Page 72 of Ashborne Forged

“…Dear Lord, you’re a dramatic lot, aren’t you? I paid good money to marry her, and she won’t leave my sight until we are vowed and she’s with child. Perhaps later she can return to play with your dragons again. But until she’s bred, she remains with me.”

Grace sobbed, and I lost my fucking mind, roaring, screaming for her, dragging my brothers forward.

There were shouts and orders and voices raised on every side, dragons screaming above, and chaos, but I saw none of it, heard nothing.

Only her—those eyes, round and weeping as she struggled against him, but couldn’t loosen his grip. And he dragged her like a common animal.

“Grace! GRACE!”

“Stop—Voski, fucking stop!”

I screamed as Ronen and Gil wrestled me to the ground, screaming and swearing, choking on the words as I tried desperately to make them understand.

“Don’t let him take her!” I pleaded, my voice ragged from my screams.

“I won’t—but for fuck’s sake!” Ronen replied. I tried to fight, even when he nodded at some of the others to follow. But I was outnumbered. Taken to ground, pinned to the cobblestones by multiple bodies heavier than mine. And no matter how I fought, I could only watch in horror as Grace was dragged across the courtyard, toward a carriage, and four glossy horses, frothing at the mouths, jittery and dancing. The nervous beasts’ eyes rolled, afraid of the screaming dragons overhead.

But they were held by footmen at the edge of the common lawn, just feet from the road that eventually led out of the Keep—out of Vosgaarde entirely, if someone didn’t fucking stop them.

24. Specter of the Past

~ GRACE ~

After Donavyn was angered by Voski and shoved him out of the stable, I was worried. But Bren assured me, it was how the men dealt with each other. She’d urged me to come with her to the dining hall to eat while they sorted it out. She seemed unhappy, but not afraid. And I didn’t know what else to do. Voski was so angry again.

“Donavyn will handle it,” Bren said confidently, though her expression was weary. “Leave them to it. I want to hear your story. Did he really deny the bond and not even take you during the heat?!” she said, shocked.

Reluctantly, I left the stable with her and made our way toward the buildings. I tried to tell her the story, but struggled to keep my train of thought. I could feel Voski—angry, afraid, humbled, sick… I kept looking back over my shoulder in the direction of the stables. I could feel Voski struggling. Wrestling. Resisting… and then softening.

I was so distracted when I felt the shift in him, I stopped walking, and Bren turned, looking concerned.

“What is it?”

“I’m not sure.” We stood on the path just outside the main building courtyard. Men approached from four different directions, all them in pursuit of the warm scents that flowed out of the dining hall every time the doors were opened.

Then, as I considered going back, I felt Koa alarm, at the same time shouts rose around us. I was sending to her and watching back the way we’d come, when a thick hand landed on my arm, and a deep voice muttered, “There you are.”

Half-expecting Ronen had somehow found out about our subterfuge regarding our absence, and already mentally preparing my pleas for forgiveness, I turned—and froze at the sight of a handsome, richly dressed man, thirty years my senior, with gray at his temples, and an expression of angry satisfaction on his lined face.

Lord Breckon.

My heart slammed against my ribs.

The man to whom my father promised me.

“How did you—?” I breathed, but I couldn’t get the sentence out before he gave a savage smile and a mocking bow.

“My Lady Grace, how satisfying to finally see you again.”

I gaped, my head empty, as Bren stared at me. “Grace? Who is this man?”

“This is Lord B-Breckon,” I faltered on the word.

Bren’s brow furrowed, but she turned to him and pasted on the manners I’d seen her use in Fyrehold, her expression wary. “It is lovely to meet you, of course, Lord Breckon. I don’t believe I’ve had the pleasure before?”

“You wouldn’t have, of course,” he said, his smile fading. “The Lady Grace hasn’t seen fit to introduce me or inform me of her whereabouts so I might introduce myself.”

Bren looked from him to me, and my heart sank.