Meanwhile the jokes echoed around them until she wanted to scream.
“C’mon,” Darling said quietly. “Let’s go. We’re done here.”
Still, it infuriated her.
But in the end, she knew he was right. Attacking them over those insults would be a bad mistake. If Darling went crazy on them, they could petition the League to have him removed from power. Even jailed.
Or institutionalized.
Most likely, that was why they were doing it. They wanted to goad him into attacking.
Unwilling to give them any kind of satisfaction, she followed Darling and tried to ignore them, too.
With his friends and family in tow, he led her down the hallway to where they’d checked her wrap on her arrival.
Darling had just put it on her when another gerent laughed at them.
“Yes, but you have to envy him that ass. You know, she’d have to be one hell of a lay to get him hard for her. I bet that whore can suck the glaze off porcelain.”
Even though Darling wore those dark glasses, she saw the flash of unmitigated fury in his eyes. Now, she finally understood where his strength came from. She could take insults against her. They didn’t matter. It was only the ones against him that made her livid.
Zarya cupped his face with her hands and forced him to look at her and not the man who’d insulted her. “Let it go, Darling. He’s not worth it.”
Darling forced himself to listen to her and to calm down. She was right. He needed to walk away. He couldn’t afford to attack them.
That was his thought until the gerent spoke up again. “Make sure to give her your number, then. A cheap skank ass bitch like that would hike her skirt and open her legs for anyone.”
With a snarl of rage, Kere slammed down on him. One second, Zarya held him.
In the next…
21
Darling went for the gerent’s throat so fast that no one could stop him. By the time they realized he’d made it past Zarya, he had the man on the ground, repeatedly pounding his head against the floor with a fury so strong, it crackled in the air around them.
Zarya was amazed the man’s head didn’t split open given the force Darling used. While she had seen Darling fight as Kere many times, she’d honestly forgotten just how ferocious he could be. This was a side of him that she never saw in private.
And he was about to kill the man on the ground.
Moving with an incredible speed, Nykyrian pulled Darling off the gerent and hauled him back. But that didn’t last long.
Using a move and strength no one expected, Darling flipped Nykyrian off him with an ease that was nothing shy of a miracle, especially given how much larger Nykyrian was. The throw caused Darling’s dark glasses to fly off his face and shatter on the floor.
Stunned by the unexpected counterattack, Nykyrian landed against the far wall in an unceremonious lump. When Hauk went in for a try, Darling caught him by one arm and slung the Andarion in the opposite direction. He cut through two of the gerent’s bodyguards before he returned to ruthlessly beat the man who’d insulted her.
“He’s going to kill Giran,” Maris breathed by her side.
By Darling’s lethal expression, she believed it. But what could they do? She glanced over to Nykyrian who was back on his feet and trying to assure his wife that he wasn’t hurt.
Three gerents moved in to stop Darling. Bad mistake on their part. It was only then that she realized he’d been holding back when he fought the gerents’ guards and Nykyrian and Hauk.
There was no such mercy for the nobles. Obviously, he’d been wanting a piece of them for a long time.
Darling caught the first one with a punch so hard, it made a resounding thud against the man’s chest and sent him straight to the floor. The second one took a hit to the nose that shattered it. The gerent staggered back, screaming like a girl on a playground as he cupped his face with both hands. The third lost his knee to one swift quick.
And as Darling cut through them with an ease that was scary, the nobility around them panicked more.
“He is insane!”
“You see! He has no right to rule.”
“Where did he learn to fight like that?”
“Did you see him throw the assassin and his own guard?”
“May the gods help us with him in power.”
“We’re doomed!”
“No wonder Arturo kept him in institutions. He must have been terrified of him since he was a kid.”
As their comments and anger against Darling built, she knew she had to do something.
Fast. But what?
Suddenly, a stupid idea came to her.
Before she could think better of it, she grabbed Darling’s arm as he went for Giran again.