“Dar!” Hamish gasped. Shock and hurt moulded his face.
“You mean that bear attack was you trying to take your life?” Gordon asked of his brother.
“A bear?” a young voice screamed.
Darshan whipped his head around to the other end of the table, where the children sat with wide eyes. He had rather forgotten their presence. Stupid. What had he been thinking?
“Is it true?” Sorcha snuffled. She clutched at the head of the bearskin draped over her chair. Although she was trying to put on a brave face, her chin trembled. “Is he going to die like Mum?”
Gordon slithered from his chair and scrambled to his daughter’s side to envelop her in his arms. “Nae, me wee lass,” he murmured, his voice cracking. “It’s all done now. Darshan killed it and healed your uncle. Nae one’s going to die.”
“You…” Nora shook her head, her focus only on Hamish. “Again? You promised you were past all this.”
His lover had made an attempt on ending his own life before? Rocking back on his heels, Darshan turned to seek the truth from the only reliable source.
Hamish ignored his sister in favour of Darshan. Those gorgeous blue eyes glistened with betrayal.
Only now he was faced with the outcome did the reality of what he had done flicker to life in his thoughts. I’m sorry. Hamish’s attempt wasn’t something that could be swept aside and forgotten, but he hadn’t meant to blurt it out like that.
“Really now, ‘Mish,” Queen Fiona huffed. “You cannae even do that right? Have you nae shame? Look at how you’ve terrified your poor niece.”
“You dare?” Darshan growled, his attention snapping back to the woman. “Your son has made it quite clear that he would prefer death over the future you have chosen for him. And rather than attempt to understand why and how he came to justify such a choice, you opt to berate him further for not fitting the mould you chose for him?”
Queen Fiona slowly rose from her seat. “How dare you speak to me in such a manner. You have nae idea—”
Darshan slammed his hands on the table. “I am nowhere near finished!” he snarled. The air around him crackled, the static charge lifting his hair. “There will be no trade agreement between our lands. I care not for what my father thinks on this matter, but you are an insult to your crown and your people. I refuse to deal with a ruler who would treat their own flesh and blood this way.”
The queen sneered. “Rich words coming from a man with slaves.”
The room grew hot, then icy. The stench of singed wood drifted in the air. Her son had tried to take his life and rather than focus on helping Hamish, she dared to throw a completely irrelevant fact in his face? His magic cried out to be used, to burn the source of his anger to cinders.
With a shudder that sapped his strength, he suppressed the urge.
“I do own slaves,” he replied, keeping his voice low in an effort to contain his anger. “As do a great many of the Udynean nobility.” It wasn’t something he was wholly proud of, but he had never once denied it. “They are also treated with more dignity and respect than you display to your own child.” He pushed off from the table, heading towards the door on unsteady legs. “I will depart these lands on the first ship headed for Minamist,” he shot over his shoulder.
“That willnae be for another fortnight,” Gordon said.
Darshan halted in the doorway. He knew that. The man had been there when Nora informed him. Did Gordon think Darshan had forgotten?
A fortnight. A lot could happen over such a time. Hamish could even make another attempt on his life. He would not allow that to happen, not in his presence. “Until then, I shall take my leave.”
~~~
Hamish stared at Darshan’s exiting back, then the door as the spellster left the room. How could he? Did the man even understand what he had done in blurting out the truth? All his freedom would be stripped from him. His mother would see he was accompanied within the castle as well as without.
He stood slowly, as if some part of his brain believed that would somehow keep people from noticing him. Maybe he could even reach his bed without anyone speaking. Maybe his mother would be lenient in light of the other clans milling around. Personal guards would look suspicious, especially to those who remembered the union contests thrown for his siblings.
“Where do you think you are going?” His mother’s question rang through the room like a funeral bell.
Hamish hunched his shoulders. “To bed?” he mumbled. He should never have come down here whilst she was still awake.
“A grand idea.” Gordon got to his feet before their mother could reply and gave his daughter a pat on the shoulder. “I’ll walk you there.” His brother glared at him, daring Hamish to argue the point.
Hamish merely waited for Gordon to catch up. No one else voiced their objection as they departed the dining hall. His brother was a better option than any choice his mother made; less restrictive on his part and more convenient for her to explain away. More of a brotherly discussion and less of an escort.
“Stupid, age-addled fool,” Gordon grumbled. Although his brother sauntered at his side, Gordon still led the way, meandering through the lesser-used corridors where idle ears wouldn’t be as much of a concern and their path was lit by the occasional lantern.
“You better nae be talking to me,” Hamish snapped back.
His brother shook his head. “You are a fool, but I should’ve seen this coming. I should’ve realised what you’d do the moment Nora told me about the contest. You goaded that bear.”
It wasn’t a question, but Hamish nodded anyway.
“Did you go out looking for it, too?” Gordon barely waited for
