Page 42 of The King’s Man (The Kingdom of the Krow #3)

~ JANN ~

I sat there, trembling, gripping Diadre’s hand. Her eyes were wide and clamped on me, but I didn’t take my eyes off of Melek.

It’s a ruse. It has to be. He warned me. Told me ahead of time.

But he also said it was better if I didn’t know… Because he needed me off-balance? Or because—

‘Yilan said don’t hurt Melek. It’s a trick and they’ll explain.’

Diadre’s voice in my head was like a cool drink of water after a long battle.

Melek sat back in his chair, ignoring my piercing gaze, watching until the others had all filed out. As the last of them slipped through the tent flat, Yilan got to her feet and started towards it.

I opened my mouth, but Melek put a hand up to stop me speaking. “Yilan is making certain we have no eavesdroppers,” he murmured quietly, watching his mate as she walked to the edge of the tent then disappeared.

It still made my skin crawl when they did that.

I sat there at the table, still gripping Diadre’s hand, my heel tapping. Diadre rubbed her free hand up and down my forearm.

Then suddenly, Yilan was back. “There’s no one close, but keep your voices down to be safe.”

“What the fuck was that?!” I hissed at Melek.

He shot me a warning look. “I told you—”

“Tell me you aren’t splitting us up!”

“I’m not.” He bit the word off like it was bitter on his tongue. “I wouldn’t. But I needed them to believe that I wanted to.”

“Why? They’re our allies!”

“To a point,” Melek agreed, his eyes drifting towards the tent flap. “You saw how they responded to the idea of the Shadekin being left with Theynor untouched.”

“What the fuck does that have to do with me claiming Diadre?”

Melek turned in his seat and leaned one elbow on his knee to bring our faces close together.

“I need them to believe that I have asked too much of you, so that when you both disappear, they believe you were the weak one,” he growled.

I bristled. But I knew Melek. He didn’t humble anyone without good reason. “Explain.”

Yilan came to stand at his side, her hand on his shoulder as he looked back and forth between Diadre and I while he spoke, his voice a low mutter that wouldn’t be heard across the tent, let alone outside.

“I want you both traveling ahead of me, sending messages back on anything you find—scoping each city before we arrive so I know what I’m walking into. But I need everyone outside of this tent to believe that you and I are at odds. That we argued, and there is bad blood in it.

“You take Diadre with you because she can hide you if it’s needed.

But when we leave this tent, you make great noise about my stupidity and your pride.

Let them know you were instrumental in my crowning, but now I’m overstepping and you won’t remain patient if it happens again.

Then… you leave. You say nothing to no one, you just… disappear. Both of you.”

I stared at my friend, my heart racing. If I complained about his strictures, then disappeared… Suddenly it all made sense—but Diadre spoke up.

“They’ll all assume he’s betraying you.”

Melek nodded. “Let them think it.”

“But… why?”

“Because you are the only two that I trust implicitly that Gall and Istral will also trust. Whoever has taken them has to have seen that they are tools against me—in life or death. I need you to find out what happened to them and to send me the news. Whatever it might be.”

“But that’s going to—”

I squeezed her hand to cut her off, though my stomach churned. The fierce light in Melek’s eyes said he didn’t want me to question it. Any of it.

“No matter what that news is, Jann. I need you to find it, pursue it, and then warn me. Do you understand?”

His eyes bored into mine, a warning. I growled as his words ran through my head.

No matter what that news is, Jann. I need you to find it, pursue it, and then warn me.

As the women looked at each other with worried frowns, I closed my mouth and nodded slowly. But my guts churned.

He was setting me up to look like a Betrayer so his enemies would trust me.

A strategy we’d used with assassins in the past. But beyond that…

he wanted me silent now because he wanted me to find the answers without Yilan being involved.

He didn’t want me to lay this out in front of her.

He wanted to me to get out there and deal with it.

And if there was action to be taken, he wanted Diadre and I to take it before Yilan could hear and attempt to avenge her sister herself.

But that meant Melek was asking me to put my mate at risk to ensure the safety of his. Wasn’t he?

Or was this part of the ruse?

“Yes, Sire,” I said quietly. Reluctantly.

Melek’s lips thinned, but he nodded and patted my shoulder as he stood. “Thank you, Jann. I knew I could trust you with this.”

I nodded too, but with a slightly sick feeling.

‘Are you okay?’ Diadre asked in my head as Melek and Yilan conferred on how soon Diadre and I should leave.

‘No, but I will be.’

‘I can do this, Jann. I’m glad to do it. This is my job. He’s right that I can help you if anyone comes for you. And I’ll be a lot safer if we’re away from the Neph.’

‘I know you can—and I’m glad we can do it together, too. Safe? For a time, yes. But, let’s keep it that way,’ I sent back.

Melek caught my look and took a deep breath, but didn’t speak for which I was grateful.

Because as I analyzed what this mission could become, anger spawned hot coals in my chest. For the first time I could remember, I wanted to put my best friend—and my King—to the ground.

I wanted to dominate him. To make him swear on his life that he wasn’t using my mate as bait.

But I couldn’t because the women were here. And he didn’t want Yilan to know.

Obviously he had some idea of what Diadre and I would find when we hunted the trail to Gall and Istral. And he believed if his mate was embroiled in it, it would be the end of her.

But did that mean he offered mine for the slaughter?