Page 18 of Through Battle and Blades (The Wolf Queen 2)

“Being queen isn’t enough of an honour for you?” Selene asked, then snorted. “No, I don’t suppose it is. Some people see all the ills of the world and do their best to look past them. They have to, to survive. But not you.” She glanced around then. “And not your mates. Change is coming, I think, and you can be sure the Maidens will move with it, whatever the goddess decides.”

10

“Axe?” I said when we arrived at what appeared to be the citadel’s old training grounds. Someone had updated it though, putting in new targets and dummies, with new racks of practise weapons.

“I can’t stay in there, talking fucking politics,” the big man said, ambling forward, but his focus shifted to the Wolf Maidens. “And I also don’t trust Selene and her pals not to let you fall into battle fever. That’d suit Mother just fine.”

“The Wolf Maidens remain apolitical,” Selene said sharply.

“No one’s apolitical, not anymore,” he said, uncharacteristically grim. “When everyone’s life’s on the line…” He shook his head, then bent down to detach a wooden axe from the rack and then swung it around experimentally. “All I’ve got to bring to the table is brawn anyway. Dane will run circles around the lot of us, with his plots within plots.” He moved then, falling into a loose fighting stance. “I’ll just cut down whatever’s in your path, lass.”

“Including me?” I asked. I grabbed one of the other axes, it felt strange in my hands. Battle axes were seen to be a primitive weapon, something only wargen would fight with, but as I tightened my grip on the haft, I felt something shift inside me. My wolf, she bared her teeth, not caring that everyone around me was a friend of sorts, or at least not an enemy. I was a wargen, two souled now, so perhaps it was time I embraced that.

“Cut you?” He tried for his usual smile, but something intense rose in his eyes, stopping that from happening. “I could never—”

“Perhaps you should,” Selene said, stepping forward, her arms crossed firmly. “We all should. Sparring with fake weapons is one thing, but an actual duel.” Her eyes caught mine as she continued, staring into them as she spoke. “Your adrenalin is up, but not the fun kind that has you moving like lightning across the training grounds, pushing you to showier and showier demonstrations of skill.”

She snatched up an axe of her own and as she prowled closer, I felt my body ready itself. A lesson was coming and perhaps it would be one I wouldn’t like learning.

“Only one of you will walk away from this duel. This is about survival and your beast knows that in ways you don’t.”

And it did too. I felt my wolf plant her paws hard inside me, her muzzle pushing out, a snarl rumbling in her chest.

“Instincts you’ve never experienced will rise. Kill or be killed. Do it fast, do it decisively, do it any way you can to make sure you’re the one that walks away from this.”

Following her lead, Ayla and Orsha plucked their own weapons from the racks and approached.

“I thought this was a training session?” I said, a waver I did not like in my voice.

“There’s no way to practise for what’s to come,” Orsha said, lifting her sword.

“There’s only living that experience. Becoming the hunted…” Ayla said. “Or the hunter.”

As if on some unspoken command, the three of them lashed out then and that’s when the problems started. There were too many weapons coming my way to block. I had picked a bloody battle axe, something I had no idea how to wield. I couldn’t rely on muscle memory, on all the different drills Nordred had forced me to practise, over and over. So while my axe flashed up and blocked Selene’s blow, Ayla’s and Orsha’s stabbed into me brutally.

“Gods…” I gasped, pain flaring hard, each wound competing for my attention, but I couldn’t dwell on that. This wasn’t the lesson. It had only just begun.

“A shield, Darcy!” Axe shouted and as I looked away, I copped a blow from each Maiden, more pain blossoming hot. But I caught the heavy shield he threw my way, shoving my arm through the armband, even if it was too loose and then dragged the bloody thing up.

Success! Their weapons clattered against the hard surface, jolting me, but otherwise leaving me unhurt. I focussed on that, on holding the barrier up between me and them, on loosening my axe arm and getting ready. They began to fan out then, knowing that a full frontal assault would likely meet the same result. So they hunted as a pack, forcing me to split my focus between the three of them, never able to give my full attention to any one of them.

Is this what it would be like? I wondered, my heartbeat thundering in my ears. Would my eyes dart around the duelling grounds, trying to watch for, anticipate the queen’s every move? Would I never get that split second of peace when I knew what to do, striking out with a certainty I’d come to rely on? Would I be forced to react, react, react, my shield coming up, my axe barely used, because in a few short minutes, they had me totally on the back foot? Because I’d stupidly chosen an axe, but hadn’t it been an impulsive decision that got me here in the first place? Killing the queen, as if that wouldn’t have consequences. Consequences I’d have to live with, the best of which would have me weighed down by that damn—

“Get out of your head, lass!” Axe shouted.

He sought to re-energise me, but instead threw me off. The Wolf Maidens leapt then, each slamming their weapons into my arms and legs, not pulling their punches for a second. The girl yelped, a high pitched sound of pain, but the wolf? She was not like me. She would never have borne my father’s beatings as I had and she wasn’t about to take one now.

My head threw back, revealing my vulnerable throat to their blades, but I couldn’t seem to stop it, or the long, mournful howl that escaped. But before the women could capitalise on that, I moved.

A weapon was just a weapon, an extension of our will and I knew what I wanted, needed to do. I twisted the axe, feeling the heavier heft of it before sending it crashing down into Ayla’s pretty face. Blood spurted, I scented that, but I moved then, faster than light, away from her and onto the next. I dodged Orsha’s blow and then thrust my shield up to catch her weapon, using the lip of it to jerk it away from her, leaving her arm outstretched and vulnerable, something I quickly exploited. I slammed my axe into her ribs, forcing her breath out, then her back before moving onto Selene.

This was the one I needed to beat. In my eyes I saw her waver. Red hair, dark hair, Selene and Aurora flickered in my mind until finally I saw her. That arrogant sneer, those cold blue eyes that had spoken to me about joining the Maidens and serving her, even as she planned the assault of her own sons. She struck out once and I deflected it. My shield was up and in her way before she even got the next hit in. I blocked, blocked, blocked, finding, seeing the rhythm in her and meeting it with my own and then I grew sick of pushing her back.

She was alpha and that couldn’t stand. It wasn’t personal, wasn’t the result of avarice or ambition. Somehow I just knew that her title was mine and I needed to take it. I knocked her sword away with one blow, then her arm when she raised her claws. I slammed my shield into her face when she snarled at me and then I raised my axe and sent it hurtling down.

“Don’t hit her!” a masculine voice shouted. “You’ll fucking kill her.”

My arm went limp, as if the bones inside it had been ripped free and instead of smashing into a now kneeling Selene, the axe fell uselessly to the ground. And the alpha? She stared up at me, a strange kind of light in her eyes.

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