"No," I gasped, my eyes snapping open, my heart beating at an abnormal pace, cursing the timing to catch me in the worst condition.
"Not now."
I looked down at Ardelle, who was blinking up at me in confusion, her lips lingered against mine, her face red, hair a beautiful mess. All too desirable.
She swallowed hard, shifting to her elbows, "What was that…?"
I froze, my lips still pressed against hers. Another bell rang, the call. It was the heavy beat of the Garrison's alarm.
The Rebels hadn't just followed us, they had brought a storm of steel to our very gates.
The largest attack in the history of the North had begun. Yet, here I was, draped in my woman's heat with a blinding lust.
The man in me wanted to stay. The Commander... the Commander was already reaching for his sword.
My silver eyes, which had been dark with desire only seconds ago, snapped into a sharp, lethal focus. The man had vanished; the Pillar had returned.
Ardelle sat up, tying her laces back again, her mind reeling from the sudden sobriety of fear, "Lord Kaldric?"
I hesitated, his hand hovering over the hilt of his sword on the nightstand. I looked at her, flushed, disheveled, and terrifyingly vulnerable– and for a moment, the Commander's duty wavered.
Focus, Kaldric, you are a knight. Remember your vow. Your foremost duty.
Foremost, I reached out, cupping her face with a hand that still trembled from the adrenaline of our embrace, resting her forehead against mine.
"I will send someone to guard the room," I whispered but my voice was commanding, leaving no space for arguments.
"You stay right here, do you understand? Inside. Behind the bolt. This is safe. Do not come out. You hear?"
I pressed my thumb harder on her cheek, warning her seriously but the sincerity was also transparent.
"Stay away from danger, okay?"
"Please be careful," She nodded slowly, resting her head a second longer before pulling away cautiously.
I gave her a single, sharp nod, snatched my cloak, and disappeared into the corridor.
"Commander!" Gawain joined me instantly the instant he found me.
"The breach is at the Western Gate. I am joining Leonidas and others. Where is Aldwin?" I commanded, my voice held pure authority.
"He is at the battlegrounds securing My Liege's Wing."
I nodded, glancing back where I came, "You are to stay right here, Gawain. You do not leave this door. You protect the Lady with your life. Is that understood?"
Gawain's brow furrowed, "But, Sir, the fighting will be thickest at the gate. I should be at your side, not playing nursemaid to a—"
"This is an order from your Commander," I hissed, stepping into Gawain's personal space, glaring at him to not question me.
"If a single hair on her head is harmed, I will not wait for a court-martial. I will execute you myself. Do you understand?" I threatened openly.
Gawain stiffened, nodding fretfully, "Un-understood, Sir."
He was about to leave but I grabbed him from the front, my eyes darkening with a serious threat he shouldn't take
"And if you dare to touch her this time. I will personally cut the finger that dared, Gawain. You won't get another chance."
"Y-Yes, Sir."
After assigning him to his position, my main goal was to obliterate the enemies that dared to trespass with such extreme precision that it was suspicious.
Who could know the safest way to enter the Northern Fortress?
In the courtyard, the Northern Fortress had turned into a slaughterhouse. Snow and blood mixed in the slush as the gates cracked under the pressure of the rebel rams.
Leonidas was a whirlwind, his greatsword cleaving through the mist, while Araleth moved with her usual dark fatality, her rapier gracefully piercing through the cracks .
"Kaldric! About time!" Araleth shouted over the roar, her face splattered with crimson yet this demonic woman grinned, waving at me.
"The Beast was starting to think you'd retired!"
"Shut up and focus, Araleth!" Leonidas appeared between and saved her from the rebel that dared to jump and attack her.
She giggled, blowing him a kiss, "I know you won't let me die, My Heartbeat."
"Tsk."
Shaking my head, I also sheath my claymore and joined the bloodshed but this time, unwillingly, my mind kept being knocked back on the woman I left behind.
Checking if someone had entered that space or not.
At the back of my conscience these words kept repeating like a chaotic mantra: Do not fail as a protector this time.
ARDELLE'S POV:
Inside the room, the world was still spinning for me. The ale held a cruel reaction, I was barely in my senses. My eyes were heavy and I was dozing off with my thoughts barely functioning properly.,
The sudden departure of Lord Kaldric felt like an imagination that never truly occurred. I was blinking, rubbing my eyes, my heart still thudding from the heat of his kisses.
Until the door creaked open.
"Kaldric?" I whispered, my voice hopeful and slurred.
But it wasn't the Commander. Sir Gawain stepped inside, closing the door behind him with a slow, deliberate click that made my chest tightened.
He didn't stand at the threshold as a guard should, he walked toward the bed, his gaze raking over my messy hair and her slightly exposed shoulders.
"The Commander is busy playing hero,"
Gawain sat on the edge of the bed, the mattress sinking under his weight. My body shivered violently, I crawled back, hitting the frame.
"And here you are... all warmed up and nowhere to go."
I blinked, the fog in my mind turning into a cold dread, "You are... you are supposed to be outside. Please leave."
"The Commander doesn't know what he has," Gawain murmured, reaching out.
His hand, rough and smelling of old metal, gripped my chin, forcing me to look at him.
"He treats you like a chore. Like a burden. But I see you, little beggar. I see the fire he's too afraid to touch."
His thumb pressed hard into my lip, the same spot Lord Kaldric had kissed moments before and I resented the heat of another man.
