Page 149 of On Silver Winds
Of course she did. They’d tried to kill her, but being Adeline, she was worried she’d gravely injured them in defence of her own life.
Kai reached over and yanked the assailant’s hood back, none too gently.
“I don’t know him,” Adeline said, answering the question he hadn’t asked. “I don’t know either of them. But the cloaks…”
“Doran’s men. The Queen’s Gard.”
She nodded again, then shivered and wrapped her arms tighter around herself.
“Come on,” she said. “Before they come to.”
The halls were dark and still – Adhlas only knew what hour it was, but it certainly hadn’t broken dawn. Kai kept close to the walls, not only for the scant light of the fading torches, but because his head still felt as though it were wrapped in layers of wool. His feet seemed to need a moment to respond before each step. The castle was boundless – endless, impossible flights of stairs. It seemed an age later that they finally reached Silas’s quarters.
The door was already open, and the Duke paced back and forth just beyond it. When he saw Adeline, his eyes went wide on a deep gasp of relief, and he tugged her to him, grabbing her face in his hands and looking her over for signs of injury like she was a little girl who had taken a tumble in the play-yard.
He ushered them both inside after many assurances that they were mostly unharmed.
“How did you know we were coming?”
“Imogen. It seems she’d been out toasting to the Queen’s memory, and she ran into His Majesty’s footman on her way home.”
“He’s not my –” Kai started, but it didn’t matter and his throat was on fire. “Simon.”
“Yes, Simon. He told her what happened and she hurried up here to meet you.”
“Where is she now?” asked Adeline.
He waved his hand, a little too quickly. “She’ll be back in a moment. Never mind that now.”
He took Adeline by the hand and gestured for Kai to follow them to the small parlour outside his bedroom, where the two of them sat on a small loveseat across from the Duke’s armchair. He leaned in urgently, still gripping his daughter’s hand.
“Tell me what happened.”
Adeline recounted the events, more than a bit shakily. She’d come to Kai’s room, but when she knocked and called out for him, it wasn’t Kai who came to the door. One of them had dragged her inside, the other already on top of a drugged and unconscious Kai.
“So they didn’t intend to kill you.”
Adeline shook her head.
“They did. You know when you’re about to meet your death and – that man was going to kill me, Papa. He was waiting for something.”
She glanced at Kai, and he didn’t miss the loaded, entirely terrified expression there.
“They were waiting until I was dead.”
“I think so. They were pleased I’d shown up. They laughed. Thanked me for making their night that much easier.”
“They would have – they would have made it look as though I was the one who had –”
“Killed me,” she finished. “And then yourself.”
The three of them sat with that revelation for an endless moment.
“It was Edward.”
“Kai, for the love of all the fucking Daughters –”
“I think he’s right, Adeline,” said Silas. He clenched his fist against his armrest, but not before Kai noticed how violently his fingers shook. “Who else stands anything to gain? He has Doran’s ear; you know they’re old friends. Through the Captain, he has access to the Queen’s Gard, and Kai as good as accused him of regicide, before the eyes and ears of several powerful witnesses - they may not have understood what was said, but Edward certainly did.”
