Gideon


    The fire from the makeshift camp of Malevolent Guards was roaring to life with every toss of firewood. Keeley pushed another twig in with the tip of her boot and then tilted her head toward the knot of trees just on the outskirts of the small clearing, away from the rest of the guards who’d joined Keeley on this mission—the best of the best, it appeared, only leaving newer recruits and a few stragglers behind after the raven from The Viin had arrived letting them know their mission was finally a go.


    Gideon flexed his hand on the hilt of the de he had strapped to his side, a grim feeling following him with every step, pressing into the dirt. He’d been enjoying herpany so much he’d nearly forgotten that his intention had been to disarm her and pry the truth from her lips. But that was proving to be far more difficult as the night passed by.


    The air was fresh and cooling, the dew already coating over the grass a pleasant reprieve from the heat of the daytime. He smelled lemons again and was beginning to believe that Keeley had shoved the rinds in her pockets just to drive him mad.


    When she spun toward him, his hand stayed on the hilt, pulling the sword out of its sheath inch by inch, but before he could pull it any farther, Keeley decided that she was going to strike him at the knees.


    By slowly, deliberately, and agonizingly taking down her hair as she spoke to him. The act itself was casual andfortable, gobsmacking him so thoroughly he nearly abandoned the mission he’d set out to aplish. Prove Keeley guilty or innocent. Find what she was hiding.


    He couldn’t reasonably do that with a rapidly closing windpipe.


    “There’s a Valiant Guard shift change at first light,” Keeley said, unwinding thest strand of her braid and letting a cascade of honey-blond locks fall well past her back. Gods, it must take a fortnight to wash all of that. Gideon had half a mind to offer to assist the next time she had to attempt such a feat, but then he recalled that she was likely a traitor to every person he was meant to be loyal to. It really put a damper on the fantasy.


    “I’m aware. I used to be one, remember?” Gideon said, releasing the hilt of the weapon and folding his arms over his chest. “So what?”


    Keeley huffed, pulling a thickb from the bag at her waist, then dropped to the ground and began tugging roughly through the strands. Gideon’s scalp ached just from watching. “So that means we’ll have an opening to take out the next group and rece them with one of ours for guarding the female guvre.”


    Gideon raised a skeptical brow. “You don’t think they’ll be anticipating something like that?” Or maybe she knew that they would be. Maybe she was leading this group of The Viin’s guards right into a trap. It was the only exnation for why she’d been so willing to include him.


    He was at best a prisoner in The Viin’s office and at worst a traitor to the women in his family. Both made him the scum of the earth, and the captain, from the moment she’did eyes on him, had seen it. He could see the echo of disgust in her eyes.


    “Maybe.” She sighed, shoulders dropping as sheid her arms across her knees. “But I don’t know what else to do.” She looked up at him with such sincerity, he didn’t feel right standing above her. Lowering slowly until he was seated next to her, mimicking her position, he let out a whistle.


    “Are you trying to ask me for help?” Gideon nudged his shoulder against hers and watched with twisted glee as she rolled her eyes, even as the dimples on her cheeks peeked through.


    “No.” She paused and then sighed, pulling theb harder through her tangled strands. “Fine. Yes. I don’t want to fail at this. The boss has never entrusted us with a task this important. In all the years I’ve worked for him, he’s always left the most dangerous missions to him and him alone. Ensuring that he’s in harm’s way before we are.” There was such an honest vulnerability to the confession, he was enraptured. “I don’t want to let him down the one time he allows us to truly help him.”


    Keeley wasn’t just loyal. She was full of such honor and devotion to The Viin that Gideon began to feel a stab of guilt that he’d doubted her so quickly without investigating further. “You rescued him when he was taken by the king. You and the rest of the women. You didn’t let him down then.”


    She blinked like something was justing into focus for her. “That’s a good point.”


    “As a rule, I have them only once in a blue moon. You’re wee.” He grinned, folding both arms behind his head as heid against the ground to look up at the stars.


    “I was hoping you’d go in with me.”


    His neck muscles strained at the speed in which he twisted toward her. “What do you mean? You mean into the pce tunnels?”


    Keeley nodded. “There are only two guards on the dawn shift, because they don’t expect anyone to attack at first light. We all studied the hideous map you made—”


    “‘Hideous’ is strong.”


    “‘Hideous’ is kind,” she rebuked him with another roll of her eyes.


    “The point, Captain? Before my ego never recovers.” He feigned pain to the gut.


    “Like I was saying…we all studied the map, but I know it would be far wiser to take someone who knows those tunnels inside and out. I won’t risk the others just for the sake of my pride.” She held out a hand, and he took it without thought.


