Page 31 of The King has Fallen (The Kingdom of the Krow #1)

~ MELEK ~

I woke with a start the next morning, my entire body jolting with alarm when the tent flap snapped back with no warning.

Yilan is in bed with me.

I sat bolt upright, throwing the furs aside to cover… nothing. I blinked, looking down at the empty space next to me to see that the hollow left in the mattress where she had been laying was empty. Jann was striding into the tent and—

“I see you rise as reliably as the sun, Captain…” Yilan’s tone was suggestive, and made even more provocative by being husky from sleep. And crying last night.

I blinked and looked at the cage, to find her sitting on the side of the cot, her feet on the floor and elbows on her knees, like she’d just woken and was taking a moment before she stood.

Her head was turned toward the sunlight that had followed Jann into the tent and she squinted against it, her hair sticking out in every direction as Jann chuckled and let the flap drop and returned her to shade.

“Good morning to you, too,” he said warmly.

An ugly burst of possessive jealousy detonated in my chest so my voice was harsher than I’d intended when I spoken.

“What the fuck are you doing here so early on a peace day?”

They both looked at me in surprise, Yilan’s eyes puffy, Jann’s a little wide.

“Early? The sun has been up for two hours, Mel,” Jann said with brows high.

Shit! I tossed back the rest of the furs and leaped out of the bed, then caught myself as I remembered it was a peace day and most of my duties would be set aside, at least in theory. Which was why no one had woken me. Even the servants were on minimal duties.

I rubbed my eyes with the heels of my hands and took a deep breath. I needed to think.

Yilan had been free, and hadn’t run. She had put herself back in the cage.

I turned to look at her and adrenaline coursed through me again when I caught sight of the unlocked door.

Jann couldn’t be allowed to notice.

“Let’s start again,” I said gruffly, moving across the tent to find my leathers and drawing his eyes away from the cage. “Good morning, Jann. Peace to you.”

“Peace to you as well, Mel,” he said jovially. “Late night?”

“Too late.”

“You’re getting too old for those kinds of shenanigans.”

“And you’re not?”

“You’ve got at least five years on me. I will forever be more virile than you, brother.”

I snorted, buttoning my leathers then reaching for my weapon straps before hesitating. This was supposed to be a time of recognized peace. Within the camp, I often went without my spears.

But then I remembered that moment the Shade came at me—I would have been dead if Yilan hadn’t seen him first and warned me…

After buckling my weapon straps, I slid two large daggers into the sheaths on the shoulders. That way I wouldn’t be unarmed, but also wouldn’t be obviously bristling with weapons.

“I’m hungry,” I said. “Have you had breakfast?”

“I was just coming to ask the same of you.”

“Perfect. Let’s go.”

Jann’s brows rose and he turned to look at Yilan. “Are you sure? Gall is still asleep and I thought you’d told him—”

Following his gaze, I caught eyes with Yilan who hadn’t moved from her seat, but was staring up at me with a strange intensity on her face.

The cage was unlocked.

I couldn’t lock it in front of Jann without drawing attention to that.

If I left, she’d be free—if she wished to be. She’d had a chance to escape twice now, and hadn’t taken it. But perhaps this morning she’d only woken as Jann was approaching and…

And did it matter? My thoughts of the night before came swimming back, turning my heart into a deadweight.

She could not be safe here… even with me.

I’d turned the problem over in my mind for hours, but always ended up right where I had started: She could not possibly be safe here. Even with me. The pressure around her would only increase. And the moment something happened to me, or I was taken away for other duties, she would be devoured.

My only options were to endure her inevitable death, or to help her escape. Which meant there was only one choice. I would not be party to the death of my mate, whether the bond was completed or not.

But I also hadn’t thought I’d be taking action on that this quickly. My soul shivered at the idea of losing her already. I’d only just found her! Yet, it could not be denied that I had made the decision in logic and analysis, in the dark of night. If God opened a door, it was foolish not to walk through it.

“I’m sure,” I answered Jann, who was frowning between us. “If she can release herself in the few minutes it takes me to eat, then she’s as smart as she claims, and deserves to be free,” I said, praying she heard the true meaning of my words.

Yilan’s brows popped up and I tore my eyes from her, gesturing to Jann to go first out of the tent, but hanging back, walking slowly so that he preceded me out of the tent by several paces.

The moment Jann was outside, she hissed, “What are you doing?!”

Stepping closer to the cage as I headed for the door, I whispered to her. “We’ll be twenty minutes. Use it.”

“Melek—”

“There’s no time to explain. But you’re too vulnerable here. Just go.”

Her eyes went wide, but I turned on my heel—my ribs creaking, my heart screaming, my soul twisting like a dagger in my chest.

