Page 41 of The King has Fallen (The Kingdom of the Krow #1)

~ MELEK ~

An hour later, my skin still hummed and my heart was swelling, but Yilan slept—deeply. Curled into my side and her body completely slack… her trust in me was so touching it made my chest tight.

But when things had been quiet for so long, Jann obviously thought she was killing me in my sleep or something, because he stuck his head into the tent, jaw tight.

Carefully curling a wing around her to keep her shaded from sight and hopefully muffle any sound so she wouldn’t wake, I held up the hand that wasn’t bound to hers and motioned him closer, gesturing for him to remain quiet.

I sighed when Jann reached my side, glaring and hands clenched to fists as he stared down at me and my wing that obscured her from sight. I didn’t like the anger in him, but I knew we needed to speak, and I didn’t want to wake her.

My chosen brother was the most laid back and easy-going Nephilim I knew. He rarely disapproved or took issue with me or my actions. But when he did… he would not let it go until he’d been heard.

So I just watched him and waited. Speculating in my mind about which problem he’d raise first—and what he’d fight for.

He surprised me.

“How does it feel?” he asked finally, his voice a bare whisper, though the edge it in was still rage.

I frowned. “The bond?”

“Yes. And with her.” He said her as if she were some kind of mythical creature he hadn’t thought was real, and he was struggling to articulate it.

Unprepared for this line of questioning, I gave it some thought. “It feels like… like I finally found my home,” I admitted.

Jann shook his head slowly. “A Fetch.”

“I know.”

“Do you?” he asked pointedly.

I met his gaze to find him staring at me with real fear in his eyes.

“Are you certain she hasn’t pulled some magik, or moved your mind or… something?”

I chewed on that for a moment, because it was exactly what I would have assumed if he were in my position, and I couldn’t deny that it hadn’t crossed my mind. But… “No, it’s not. I did worry about it for a time—I felt the bond before she did. But no. I’m sure. There is… this isn’t just a lust for her, Jann.”

“Then what is it?”

I blew out my breath. “It’s as if she’s alive inside me. When she feels pleasure, I feel it too. When she feels afraid, it alerts my senses. When she is angry, I’m furious.” I was whispering so quietly, my voice cut out at the end when emotion flooded my senses.

He snorted, then rolled his eyes when I gestured for him to be quiet.

“That’s just your pride,” he muttered.

“No, Jann. It’s my soul braided with hers. We are… one.”

I held his gaze as he stared, a very odd look on his face. “Then how the fuck are you going to leave?” he asked, glancing at the door as if someone might come in.

“What choice do I have? It’s leave and save her life, or stay and watch it taken. Or force her to watch me be killed, knowing that she’s going to be violated and destroyed when I’m gone.”

That thought made my blood run cold. Even memories of the way she’d walked the shadows in front of me didn’t really soothe that fear. She’d admitted the power wasn’t faultless—and could only be used for short distances. If she were in the middle of this camp and they knew what she was doing…

An image bloomed in my head—Gault laughing his ugly, malicious laugh, holding her in front of him and—

I flinched and Jann caught it.

“What—?”

“It wouldn’t just be death,” I muttered, squirming, holding her more tightly under my wing. “It would be worse. Gault would take her in front of me. If he knew, he’d bind me, hold the hounds on me, and rape her right in front of me so I had to listen to her scream—”

I cut off, my voice shaking, my body pulsing between fear and rage.

“I can’t do it, Jann. I can’t even risk it.”

“Wake up, Melek. You already are.”

God, hearing that was like being dropped in a trough in the middle of winter, when the ice had formed a crust over it.

“Precisely why I have to leave. And so does she,” I hissed.

“Yeah, I can tell she’s very committed to that plan,” Jann murmured.

I scowled. “She knows. She fights because it’s all she knows how to do.”

“So, she’s a warrior for their people, too?”

I shrugged. “Of sorts. A spy. An Adept. She is… like nothing I’ve ever seen before. She’s incredible, Jann. And she loves me.”

I didn’t miss that Jann didn’t affirm that statement. I tried not to bite at him, not to press—if our roles were reversed, I’d be skeptical too. But my hackles were up.

“This isn’t a trick,” I growled.

“Are you certain?”

“Yes.”

“Don’t give it any thought at all, Melek. Just go ahead and throw the entire nation’s future underfoot. I said, Are you certain?” Jann turned, eyes blazing and teeth bared. “Do you know that she is not deceiving you?”

I was surprised by the peace in my chest when he asked so angrily. “Yes, brother. I do. This is bigger than both of us. She fought it longer than I did, for these very reasons.”

Jann slumped, seeming slightly soothed, but still uneasy. He raked a hand through his hair and stared down at the dirt under his feet.

“So, what are you going to do?” he asked finally.

“Spend every second of the next two days with her, loving her, and convincing her to leave when I do—and not follow me—then fight my way through to her land and…”

I trailed off because I didn’t have a plan beyond that yet.

Jann looked at me. “Then what? Surrender?”

“No. I…”

He huffed. “You don’t know.”

I didn’t want to answer.

He dropped his voice again. “You don’t fucking know, do you? You’re going to line us up at the Shadows of Shade and all you’ll be thinking about is finding her while the rest of us get slaughtered in the fog!”

“No.”

“Yes. God, Melek—even if you don’t want it, that’s what’s going to happen!”

“No, it’s not. We’re going to make a plan. Find a way to… to ally. Or… I don’t know yet, but—” My head was spinning. My heart thudding uncomfortably in my chest. Yilan took a deep breath and both of us froze until her breathing returned to the low, slow rhythm of sleep.

“As long as Gault walks this earth, you will never be King, Melek,” Jann whispered so quietly I had to strain to hear him.

I went still, eyes snapping to his face, letting him see the warning in mine. “I don’t want to be King, Jann. I never have.”

Jannus stared, emotion and thought flickering behind his eyes too quick for me to catch. Then he broke the gaze and dropped his sullen gaze to the dirt again.

“I know,” he admitted reluctantly. “But that just means we’re all fucked. So you better enjoy her while you can.”

I wanted to protest, but I was very, very afraid that he was right.