Chapter 673: Fragile Moments (Part Two)
For what felt like an eternity, but was really only a few heartbeats, no one moved. The soldiers had yet to notice the standoff that had suddenly broken out between their hosts, and both Ollie and Marcel were staring so intently at Hugo that the Steward felt like his knees would give out any minute. Blessedly, much like the intensity of Ashlynn’s reunion with Isabell, moments this fragile couldn’t last long either.
"Is there a problem?" Ashlynn’s voice called, breaking the tense silence as she stepped away from Isabell. Rubbing the tears from her emerald eyes, her gaze immediately hardened as she saw Marcel holding Sir Rain hostage.
The look on her face grew dark, and for a moment, she nearly forgot herself enough to call upon the power of the forest to restrain Sir Rain, or to somehow punish him for spoiling the moment that had been so joyous just a moment ago.
Her power responded to her desires, and ever since visiting the empty grave that had once been hers, and even more so after reuniting with Master Isabell, her desires stormed within her chest like a flooding river in an autumn storm. Everything was so close to the surface, and she’d allowed her desires to overwhelm her when she embraced Isabell, but right now, the freedom she’d given her heart threatened to call power to her hands to deal decisively with the knights who had taken the place of the men who buried her here.
Instead, she forced herself to take several steadying breaths and to remind herself again and again that it wasn’t time yet to reveal her power to Isabell and Tiernan. She had faith that they would understand if she could explain things to them properly, but losing her temper and wrapping Sir Rain in a cage of cedar roots would spoil any chance she had of bringing them fully over to her side... And Rain wasn’t worth that price.
"Let him go, Sir Marcel," Ashlynn said in a voice that was quickly losing its warmth. It took effort, but she and Marcel had made a plan to deal with these men, even if it was a simple one, and she intended to see it through. "He’s not a threat to anyone except himself, and I still intend to give him and Sir Hugo an opportunity."
"As you wish, my lady," Marcel said. With a flick of his wrists, both knives vanished, tucked up his sleeves or returned to sheathes at his waist, no one could say for certain. But everyone who saw the motion realized just how quickly Marcel could transform from harmless-looking dandy into something far more deadly, and then back again, every bit as fast.
"My, my lady Ashlynn," Hugo said, swallowing around a large knot that had formed in his throat when he watched the normally powerful and domineering Sir Rain reduced to a pale-faced and sweating captive in the blink of an eye.