It was Hymel.
I couldn’t even feel relief then. I didn’t feel anything but rage as I crossed the floor and swung. I didn’t slap him. I punched him right in the jaw.
Hymel’s head snapped back as pain lanced my knuckles, and I welcomed that pain with a savage satisfaction.
“Fuck,” Hymel grunted, clasping his jaw as he straightened. He turned his head to me. “That was unnecessary.”
I swung again, but Hymel was prepared this time. He caught my arm. With a cry of fury, I went at him with my other hand, fingers curled into claws. He jerked his head back, but my nails scraped his cheek. He hissed as two bright red streaks appeared above his beard.
“Bitch,” he snarled, snatching my arm.
“Let me go!” I shrieked, pulling on my arms as he shoved me hard. The back of my calves hit the settee, taking my legs out from underneath me. I landed on the settee, and immediately started to stand, but Hymel still had ahold of my arms. He forced me down on my back, trapping my legs with his. “Get off me!”
“Stop shouting,” he spat, inches from my face. “You’ll draw one of those Hyhborn here— ”
“Get the fuck off me!” I screamed in his face. “You traitorous motherfucker!”
“Gods damn it.” He jerked my arms up, pressing them into the cushion behind my head. He pinned my wrists together under one hand. His other smacked down on my mouth, silencing my curses. “I swear to the gods,” he growled, pushing my head down into the cushion. “I would love nothing more than to choke the ever-loving shit out of you, but since they want you alive and I want to survive, I need you to keep it the fuck down. Fuck,” he snapped. “The only reason why I came in here was to make sure you were still breathing. I don’t know or trust that white-haired Hyhborn. Knowing my fucking luck, he’ll end up killing you and all of this will be for nothing.” The hand around my wrists tightened brutally. “So are you going to act right? Are you?”
Breathing heavily through my nose, I glared up at him as I nodded as best as I could.
He slowly lifted his hand from my mouth, his entire body tense as if he was ready for me to start screaming again. “Did you pick up anything from Lord Samriel?”
“Fuck you.”
“As I’ve told you before, not interested in where my cousin has been.”
“And where is Claude?” I demanded, shaking with anger. “I want the honest truth. Is he— ” My voice cracked. “Is he alive?”
“What? You can’t answer that yourself?”
My intuition wouldn’t tell me where he was, and gods, it hadn’t occurred to me until then that it could very well be because he was no longer a part of this realm.
His eyes squinted. “You too afraid to see if you can find out?” He laughed. “You care that much about him? Fuck. I told you before. I don’t know where the hell he is, but I can wager a guess.” He met my glower with his own. “He hit the road the first chance he could.”
Disbelief coursed through me. “You’re suggesting that Claude ran away? That he abandoned his home? His people— ”
“You? Gods damn, that is exactly what I’m suggesting. The fucker is a coward who has always been more concerned with getting off and getting drunk or high than he ever has running Archwood. He never should’ve been baron. You’d be lying if you didn’t agree with that.”
The thing was, I couldn’t disagree. Claude was terribly irresponsible, but reckless enough to run? Gods, I knew the answer to that. It wasn’t impossible.
“If he was here, though? If I could find him, he would be dead,” Hymel said. “I would’ve slit his fucking throat myself.”
And I knew he spoke the truth then. I could see it in those pale eyes that were full of so much hate and bitterness.
“Gods,” I whispered, wanting to be angry with Claude, but damn it, I couldn’t help but be relieved. At least he wasn’t here. He was alive.
And if I ever saw him again, I’d punch him too.
“So, what? Is that what this is about?” I asked, staring into his eyes as I opened my senses. Intuition shuddered through me. “You think you should be baron, and you helped orchestrate this so you can take the title?”
“Get the fuck out of my head.”
Disgust flooded me. “You did this because of your own envy? Do you know how many people died tonight?”
“Would’ve been more if it weren’t for me,” he said. “If the King learned of you, and came for you, while the Prince of Vytrus was here? The whole fucking city would be gone. Instead, I’ve saved people tonight. Not only that, I saved the title and the manor from going bankrupt. Those debtors? They need to be paid, and you? You’re going to bring in enough coin that every debt Claude has racked up will be paid and then some. So, yeah, I should’ve been the fucking baron.”