My feet were so heavy it seemed my boots were made from lead. But I forced myself to keep walking, to keep my eyes on that tent flap and the freedom it now symbolized.

Freedom for her.

Torment for me—but what choice did I have? She was my mate. I couldn’t keep her imprisoned. And the moment I had my back turned, any of these males might come for her. I couldn’t fight two wars.

If the King wanted to see me humbled, well, the loss of the prisoner would do it. And if that meant she was finally safe…

It felt as if two hands gripped my skull, trying to force my head to turn back, to look at her, to drink her in before I stepped out of the tent. But I braced myself and kept my eyes ahead, slipping out into the sunlight, nodding at Jann’s questioning look as if I hadn’t understood what it meant, then striding forward and away. Towards the campfires. And breakfast.

And the rest of my life with a gaping hole in my soul.

.

The communal eating area at the center of camp was usually bustling with Nephilim at any time of day. We were an army with patrols and duties around the clock. Our kitchen never closed. There were multiple fires, multiple stations at which a Neph could be served hot food. And a large area full of tables, stools and even stumps of wood to be used as seats for when things were really busy.

But this morning the dining area was almost empty. In the thin sunlight of an autumn morning, there were only a handful of Nephilim awake and eating, spread out at the many tables and stools. Which meant it was quiet. And not nearly distracting enough.

I started questioning my decision to free her the moment we made it to the campfires. The servants—heavy-lidded and mumbling, dragged from their beds to make the meal—served us, then dropped back to their seats next to the fires.

So, Jann and I took a table in the middle where no one else would hear our conversation.

He spoke lightly of the events of the night before, describing pranks, drunk stupidity, and amusing anecdotes I didn’t really follow, but made myself smile when Jann laughed.

I kept finding myself looking off to the right, in the direction of my tent, wondering if she was already gone.

It was the perfect time to attempt an escape. The guards would be few, and tired. And focused on any attempting to get in to camp, not out of it. With her skills in the shadows, she could probably turn them in circles, or slip past without them even realizing she’d been close—

“Mel!” Jann snapped.

I blinked and turned back to him. “What?”

Jann arched one brow, looked pointedly down at my untouched plate, then back up to me. “I thought you were hungry?”

I was. But not for food.

“Sure, sure,” I mumbled, dropping my head and digging into the food. “I was just distracted. I guess I’m a little hungover after all,” I lied.

I thought I did a fairly good job of engaging with him from that point. But my thoughts never stopped turning to her and where she might be. I managed to stay away from the tent for a full thirty minutes, but by then we’d both finished eating and Jann was talking about washing up.

Shying away from any mention of bathing, I clasped his arm and bid him to have a peaceful day, then turned to the trail that would eventually take me through the camp and back to my tent at its edge.

“Mel?”

I stopped, just one pace away and turned.

Jann was staring at me strangely. “Aren’t you going to take her some food?”

Shit. “Yes, yes. Of course. I’m just—”

“Are you okay?”

“I’m fine. Just tired, as I said,” I muttered, clapping his back in thanks as I hurried past him, back to the fires to get another platter.

He watched me for a moment, but I pretended I didn’t notice as I asked a servant to dish a plate for her and took it, turning back to the trail and raising my chin to him as I passed between the tents and out of his sight… then slumped.

Surely she had to be gone by now?

My heart panged, and my steps dragged. But I had nowhere else to be. And I needed some time to plan my strategy for telling Gault she’d escaped.

By the time I made it to the tent, my body felt heavy and I was considering covering her cage and going back to bed to buy myself some time and rest before all hell blew up.

Then I pushed the flap aside and stepped in… and Yilan lifted her head from where she sat in the cage reading one of my books?

I blinked, my breath catching.

She smiled. “Is that pork? I could smell you coming.”

“What are you doing here?” I hissed, hurrying to the cage—only to find it locked. I frowned. “How did you—”

“Melek, we can discuss when or how I might leave. But… I don’t believe my purpose here has been fulfilled. Not yet,” she said carefully, standing but staying away from the cage door as I opened it and stepped in to hand her the plate.

She took it in both hands because it was large for her, then looked up at me, her eyes shining and serious.

All that screaming pain that had been stabbing at me since I’d thought she would be gone flipped into warmth and hope. Had she sensed the bond? Was she going to—

“Thank you for… for comforting me last night,” she whispered. “But we must be more careful. I’m still the enemy, Melek,” she finished quietly. “The Covenant Days will end and then…”

That weight bore down on my shoulders again and I frowned at her.

But she just took the platter over to her cot, sat down, and started eating.

A moment later I sighed, stepped out of the cage, and locked her in again.

“You’re welcome,” I said, then turned away to make my bed and sort out my whirling thoughts.