The Alpha's Debt the King's Claim novel · Chapter 19 of 24
Chapter 19: Evander's POV
Evander's POV
I knew where she would go before the guards did.
Smoke was pouring from the east wing, and half the court was running toward it.
I ran the other way, down the back stair to the kitchens.
The fire was a decoy.
When my father's cooks carried her mother's body out, one of them held a small girl against her apron so she would not see.
Those cooks were gray and old now.
They had set a barrel of pitch alight in the east corridor because Elspeth had asked them to.
I did not blame them.
I had never once asked what she was to them.
The kitchen was empty and hot.
The great hearth at the end of the long room had been cold for years, and Elspeth sat on the stone lip of it with her chains on the floor beside her.
Somebody had given her a key.
She had both wrists free, and a long kitchen knife held against her own neck.
"Hello, Van," she said.
Nobody had called me that since I was twelve.
"Put it down."
"No."
"Ellie."
"My mother stood at this hearth every day of her life," she said. "She sang while she kneaded. Did you know? I used to sit right here, under the table, and eat the burnt crusts."
"I know."
"You didn't. You were upstairs learning to be the heir."
I took one step.
The blade pressed in, and a bead of blood ran down her throat.
I stopped.
"I have one thing left to ask you," she said. "Open the gate and let me ride north. You do it quietly, tonight, and nobody ever has to know."
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