Page 56 of The Howling
“He has four sisters. I’d have thought the one thing he was good with was females,” I respond, instantly regretting my harsh tone.
Ellie blinks at me. Out of all the spirit Barghest, she’s the one I like the most. Softly spoken and interested in what life is like beyond the veil, she’s been full of stories about Reavely and what they got up to when they were pups together.
“Oh, he’s always been fine with family,” she says. “But with females from outside the pack, he’d just go and hide.”
I honestly can’t imagine my big black dog of death hiding from anything.
“He probably thought your mother was going to marry him off. What with him being a prince and everything.”
“By rights, Reavely should have had centuries before he would have had to rule. But the too early loss of our father meanshe is king.” She sighs. “Something he never wanted to be, even before all of this…”
She looks around the fragrant garden and then down at her translucent body.
“He didn’t want to be king?”
Ellie turns to me, and I get the impression she would take my hand if she were able.
“What you need to know about my brother is he was happy as he was, before our deaths and before the Reaper came for him. He had no desire for death or power or to fight in the Night Lands. He’d have spent the rest of his life managing this castle and looking after the needs of the pack.”
“So, all the growling…the snarling…that’s not him?”
“Not at all. It’s what he’s become, Wynter, and I see him changing with you by his side.”
“I don’t want to change him,” I say hastily. “That’s not what I’m about at all. I wouldn’t want Reavely to be any different.” I consider my response. “Although possibly a little less feral would be ideal. He nearly picked a fight with a stone pillar yesterday after I knocked my ankle on it.”
Ellie smiles her sweet, enigmatic smile.
“That’s our Reavely. He’d burn the Yeavering for those he loves.”
“He nearly did,” I gently remind her. “And he’s still indentured to the Reaper, unless this curse lifting marriage works.”
“I suppose we’ll know in time,” Ellie says.
“I still don’t understand why we don’t just get marriednowand then the curse will be broken,” I grumble.
Ellie shuffles her non-existent bottom, her tail waving wildly. “Because that’s not how it works,” she says with a modicum of excitement which probably shouldn’t be attached to a conversation about a curse which might just bring all her familyback. “The marriage can’t be a sham. It has to be real. You have to be true mates.”
“Reavely thinks we are.”
“But do you, Wynter?” Ellie fixes me with her baleful eyes. “Because fate can call to a Barghest, but without a true match, there is no marriage.”
WYNTER
I’ve been doing my best to avoid Reavely’s ghostly pack members since my talk with Ellie in the kitchen garden.
I can’t fathom my feelings about him, or about any of this. I thought I was going to die here in the Yeavering, and the fact I might have a life is strangely terrifying. A lump of ice in my stomach which never seems to leave me.
Or is it the fear that it could all be taken away with the snap of a Faerie Lord’s fingers which frightens me more?
Am I going to run forever? Run from my fate, my fear, my desire not to give up my heart to the big bad wolf who’s been dogging my footsteps all my life?
The black dog. The one everyone runs from. Only I didn’t run, he did. Reavely took me and saved me. But whether that was because he wanted me or because there was a curse he needed to lift, I’m not sure.
And my heart aches because of it. I need to be sure. I need to know how he feels and why he continues to keep the truth from me.
Somewhere along the way to this point, I’ve caught something for Reavely, for the great, dangerous beast who lovesnothing more than turning into his were-form and devouring half a side of beef. Only giving me a guilty look when he’s done, but at the same time licking his claws clean.
Or how he still dislikes it I call the lavatory a bathroom, his hide shuddering at the mere mention of the word.
