Page 53 of The King has Fallen (The Kingdom of the Krow #1)

~ MELEK ~

I sighed and pulled her close, holding her for a moment, closing my eyes and inhaling her scent, trying to fix the memory in my mind so I’d never lose it.

Then she relaxed against me, finally.

I was trying to figure out how to raise the specter of Gall—eventually I needed to find him and explain—when someone cleared their throat just outside the tent flap and I almost leaped through the roof.

Yilan drew her dagger, but I motioned to her to stay there as I started creeping across the floor towards it.

“Sire, may I enter? I have a message for the General.”

Already halfway across the tent, I slumped. It was Jann.

Hurrying the rest of the way, I leaned out the tent-flap, scanning the area behind him as I grasped his shirt, pulled him inside, and hissed at him to draw no attention.

He came in, eyes down the way Gault would require, but then his gaze rose when he realized the tent was empty except for me and Yilan.

“Thank God you came,” I whispered to him. “There’s no time to explain, but I need your help.”

He stared around the tent, but nodded. “Of course, but—”

“I need you to run messages. Tell the Council that the King is drunk and having one of his moments. That I’m trying to convince him to stick with the plan. And I need them to stay away so he’ll relax and sleep it off.”

Jann nodded, but he glanced at Yilan with a question in his eyes. I ignored it.

“Tell all his servants that he has ordered them to remain off duty until the end of the Covenant. We must not be interrupted before I leave tomorrow.”

“Of course, but… Melek, where—”

Then his eyes fell on the stain in the dirt and the dark splatters on the bed and he froze.

His head snapped up to me and I saw the whites of his eyes. “Melek, what the fuck is going on?”

I put both my hands up. “It is truly not what you think, brother,” I said quickly, praying he was too distracted to notice Yilan drawing her knife again, because the last thing I needed was those two coming to blows. “But I do need your help to delay any… attention in this direction.”

Jann swallowed, looking at that dark stain again, then at me, then at Yilan, then back to me. Then he swallowed again.

“Don’t be afraid, Jann,” Yilan muttered bitterly behind him. “I assure you, he stubbornly clings to every last word he has ever given.”

Jann turned quickly to look at her, frowning.

I nodded but clapped his shoulder to get his eyes back on me. “You have nothing to worry about,” I said quietly.

Yilan scoffed, but Jann just stared at me. “And Gall?” he asked softly.

“I’m going to go find him when he’s had time to calm down and then—”

“I’ll do it,” Jann said with another wary glance at Yilan.

I shook my head. “No, it really does need to be me. There are some things we need to discuss.”

“But—”

“Jann, if you can help us keep everyone away from this tent, that would be the best help I could hope for.”

He stared at me, and I knew he suspected. But he was also smart enough to know he didn’t want to know.

Then he nodded and offered his arm for me to clasp. I took it and pulled him into a quick, thumping hug, praying that it wasn’t the last time we’d have the chance to embrace. Then, nodding once to Yilan, he was gone. Yilan remained still, staring at the door where he’d exited.

“How long until you’re—”

She hissed and snapped a hand up to stop me speaking, then stepped aside, into the shadow of a set of drawers, and then she was gone.

I gaped. Did she think we had people listening? Or was she just being cautious?

I paced the dirt, waiting. After a few moments, I was almost biting through my tongue to stop myself calling after her to make sure she was safe.

But then, finally, she stepped out of the shadow behind the armoire, frowning.

“We’re alone,” she whispered. “But Jann doesn’t trust me anymore.”

I was tempted to make a joke about how that might be smart given how easily she’d ended the King, but her skin was still pale and her eyes were haunted. It was too soon.

Death left a stain. Always. And not just in the dirt.

“Was he your first?” I asked her gently.

She gave a wide berth to that dark puddle on the floor, but shook her head. “No.”

“So you truly are an assassin?”

“I am the best shadow walker of our kind,” she said with a humble, one-shouldered shrug. “I was born for this.”

“No. You were born for me,” I said gruffly.

Her eyes lit up then and she made a beeline for me, coming to stand at my feet, staring up at me like she didn’t quite believe I was real.

“Melek Handras— General Melek Handras, I love you,” she said quietly. “I hate the decisions you’re making, but I love you.”

“I could say the same,” I said, trying for humor. I even managed a half-smile. But she just plowed on.

“You need to let us find Gall,” she said hurriedly, like she’d been thinking about it and anticipated that I wouldn’t be happy.

“Absolutely not. If he sees you—or anyone else for that matter—materializing out of a shadow, he might actually lose his mind.”

