Page 73 of The Howling
“I don’t think you should go,” Lorelei blurts out.
For the first time since I met her, the spirit Barghest looks lost and alone. Lorelei is usually so composed, but on this occasion, she looks distraught.
“We’ve been over this,” I say kindly. “I won’t have any bloodshed in my name. If this Lord Soulis wants to marry me, then I’ll get him to release Reavely first.”
“Then what?”
“I’ll figure out that part later,” I say staring past her at the striated sandstone wall. “The main thing is the Faerie don’t have me, so I can be the bargaining chip.”
I’m still stinging from the guilt I couldn’t save myself on the battlements. Or that I chose the wrong moment to walk away from Reavely and wallow in my own stupid feelings.
I love him. I can’t put it any other way. Life without Reavely is not a life I want to live. I need him and no stupid Faerie can take him away.
I move closer to Lorelei, wanting to be able to touch her but knowing I cannot.
“Reavely is my mate. I might not be Barghest, but it’s as important to me as it is to him. We will get married and we will break the curse,” I say firmly, wanting to convince myself more than anything.
I’m an unmagical human, about to go on a quest with a mischief sprite to take on a hugely powerful Faerie who clearly wants more than just power. He wants it all.
“If you break Lord Soulis, you will take the Yeavering,” Lilburn says quietly.
“I don’t want the Yeavering. The Faerie can keep it,” I growl.
“Right answer,” Lorelei says.
Her spirit form glows, getting brighter and brighter until I can’t look at her anymore, putting my hand up to shield my eyes.
And then I feel something being placed in it. The light has gone, Lorelei has gone, and in my hand is a gleaming jewel on the end of a fine chain.
“The Styne of Golorum,” Lilburn says, her huge eyes bigger than ever.
“Where did Lorelei go?” I feel her presence, but I can’t see her, and I can’t feel her presence. The lack of it burns inside me.
“Right answer.” Lilburn closes my fingers over the jewel. “It was long thought the Barghests were the keepers of the jewel, and this proves it. Her spirit was the vessel. She has sacrificed herself for it.”
Ice sits in my stomach. “What if I didn’t want her to do that?” I shove the words out as if they could change anything.
“It was her choice. She did it for Reavely, and for you.”
Tears flow down my cheeks.
“What is it?” The thing weighs more than it should in the palm of my hand, warm rather than cold.
“It’s something the queen gets on her wedding day. It has great power but only to those who know how to wield it.”
“I’m a human. I have no magic. Why would Lorelei give it to me?”
“Because you are going to be the new queen of the Barghest.” Lilburn lifts her eyes from my hand to my face.
“It isn’t my wedding day though.”
“That very much depends on how good an escape artist your mate is.”
WYNTER
We approach a large standing stone set within a circle of smaller stones next to the rough track.
“And Linton disappeared the same time as the Faerie arrived?” I query Lilburn, who has been describing, with some glee, the chaos which ensued when the Faerie took Reavely.