    “I want you toe with me, Gideon, because I trust you. Will you be my second in this?”


    The little witch knows.


    Gideon sputtered, releasing her hand, and sprang to his feet so fast he nearly knocked her over. “Oh, enough! This is so obvious! Do you think me a fool? You know that I know!”


    She held a hand over her heart, her lip wobbling under the scrutiny, and Gideon seethed at the action. “I don’t know what you’re talking about, sir knight.”


    Gideon pulled her to her feet and dragged her farther into the forest. She was strong enough to break free, and despite his frustrations, he wasn’t pulling very hard, but she followed willingly, confusing the deands out of him. “What’s wrong with you?” She yanked her arm away when they made it a few feet deeper into the wood, the firelight reced by the silvery moon reflecting off a nearby pond.


    “You’re going to look me in the eye and tell me honestly that you have no idea I suspect you as the traitor?” Gideon pulled out the proof he’d been keeping in his pocket and threw it against the dirt.


    Keeley stared at it, a glisten shining at the rims of her eyes, before looking up at him. And then her entire facade crumbled. “Oh, fine. I knew.”


    “Ha!” Gideon pointed and then immediately lost all steam. “Oh. I didn’t think you’d admit to it.”


    She picked up the letters, clutching them protectively to her chest in a manner that made Gideon feel like a unicorn’s ass. Dirt crunched under her feet as she stared at him, gaze not wavering under his scrutiny.


    “I’m admitting that I knew you suspected me. Not that I’m the traitor. Gods, you Valiant Guards get all your wits knocked out of your head when you go through your ridiculous training, I swear.” She huffed and showed him the letters. “Read them.”


    He pulled at his cor with a sheepish wince. “I, um…already did.”


    Her eyes shed as she pulled herb out once more and started attacking her tangles again. “And what, pray tell, did you find that was so incriminating when you were snooping among my personal belongings, sir knight?”


    “I didn’t snoop,” he argued.


    She speared him with a look that made his insides twist into ufortable foreign shapes.


    “Well! You knew about Edwin being tied up! You weren’t on the list of people privy. I couldn’t leave it up to chance! And I didn’t want to take it to The Viin until I had tangible proof.” He couldn’t stand the attack she was waging against her hair any longer, even if she was the enemy. Her hair had been nothing but kind to him. He ripped herb away and tossed it into the nearby pond.


    “Hey!” she yelled, shoving past him to get to the water, and he caught her by the wrist. “What’s wrong with you? I need that!”


    “Let the poor object drown. It’s tired of doing your dirty work.” He waited until she stopped iling before gently releasing her. “Exin.”


    She whirled and huffed a humorlessugh before shoving past him to dig through the shallow water, attempting to recover the sted thing. “What’s there to exin? I knew about Edwin being tied up because he told me himself. I had the nerve to bring him an extra bandage for his head. And anyway, I shouldn’t have to exin myself to you of all people. You found my correspondence from a king and drew your own conclusions.”


    “I beg your pardon—what other conclusions should I draw when you’re working for The Viin and writing to the enemy?”


    Keeley stopped sshing through the water to look at him like he’d grown a second set of ears. “You don’t know what you’re talking about.”


    Gideon tugged a folded piece of paper out of his pocket and handed it to her, along with her packet of letters. “Then exin this.”


    The letter read:


    One day I wille see you, my princess—when it’s safe, when the world is safe again, we will be together always.


    When Gideon found the letters taped under Keeley’s desk, and when he saw who the correspondence was from…


    “Your boss had already departed with my sister when I put two and two together. I thought it would be kinder to all if I confronted you myself.” Gideon felt ages older than twenty and five years. His back ached, his knees hurt, and he felt nothing would hit the spot more than a prolonged nap.


    “These letters are not from Benedict,” Keeley said absently, peering at the note as she held it up to the letters in her other hand.


    “They’re all signed The King,” Gideon argued, pointing to the pile of letters. Did she think him so naive that he wouldn’t see what was right in front of him? Or perhaps she’d guessed at his unwanted infatuation and sought to use it to her advantage?


    “They’re not from Benedict!” she snapped. “Did you take even a moment to notice how none of these letters hold Benedict’s actual signature? Or his wax seal? No? Of course not. But they don’t, because they’re not from Benedict at all.”


    Gideon scoffed. “Then who of your acquaintance has the audacity to call himself ‘Leader of All’?”


    There was something haunted in Keeley’s expression as she opened her mouth and replied:


    “My father.”