Page 68 of The Howling
“There was a time the Faerie had a hold on him,” Reavely says to me quietly. “Linton did things in the Night Lands which cannot be undone.”
“You all did,” Lilburn says quietly. “And you should have told Wynter what happened with Lord Guyzance.”
“You knew?” I round on her with unnecessary ire.
I should keep my anger for myself.
“I knew,” she says, unabashed. “It was for the Barghest to tell you.”
“That makes it easy for you,” I retort.
I want to run, but running doesn’t solve anything. I want to scream at them all, but screaming doesn’t get me anywhere. Instead I sit down in Reavely’s chair and stare at the table, not seeing anything on it.
There are voices, Reavely’s low rumble, Linton’s rasping tones, even the melodious flute of Lilburn, but I don’t want to listen. Not to them, not to anyone.
I thought I had my life together. I thought it might have been better.
Turns out things are as likely to go to shit as they would have if I’d stayed in the hands of the Faerie. The security I thought I had has been ripped away with the knowledge of what Reavely has done. In my name.
No wonder we have an assassin in our midst. One who seems hell bent on something departing the Yeavering today.
I know it’s not going to be Reavely, so who is going to fall to this red-eyed terror?
REAVELY
Idislike the fact Wynter isn’t talking to me. She sits and stares at nothing as the Hedley Kow berates me and the damned Bluecap chimes in with idiotic prophesies about the coming war.
There is no war. I didn’t start one, and there’s no way the Faerie would risk coming to my castle again. I am more powerful than my pack ever was. No one, including my mate, will suffer at their hands. I might work for the Reaper, but he protects me.
Even if his protection only extends to Wynter because he wants her soul when he wants it and not before.
The incessant voices of the two interlopers into my domain get quieter and quieter as I stare at Wynter, willing her to look at me, to see me.
I want her to know all of this is for her. I will fight whatever I have to in order to make her safe. I’ve already lost my family, and I will not lose her too.
When she finally raises her eyes to mine, they are dull and almost lifeless. Her gaze doesn’t rest on me long. Instead it wanders to the fire, which reflects into the orbs, dancing there like all Barghest hold within them.
But the fact they are not on me fills my heart with lead.
Wynter is my mate. She deserved the truth, but I didn’t want to tell her. The sadness in her face tells me everything I need to know.
I messed up. For all I wanted to make my world hers, I failed.
Linton unfurls his great wings and beats until he is several feet off the ground. The Hedley Kow shrieks so loudly I think my eardrums are going to burst, and all of a sudden, my entire spirit pack fills the great hall.
By the time I can cut through the chaos and get Linton to sit down, not cover half my castle in his wing dust, and calm the Hedley Kow before her magic does something it shouldn’t, as well as placate my pack who are less than happy Linton’s presence has repressed them until now, Wynter is gone.
I swear under my breath.
“You should have been honest with her, my son,” Mother says in my ear.
“She didn’t need to know,” I snap.
“She did,” Ellie says to me, her spirit form flickering into that of her were-form, which I didn’t even know was possible. “I defended you, Reavely, but you can’t do such a thing to your mate, regardless of your reasons. Wynter deserves the truth, whatever it may be.”
“But what if…” I don’t want to say the words. I don’t even want to think them. “What if she rejected me?”
A rejected mate is surely one which will die, and I didn’t want to die. I want to stay in the Yeavering with Wynter.
