Page 180 of North Queen
Mikael stopped, and she felt his attention on her.
Her attacker nodded desperately. “Yes, of course, Salara.”
“What’s your name?” she asked him.
“Amet, Salara,” he said quickly.
“And you sought to avenge your sister?”
Amet fought back the tears and nodded his head. “Yes, Salara,” he said. “To avenge my family’s dishonor.”
“It’s you who dishonor your family, by attacking your salara, and without the decency of a challenge.” She paused, unable to say the words, unable to speak his fate. But she had to. “I can’t let you live,” she managed to get out.
The man nodded, weeping.
Quickly, she told herself. She needed to be quick to save the rest of them. Her eyes moved back to Myral. “But you. I forgive your words, and I won’t seek further justice, against you or your family.”
Amet and his sister gasped in relief, crying in appreciation.
Norah glanced back at Mikael, and rage rippled across his brow. His lips parted, flashing his teeth. She’d pardoned them publicly. Would he overrule her with his own judgment?
Urgency clawed at her. “Remove them,” she ordered the guards. She didn’t want Amet’s family to see his fate, and if she could get them away before Mikael acted on the threat in his eyes…
The guards grabbed the family and dragged them from the courtyard. Myral let out a cry but didn’t resist.Gentler, Norah wanted to call out, but Mikael’s fury grew with each passing moment, and she just wanted them gone. Away.
Mikael watched as they were dragged from the courtyard. He didn’t stop them, but his need for retribution hung heavy in the air. She gave into it, nodding to the punisher. Amet resigned himself to his fate as the steel blade came for his life. Blood sprayed across the cobblestone. Even though she knew it was coming, she couldn’t help but flinch.
A sickening calm settled over the courtyard.
Norah clutched her stomach tightly. Her lip trembled, but not from the crippling pain she gritted her teeth against. She had to get away from the death, away from this place, away from Mikael. She moved back toward her chair with as much calm as she could muster, but she thought she might not make it.
“Salara,” Bhastian’s voice came behind her. “Let me carry you. You can’t walk.”
She shook her head. “No,” she breathed through the pain, “just help me back.”
He took her arm and walked her back, and she sank thankfully into the chair when she reached it. Then he pushed her back to the castle.
Back in her chamber, Norah let Bhastian and Vitalia help her into the bed, where the healer busied himself with checking her wounds.
Mikael entered, standing back and waiting as Norah was tended to. She refused to look at him. He was angry, she knew. But she was angry too. He would kill an entire family…
The healer gave a nod when he was finished. “The wounds are fine,” he told her. “But you need to be more careful until you’re healed.”
The healer and Vitalia gave a bow and left her to Mikael. She could feel the burn of his gaze, but she still couldn’t look at him. “Those people were innocent,” she said. She couldn’t keep her voice from shaking. “They didn’t need to die.”
“They did,” he replied with cold gravel in his voice. “They did so that everyone would know what happens to those who threaten you.Youcould have died.”
She snapped her gaze to his. “But I didn’t!”
“But now they know you’re weak.”
“Mercy isn’t weakness!” she spat back.
“Fear is!” His nostrils flared, and his brow dropped low. “You didn’t spare them with mercy! You spared them because you couldn’t stomach their blood.” He drew back. “And I’m weak for letting you.”
He left her alone in the wake of his anger.
Chapter fifty-two
