his match.

Gazing down at her hand, the one Keller had kissed, she could only pray that she was right.





Chapter Seven





The process of rousting Gryffyn from the storage vaults hadn’t been an easy one.

Keller had taken all three of his knights and thirty of his men to accomplish the task. Entering the keep with his big numbers, he sent ten of his soldiers up to guard Chrystobel’s door while taking the rest with him to the storage vaults on the lower ground level of the keep.