Chapter 51: Worry, Part 1
PART THREE - DEFIANTS
Raffé watched Alrin until he was out of sight, then turned and stiffly walked back to his room. He breathed in deeply and out slowly, silently counting stones, threads, scuff markswhatever he saw that he could count.
Anything that kept his thoughts away from Alrin. If he thought about Alrin he would scream and do something stupid. He gripped the edges of his tunic to keep from putting a fist through the wall, from tearing the room apart before starting on the rest of the castle. The agony tore through him like blessed steel through his flesh. It was a thousand times worse than having his arm mauled to pieces by a minion.
Until the moment when he knew that Alrin was Cambord and was going to die and there was nothing he could do about it, Raffé had thought he understood that duty meant sacrifice. That he could handle it. What could possibly be harder than sacrificing himself for his family?