Page 25 of A War of Crowns

But he wasn’t ready to die just yet. Nor would he sacrifice Calix to her blade.

“Let her go,” Aldric dully commanded. He tossed the woman’s dagger on the ground between them. “We’ve done enough here.” He wanted out of that tent. Away from the sting of the smoke and the reek of their combined fear.

He still had questions, but clearly the shieldmaiden wasn’t going to answer any of them.

“Turn around,”Aldric advised Akemi when Rakon set her back down on her feet. Jerking his chin toward the tent flap, he directed,“Make north for the lands of Lothmeer. The Church will protect you. But you’re not welcome here.”

She frowned at him. Her chest heaved. Her eyes darted to where her dagger still lay on the ground between them.

But Aldric growled a simple,“Don’t,”before he finally turned and stalked back out into the night with his men slowly following him. He could nearly taste their uncertainty on the wind. This wasn’t the way of the Crow of Drakmor and his Twelve Sons.

Burn it down. Leave none alive. That was their way.

But never before had he had children for an audience.

“Where’s Beck? Where’s Sven? Where’s Kyn?” Aldric asked when he returned to Mourn’s side and hooked his fingers through the stallion’s reins. “I want a count of the wounded.” When no one answered him, Aldric swiveled a slow glance up to Leif.

But his eldest Son avoided his gaze.

Dread settled itself heavily within his stomach when he asked, “Where are they, Leif?”

“Beck’s dead,” Leif whispered, a sudden rasp to his voice. “Lost him to the warg.” After clearing his throat, the old man added, “Kyn’s with Sven. The lad won’t leave Beck’s side.”

Without another word, Aldric turned away from Leif and led Mourn away from the smoldering camp and out into the night. In silence, he made for the dark forest beyond, where he had last seen Beck alive.

Where he had left Beck to die. Without him.

Beck.

Beck had been with him from the beginning—the captain of his guard, when he was still the Crown Prince of Drakmor. His best friend. His only friend, until Beck had suggested they start the Sons.

The Sons had all been Beck’s idea. It had been Beck who had wanted to build their dysfunctional little family. A place where the bastards of the nobility and all the other unwanted sons of Drakmor just like him could finally belong.

And now Beck was just…gone?

A sudden screech was all the warning Aldric received before a familiar weight tangled itself about his shoulders in a glide of sleek scales and soft feathers. Soot.

The black-scaled usuru had been shadowing him for the past year. Some wild little thing he picked up one day during a raid. He had thought it was a Fangtalker’s pet at first. But no.

No matter how far along the border he patrolled, the creature followed. Leif said it was a sign of good things to come, to have an usuru following one about.

Aldric thought it was just one more nuisance, though. One more mouth to feed. One more life to protect.

Swallowing the lump in his throat, he continued to crash through the underbrush. It didn’t take him long to find the body of the warg. That great lump of fur and fangs was hard to miss.

But amidst the torn ground and spattered blood, he only found Sven crouched next to what was left of his dead horse. Kyn hovered over him.

But there was no Beck.

“Where is he?” Aldric asked, his voice thick.

Even with the question, Sven remained a mere tear-streaked statue. But Kyn lifted his ashen face and whispered, “He’s there, Father.” His Son pointed at the warg’s corpse. “I can’t…I can’t move it.”

Aldric squinted at the great mass that was the dead monster. Finally, he noticed what he hadn’t before: Beck’s lifeless form pinned under that of the warg.

Behind him, horses snorted and brush rustled underfoot as the rest of his Twelve Sons—or ratherElevenSons—drew in closer to see their fallen brother.

“Eisway. Rakon,” Aldric rasped as he turned away from the sight of Beck’s glassy eyes and missing throat. “Get him out from under there. Kyn. Sven rides with you. We make for Blackrun as soon as we have Beck.”

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