“And if my men return while you’re gone, what then?” she asked tightly.

I sucked in a breath. “Then you go, and you stay safe.”

“Melek—”

“No, Yilan. You gave me your word. I don’t want to leave you, either. I don’t want you gone. But if safety appears, you grasp it. You grasp it and cling until I make it through the ravine.”

“How the fuck are you going to make it to battle if you are putting yourself before a Judge tomorrow?”

“I’m trusting that if we are intended to survive this, God is going to find a way. And if we aren’t… well, then I wouldn’t have anyway, no matter what course I took.”

Her jaw flexed. “You say that so easily, as if walking away from me is—”

“Do not finish that sentence,” I growled. “You know it isn’t true… Don’t you?”

She stared at me, but then she slowly nodded and her shoulders rolled forward. “I’m sorry, Melek, I’m just… there are so many other choices here and you’re refusing to see them.”

I sighed and stepped up to hold her arms, looking down at her so she’d see I was hiding nothing. “I have never denied that there are other ways to walk through this world,” I said quietly. “But if you believe that others follow me, then you must know they do it because I walk with integrity and to serve. To run now—or to take the throne by force—would fly in the face of everything I have ever claimed to be. I meant what I said, Yilan. If there is any blessing on me, it is because God is pleased with me. I will not call down His wrath alongside the rest of this shit.”

“But then that means we will have no choice but to say goodbye,’ she said, her eyes welling again.

“I pray it isn’t goodbye, but… until we meet again. I pray that fervently, Yilan. I promise you, there is nothing that I want more than to gather up Gall and run with you. Hold you. Be with you. Turn my back on everything and everyone else.But… I can’t.”

Her forehead pinched, but she reached up to cup my face. “I know,” she whispered, blinking back her tears. “I do. I just…”She blew out a breath and looked down. “I’m sorry, Melek. I want to make love to you—it may be our last chance. But I can’t… not here. Not in his bed—or even in this tent where he has violated so many.” She glanced over her shoulder and shuddered.

“It’s okay, Love,” I whispered, pulling her in. “I feel the same. I have some time. Gall needs some space to calm down. So we’ll use that to sit here and hold each other until your… friends return. Then we will say goodbye and I will find Gall.”

I heard her swallow. She didn’t nod, but she sighed and sat up, holding my face. “If you’re traveling tomorrow you need to keep up your strength. I’m sure there must be snacks here, or something in this tent. You can’t tell me that brute only ate at mealtimes.”

I shook my head. “I couldn’t eat,” I said quickly.

“But—”

“I’m serious, Yilan. I think my stomach would revolt. If you’re worried about it, let’s get a drink from the casks,” I said, nodding towards the back corner of the tent. “Something to fortify our nerves.”

She bit her lip, obviously nervous about the idea of me suffering effects of alcohol. But I wouldn’t drink enough to affect my mind. Just a little to loosen my tension.

Yilan sighed again and urged me to stay there in the chair while she found two mugs and filled them both from one of the casks, then brought them back to me, making a great show of presenting me one of them before holding her own up.

I raised mine and smiled when she offered the toast. “For the great General Melek Handras. My mate. Father to Gall. Defeater of the Pig King. And incredible, soulful man,” she said, her voice trailing off to a whisper at the end.

We clunked the mugs and began to drink, but I was moved so deeply, I reached for her with my free hand before I’d even finished emptying the mug and tossed it aside. She made a little squeak as I pulled her back into my lap. But she was smiling.

And so, as she sipped at her mug, I stroked her hair back over her shoulder and buried my nose in her neck.

And as time dragged on and the adrenaline wore off, and we both started to feel drowsy, she urged me to lay my head on the back of the chair, then she lay against my chest, her temple resting on my shoulder.

I fought sleep, knowing her countrymen might show up at any moment, and I wanted to wallow in every moment until then.

“I’ll take Gall,” she whispered at one point, just as my eyelids began to close.

“Hmmm?”

“I’ll take Gall with me,” she whispered, then kissed my cheek. “No matter what, he’ll be safer with us than he is here.”

“I have to talk to him first.”

She sighed and nodded against my shoulder, her hand stroking up and down my chest.

“I love you, Melek,” she said in a tiny voice. “No matter what happens… I love you.”

“I love you too…”

I knew I should say more. But I was so tired. And so I just held her to me and finally let my eyes drift closed and stay there. Before I sank fully into the dark, I lifted a plea to God to give us more time. Any more time. Don’t let this be it…

Please…