I tried to pull away, but the dizziness was hard, it made me heavy and useless. My mind was spinning, I could barely focus on my surroundings.
"Don't move," Gawain hissed, his face leaning closer, his eyes filled with a cruel, opportunistic hunger.
"No… Don't…" I was about to scream but he covered my mouth, pressing my face down on the mattress, suffocating me.
"If you scream, no one will hear you over the horns. And by the time I am done with you." He gripped my arm, his fingers bruising my skin.
"You will be thrown into the blood to die miserable before he could even realize that the weight on his shoulders is finally eradicated." He whispered, shifting towards me as the tears began to fill my eyes.
The sharp pain brought me back to my senses as I flinched.
He moved his hand toward the laces of my dress, a sickening smirk on his face.
"Now, be a good little bride and show me why the Commander was so distracted."
But, I used all my strength to shift and fell down from the bed, crawling back, my hands up defensively.
He took a predatory step toward me, the mask of the loyal guard slipping to reveal the wolf beneath.
"Stay back," I gasped, my back hitting the cold stone wall, "My Lord will kill you for this, Gawain…!"
"The Commander is surrounded by a hundred rebels." Gawain sneered, reaching out to catch a lock of my hair.
"By the time he wins his war, I'll have had mine. And you? You can have your end."
He shoved me back, my spine hitting the wall with a thud that knocked the air from my lungs. He pinned my wrists above my head, his weight crushing me.
"Let's see what the 'Obsidian Pillar' is so protective of."
"You bastard! Let go of me! How dare you touch me!"
His hand moved to the collar of my dress, the fabric giving a sharp, violent rip and snapped something inside me.
The fear didn't vanish, but it was suddenly eclipsed by a cold, sharp survival instinct I hadn't felt since the shadows or alleys. I had survived endless men like him on the streets.
And I had no intention of submitting this time either.
I didn't scream anymore. I ducked and bit the flesh my teeth could find which was his leg, earning a loud groan from him, causing his steps to stumble.
I brought my knee up with every ounce of strength I possessed, catching him squarely in the groin. As he wheezed, his grip faltering, I didn't hesitate.
I raked my nails across his eyes and rolled off, stumbling toward the door. I didn't grab the dagger, I didn't look back, I pulled the bolt and vanished into the smoke-filled corridor.
I was no warrior, no fight.
One second, one more attempt to fight would result in my anguish. I ran down the empty corridors, the war was outside
I ran. My lungs burned, I was barefeet, slipping on the cold stone as I descended toward the courtyard.
I needed the only person who had ever truly been a wall between me and the world, even if that wall was made of ice.
I burst through the inner gates and collided directly into a wall of obsidian plate that had too much blood on him with the grotesque sight of lifeless bodies scattered and scent of death.
"Ardelle? What in the gods' name are you doing here?!" he roared, grabbing my arm and shoving me behind him as he parried a rebel's spear.
"I gave you an order! I left a guard at your door! Why are you wandering into a massacre? Do you have no sense of self-preservation?" He yelled, his voice shaking.
He didn't see the state of me yet. He was focused on the line of soldiers behind him, his face a mask of tactical fury.
"Get back inside! You are a distraction!" A… A distraction?
"If you want to die, tell me. Stop looking for ways to endanger yourself, woman! Why must you be a burden always!?" He yelled.
I flinched first, my eyes widened, my feet stinging yet these steps had nowhere else.
It was him and when I reached it, I gained no sense of protection either.
He swung his blade, decapitating a charging rebel without even looking. I stood immobilized. The terror vanishing, the powerlessness fading along.
"Go! Now! Before I have to drag you back myself! Why must you always make my duty ten times harder—"
I stood there, frozen. My chest was heaving, my hair was a wild tangle, and the front of my dress was hanging in ruined shreds.
I stood exposed, the pale skin of my shoulder and chest slightly where Gawain's fingers had bruised me was a display for everyone.
Kaldric cut down the charging rebel in the immediate vicinity and turned back to me, panting heavily, his mouth open to deliver another stinging lecture.
But the words died in his throat.
His sword lowered an inch, his silver eyes widening as they mapped the damage. He saw the torn fabric. He saw the wide-eyed emptiness in my gaze.
He saw the way I was clutching the ruins of my clothes to my chest.
In that heartbeat, the realization hit too hard but my steps refused to move an inch towards him, to seek his comfort anymore.
I hadn't come to interfere. I had come because I was hunted. I had come to my hero, and he had met me with a snarl.
"Ardelle…" he breathed, his voice breaking, the fury replaced by a sickening, hollow dread, "What... who did this?"
He reached out a blood-stained hand, his fingers trembling as he tried to touch my shoulder, to apologize, to protect, to take it back.
I didn't let him. I stepped back, my eyes welling with a hot, stinging disappointment that burned more than the cold.
I looked at him, the man who had held me so tenderly an hour ago, and the man who had just called me a "burden" while I was absolutely petrified.
I didn't say a word. I simply gave him one look—a look that told him he had fulfilled all his vows as a Knight but failed all his vows as a husband—and I turned.
"Ardelle, listen, Ardelle…! Don't go!"
I ran back into the shadows of the fortress, leaving the Great Pillar standing in the middle of a battlefield, his heart finally breaking in a way no rebel blade could manage.
But is that what he wanted? The battlefield? The honor?