That night, Isabella escaped.
A handful of die-hard loyalists smuggled her out of the dungeon, and she came tearing into the border town like a woman with nothing left to lose.
She crashed through the doors of my bar with a silver dagger gleaming in her fist. She had come to take me with her into death.
"You! It's all you, you cheap little b***h! You ruined everything I had!" she shrieked, lunging.
I didn't move. I just watched her come.
When the tip of the blade was less than an inch from my chest, King Alexander stepped between us.
It was the first time, in all our years together, that he had taken a blade for me.
The dagger drove deep into his shoulder. Blood bloomed dark across the white silk of his shirt.
He kicked Isabella off and slammed her face-down onto the floor in one f
