Chapter 20: Chapter 20

It was almost as though he was trying to convince himself. And deliberately not thinking about the fact that trying to "help" Calder and get him under control had been nearly as violent as what had apparently gone on before Dallin had walked into the inn. Every bullying husband he'd ever had the pleasure to arrest recited the same mantra, like it was some sort of secret handshake by which all tyrants recognized each other--'I didn't want to do it, she made me'--and now Dallin's thoughts seemed all too similar.

"The Guild...." Calder snorted, mirthless and bleak. "You're to take me back to the Guild?" The tears were back, dripping down and mixing with the blood. "They mean to kill me." Toneless, the voice of a man already dead. The change from the wild fury with which Calder had fought only a moment ago to this broken creature, weeping silently and pleading with a stranger... it was unnerving.