Page 6 of Bane of the Wild Hunt

That was where we were going.

We passed out of the Summer Quadrant and over the first outer fringe of mountains in the middle of the Vale. One of the griffins flying with us gave a few sharp eagle cries with their head angled down. I looked below to see what they might be signalling and saw watchtowers and walls were built into the mountainous terrain beneath us. Winged humanoid forms were patrolling the defensive buildings and waved at us as if to acknowledge the alert my companion had given.

The bells stopped tolling, and a new sound rose deep and proud amidst the mountains. A horn.

I was surprised when dozens of griffins joined us instantly from the towers and walls. There were many openings carved into the sheer faces of the cliffs from which even more people emerged and shifted to join us. Most of them were wearing gold armour like Ares and his companions, so I assumed they werealso soldiers that Riordan would have commanded. They formed a massive procession, rallying behind him to show their support as he returned home to claim his throne. More and more of them joined us until there were probably hundreds of them flying in perfect formation. The sound of their eager chirps and cries brought tears to my eyes.

We decreased altitude once we reached sprawling hills, farmland, and pastures dotted with stone huts and flocks of various animals. Beyond the grassland, the skyline became dominated by a solitary peak rising higher than any other mountain in the ranges all around it. As we got closer, I thought it looked less like a natural formation and more like a mountain-sized tower. Two rivers flowed from either side of the structure and met in the middle at its base before plunging over a cliff. The giant waterfall thundered into a lake at the edge of the grasslands where I saw two cities on either side. The one on the left was a somewhat decrepit settlement with mudbrick walls and crumbling buildings. The one on the right was a stunning and ancient fortress with stone walls and green fields from which more griffins in gold armour joined us.

More horns were blown as we passed over the water between the two cities and glided up over the waterfall toward that mountainous tower. My jaw dropped open when I saw all the elaborate hanging gardens, waterfalls, ornate statues, and immense balconies. Almost every inch of the exterior seemed to have been chiseled artfully and many of the pillars and motifs were elaborately painted. Near the base of the tower, we flew toward a cobblestone courtyard with a monolithic staircase that led up to the main entrance of the tower.

The moment we were on the ground, I looked up at the sky filled with the griffins that flew in with us. Some of them continued to glide above, their shadows darting across thecobblestones, but some found places to land on the mountain and shifted their forms.

I immediately noticed that the guards on the courtyard walls seemed nervous. They wore gold armour and had black smudged under their eyes just like Ares, but they looked different from Riordan’s companions somehow. Clean-shaven, waxed brows, gold ornaments in their hair, and rings on their hands.

The differences between the two groups were subtle, but they were there. It could have easily been the fact that they were elite palace guards, and grooming expectations were more stringent, but I suspected they were Imítheos. All of the griffins who had flown in with us from the outposts were undoubtedly Ktínos, and in these kinds of numbers, they made the Imítheos anxious.

Riordan, Ares, and the others all changed their shapes. Orion knelt so Riordan could take my hand, and he pulled me down into his arms.

“Are you alright?” he asked me, and I nodded eagerly, still grinning like a fool with excitement.

“That was incredible—”

Orion had shifted his form behind me and threaded his arm around my waist to tug me back two steps away from Riordan before placing himself between us.

“What are you doing?” I hissed.

“His mother is approaching,” Orion retorted with equal sharpness as he indicated the griffins walking down the staircase toward us. Unlike all the soldiers, these people wore colourful, silk dresses, long togas that were belted around their waists, and copious amounts of jewellery. They still had eyeliner smudged thickly around their eyes, but they also had colourful eyeshadow.

“I don’t think—”

“This moment is not about you, so I am merely asking you not to make a scene yet,” Orion interrupted me.

The last thing I wanted was to taint Riordan’s reunion with his family, so I grudgingly shut my mouth.

Chapter three

THIS IS NO PLACE FOR WITCHES

Orion

Tension. It was so prominent in the courtyard that I could taste it in myadéneswith every breath. Potent wafts of adrenaline and aggression tickled my senses and flooded my own body with a thirst for violence.

Theo and Iris grimaced as they inhaled to better taste the air with the scent glands in the roof of their mouths, but I was better at controlling the impulse. Imítheos did not haveadénesglands, they could not taste pheromones and emotions the way that we did, and they found our use of those senses barbaric. Animalistic.

I watched the Metropolis guards carefully, all of them Imítheosmágoiwho were made nervous by so many of my kind descending upon their city. I could even taste their magic brimming readily inside them as they watched the warriors flying above.

Gods forbid Riordan do anything gently. He knew the Imítheos would hate being reminded of his affinity for my kind,of our unflinching loyalty to him, and the immense power he wielded because of it. Power they feared.

But he didn’t care. He would take his throne the way he did everything: with a stubborn, single-mindedness. There were times that it had been entertaining to see him finally putting Imítheos in their place, and I was forever inspired by his egalitarianism. But I cared so much more about his welfare than I did about my people. So while he steamrolled ahead, I wanted only to protect him from all the consequences of what he sought to tear down.

I just wished he wouldn’t make it so godsdamned hard. Nothing could be easy or straightforward with him.

I glared down at the witch who had turned her back on me to face Riordan, but I towered over her enough to still see her profile while she watched him. And I would know her feelings even if I could not taste them coating her skin and perfuming the air around her. It was obvious every time she looked at him, and her pupils dilated.

It made me want to shove her into the cold fountain and hold her under the water until her wicked thoughts about myskiáwere the furthest thing from her mind.

The injustice of his choice was beyond painful for me. How could he not know that he deserved so much more than thiscreature? Of course, I’d always known it would be difficult to see him finally mated to someone, but this was worse than I could have ever imagined. I would have even preferred that he chose a self-important Imítheos female rather than awitch. I didn’t understand how he could even be close to someone whose vile kind had spent millennia butchering our people for components in their dark magics. It was a witch who killed Riordan’s brother, and then cursed Riordan to remain in his animal form during the last twenty years. And it was that killing of King Adoniswhich had forced myskiáto step into this role that I knew he abhorred as our new ruler.

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