Chapter 340: Kings, Crimes, And Crayon

The Dragon King swaddled a grown woman. The Wolf King unwrapped her. And the dragon holding her rated the entire crisis a four out of ten. Somewhere between "forgiveness ritual" and "formal inquiry," three powerful men collectively failed to have the same conversation for twelve straight minutes.

They were all on the same page. The page was written in three different languages, two of them classified, and one of them was crayon.

Nicholas rubbed the back of his neck. "When we landed in Solveil, she was already in a panic. Convinced they were going to arrest her. I thought they frightened her the first time, and she had misread the situation. I was very wrong on that. The Kingsguard showed up armed and in formation."

Maddox’s jaw tightened by one degree. Kael’s expression gave the room nothing, which was how you knew his brain was doing cardio.

Both dragons heard Kingsguard showed up armed and mentally translated it to: they came for her over Landon. The arrest warrant. The bloody dagger. The whole goddamn attempted murder that six people had spent an hour building a cover story around.

"She was calling herself a terrorist, Drakencrest. In those exact words. She genuinely believed she had committed acts of terror against their civilization."

Kael and Maddox exchanged a glance that lasted half a second and contained a full emergency briefing.

"We knew about the Solveil situation," Kael said carefully. "We discussed it while you were in Greyhall."

Nicholas gave a slow nod, relieved. "Good. Then you understand why I ran with her. I couldn’t believe they were chasing her like that for one incident. The response was insane."

Incident.

The word detonated silently behind Maddox’s eyes. Incident. Nicholas Shadowfell, King of Wolves, had just described the near-assassination of a Luminari monarch as one incident.

Maddox kept his face neutral because that’s what kings do when the alternative is screaming.

"She was terrified of the political fallout," Nicholas continued. "Kept trying to send me away so I wouldn’t be associated with it. She had a whole plan. Surrender herself. Serve time. Some kind of forgiveness ritual."

Kael’s poker face was a masterpiece. Behind it, his brain was sprinting laps.

Forgiveness ritual. Community service. She had repackaged a potential regicide into a carriage parking ticket and convinced the King of Wolves to go along for the ride. Guinevere Lunaris was either the most dangerous woman alive or the most adorable, and the answer was obviously fucking both.

"She mentioned being worried about causing damage between kingdoms," Nicholas said, looking at Maddox directly. "She was carrying it, Drakencrest. The guilt of what happened."

Maddox felt his blood pressure do something creative. This man was sitting in his chair, holding eye contact, and talking about Maddox’s wife’s guilt over what both dragons believed was the stabbing of Landon Solveil, with the gentle concern of an Alpha who thought the whole thing was about fountains.

"She confided in me," Kael said. His voice was level. "Before you arrived. She was trying to figure out the right thing to do."

Nicholas’s chin dipped by a fraction. His eyes moved to Kael with an interest that shifted the temperature in the room by two degrees.

"Confided in you," Nicholas repeated.

"Yes. She didn’t know if she should come forward or stay quiet. She wanted to do the right thing, but was afraid that if the wrong people found out, it would destroy the relationship between the kingdoms involved."

Nicholas absorbed that. The confession about marking him. That’s what Kael was describing. She had been sitting with the guilt of marking Nicholas, the matebond, the fact that she was married to Maddox but had bitten another man’s neck on a corridor floor, and she had gone to Kael for guidance.

That tracked. The woman he had run through a glowing city with, who had planned his escape route while commenting on bedtime customs, who had tried to surrender herself so he could go free. Of course she had been torn apart by the marking. Of course she went to the one person she felt safe confessing to.

What didn’t quite track was that Kael Ashenvale was that person. But the fondness in Kael’s voice when he said it was real, and Nicholas had survived enough liars to know when a man was telling the truth about a woman he cared about.

"She wouldn’t have done it if there wasn’t a damn good reason," Kael continued, looking at Nicholas with an expression that was one part warning and two parts defense attorney. "And she doesn’t need more people piling onto the fact that she did it. We’ve all got bodies in the closet."

Nicholas heard a metaphor. Kael meant actual bodies. He had more than one as an ex-war criminal and in general and was fully defending her right to stab whoever the fuck needed stabbing without a crowd forming about it.

Nicholas swallowed Kael’s metaphor no problem. Kael swallowed a confession no problem. And Maddox swallowed the damn-near-deranged urge to laugh thinking Nicholas was thinking Kael was referring to actual bodies.

"I agree," Nicholas said. "She acted on instinct. In a crisis. The circumstances were extreme and she shouldn’t be punished for making a decision under pressure that most people wouldn’t have survived."

Kael gave a single nod.

Every word of that sentence was true. Every word of that sentence also meant completely different things to each man hearing it.

Nicholas was defending her marking of him. She bit a dead king’s neck to bring him back. Crisis decision. Instinct. Justified.

Kael Ashenvale was a bone-breaking, body-burying, bullshit-blocking bastard, and every word out of his mouth was a love letter to plausible deniability. She put a blade in a Luminari king because the alternative was worse. Crisis decision. Instinct. Justified.

Both defenses were airtight. Neither man was aware that the other’s defense existed.

Maddox was watching this exchange with the quiet satisfaction of a husband who was pleased that the wolf and the dragon were aligned on protecting his wife’s cover story. What a productive goddamn meeting.

"I should tell you," Nicholas said. "She was worried about you specifically, Drakencrest. About what would happen if you found out."

"That is because she doesn’t remember me," Maddox said. "Kael and I discussed it. We’re handling it quietly. She doesn’t need the stress of a formal inquiry on top of everything else."

Nicholas blinked once.