Darius shook Chrystal violently.
“You left with a horde of beasts, and you return looking like a vagabond, smelling like filth, weeping for hours for a false mate from a false bond, and you tell me it was an accident?!”
“Please! Darius! Forgive me!”
“I told you to come with me! I begged you to follow me! You refused. YOU REFUSED!” He shook her so hard her head spun.
“But you whimper and plead for that wildling? You come now, NOW, to see my King, because of that traitor?!”
Something snapped in Chrystal’s mind.
Her face darkened as her feet took root on the ground.
Daruis stared. She held his gaze, giving fire for fire.
Her hand was on his sword, and he had frozen.
“You tried to kill me, Darius,” she said slowly, her voice low, private, but that was wasted among the group that was d
