For a moment, there was only the shock of hearing that the King was dead.
To someone outside of the troll community, it would be hard to explain what it felt like to learn that the King was dead. The best I can come up with is to find out that the President and your favorite pop star had been killed at the same time, along with the Pope and the Queen of England.
It’s this mixture of impossibility—even though Kings die all the time, they still have this bizarre sense of immortality to them. Then there’s the reverence and loyalty. Despite our differences, Evert was my King, and I had sworn to protect him.
The wind felt like it had been knocked out of me, and I actually had to hold on to the dresser for support.
“Bryn?” Konstantin asked, moving closer to catch me if I needed it. “Are you okay?”
And that was enough to snap me out of it. I glared up at him, and there must’ve been something harsh in my eyes because Konstantin took a step back.
“Why is Viktor still calling you?” I asked, my voice a low hiss. “Why did he think you’d want to know that the King was dead?”
“I told you that I’d defected, and that’s true.” He hesitated. “But they don’t know it yet.”
“You lying asshole!” I shouted at him. “How could I have been stupid enough to trust you?”
“Bryn, it’s not like that.”
I turned away from him to start packing my bag. “Don’t try to sell me your shit anymore, Konstantin. I’m not buying it.”
“I did it to protect you!” he insisted.
I looked back at him in disbelief. “Fuck you.” And then I couldn’t control my rage anymore, so I lunged at him.
He grabbed my wrist before I could hit, and when I tried to kick him, he grabbed my other wrist and pushed me back, slamming me into the wall harder than he needed to. He held me there like that, pinning my wrists beside my head, and his body pressed against me, still wet from the shower.
“Let go of me,” I growled, too angry to think properly about how to get out of the hold. I just wanted to hit something, preferably his handsome face.
“No! You have to calm down and listen to me!”
“I don’t have to do anything you tell me!” I shot back.
“Bryn!” Konstantin yelled in exasperation. “Just listen to me for five minutes, and I’ll let you go, and then you can do whatever the hell you want.”
I grimaced and fought against his grip. His legs were pressed against mine in a way that made it impossible for me to kick. So I finally relented, since I didn’t have a choice.
“Viktor sent me to find you and kill you,” Konstantin explained. “He thinks you know too much about what’s going on, and if you find someone that might believe you, he and Mina are screwed.”
“So when are you planning on killing me?” I asked.
“I already told you—if I was going to kill you, I would’ve done it by now,” he said, meeting my gaze evenly. “I went after you to keep you safe and because I didn’t want to keep doing what they were doing. I’m done with Viktor and his men, but if I tell them that, he’ll send people after us both and kill us. You can’t just quit Viktor’s army.”
I pursed my lips, hating that his reasoning sounded plausible. “Why didn’t you tell me this before?”
“I didn’t think you’d believe me. Was I wrong?”
I looked away from him, considering everything he’d said. “I listened. Now will you let me go?”
“Fine.” He sighed, then let go of me and stepped back. He stood with his hands on his hips, watching and waiting to see what I’d do.
“Who killed the King?” I asked, rubbing my wrists.
“Viktor didn’t say, but I would assume that Mina did.”
“How?”
“He didn’t say that either, but when they’d spoken of it before, poison had been their top choice.”
“Why did Viktor think you wanted to know?”
“I’ve kind of been his right-hand man. He’s kept me apprised of everything.”
I arched an eyebrow. “So when everything big is about to go down, he sent you out on an errand?”
“It was supposed to be quick. He thought I’d be back by now.”
I walked closer to him, stopping so I was nearly touching him, and I looked up at him. “What does he think you’re doing now?”
“Tracking you. I told him that you’ve been very elusive.”
“And he believes you?” I asked.
“For now.” He paused. “But he won’t for much longer.”
“What happens then?”
“He’ll send men to kill us.”
“So what do we do?” I asked.
“We?” A soft smile touched his lips. “Does that mean you trust me?”
I sighed. “I don’t have much of a choice, do I?” I moved away from him and sat back down on the bed. “So what is our plan? Where do we go from here?”
“We keep moving. We can’t sit still.” He motioned to the bathroom. “You should shower, and then we should get out of here.”
SEVENTEEN
summoned