CHAPTER FOURTEEN
RAGESWIRLEDTHROUGH Annick as she went down the halls, heading back toward her room. She felt mortally wounded. She had known that it would be a fight. That all of this would be so much work. But she had thought... She had thought that she would be able to reach him. Truly, she had. She felt nothing but deep regret over this.
It wasn’t her own pain. Not so much. It was his.
He still saw the bars. And until he decided not to, there was nothing she could do.
She heard a sound. A sound that was almost no sound, and then the brick beside her head split apart. She screamed, dropping low and crawling to her bedchamber, slamming the door behind her. She didn’t know where it had come from. And it was likely that whoever...
Suddenly, there was a hole in her bedroom door.
She lay flat, as flat as she could. Someone was actually trying to assassinate her.
It was happening. And Maximus wasn’t here. He wasn’t... She heard the sound of a struggle on the other side of the door. A roar, thunderous and terrible. Clattering and banging about. And then it was silent.
“Annick,” came the sound of a rough voice.
“Maximus,” she said.
“Open the door. It’s safe.”
She scrambled to her feet and went to the door. And there he was. Half-dressed, a wound on his face. “An assassin. From Lackland. So now you have your answer as to who is your enemy. It wasn’t just the other regime they wanted removed. They’ll be dealt with. Harshly.”
“Maximus...”
“You forget that I know secrets about them. I didn’t take the job to get rid of the dictator of this country without getting insurance. It will be dealt with. And you will be safe.”
“I...”
“I was distracted, Annick. Because of that, you nearly paid the price. It will not happen again. Never.”
“It was not... It was not anyone’s fault—it was only that...”
“It was my fault,” he said, his voice rough. “My fault. I will remain here. I will be your guard, but that is all it can be. A husband in name, but not...not in truth. All of tonight I should have been watching. I should have been prepared. But I was not. And you...you nearly died for it.”
“I wouldn’t trade anything about tonight.”
“I would trade everything,” he said. “It’s nice for you that you’re willing to sacrifice yourself, but I never will.”
“Maximus...this has nothing to do with anything that—”
“It does. It has everything to do with it. This is finished. We will not discuss it any further.”
“You don’t get to decide. You don’t get to decide everything about my life.”
His rejection was so final. So complete. He was still standing in the room but she could feel the separation. Could feel how absolute it was.
His face was stone. And in that moment, he was The King, and none of the man remained.
She did not know how to reach him. Didn’t know how to touch him.
And he was no longer going to allow it.
“Then you put us both in prison.”
“Better in prison alive and free than dead.”
He turned away from her and went back into the corridor. He was barking orders. Demanding to know how this had happened. There was practically a full-scale military operation happening in the front of the palace by the time she took her next breath.