Page 36 of The Wolf Queen

“There she is,” he said, with a gentle smile.

“She’s awake?” Gael looked careworn, like he hadn’t slept a wink but when he clambered on the bed, he was all business. Checking my eyes, my nose, my throat, until I made a small sound of complaint. “Where does it hurt?” he asked urgently. “Tell me where it hurts. I’ll fix it—”

“No.” I croaked on that, but as blue flames appeared on his fingertips, I felt a yank deep in my core, sapping what little energy I had. “No…!”

“Stop it, Gael,” Dane ordered. “The power you’re drawing is hers.”

Gael closed his outstretched fingers into a fist, the flames extinguishing in seconds and I flopped back against Axe’s chest to focus on breathing.

Why was that so hard?

My chest felt heavy, like it took conscious effort to keep my lungs inflating, but as Weyland crawled closer, then Gael settled against me, I closed my eyes for just a second. That hot, pulsing sensation that always followed once I touched them seemed to have quite another purpose. It felt like it was filling me up, rather than arousing me, helping soothe aching muscles and my head.

“This revives you,” Dane observed, peering at me. “It helps you feel better?”

I nodded.

“This is when you tell me why,” I croaked out.

“I have nothing concrete,” he replied, flushing when I let out a sigh. “My father… he investigated what benefit he could gain from bringing Gael’s mother across the border. Not as his queen, obviously but—”

“As a power source,” I replied with a mirthless smile.

“Exactly that. Father was taken with the idea of tapping into what was purported to be the limitless power of queens…” He stopped then, all of us remembering just how far the king had been prepared to go to gain access to that.

“Not limitless,” I replied, shifting restlessly. An urge to move, to do something, plagued me, even as my body resisted. “I had Callum’s heart in my hand. I was squeezing it when I was pulled back.”

“And you were haemorrhaging blood,” Gael replied. “None of us want that bastard to live, but—”

“I could’ve ended it,” I insisted. “I could’ve made us all safe.”

“Not all of us.” Weyland stared at me, his expression uncharacteristically serious. “The children have lost one mother. Don’t let them go through that grieving process again.”

I blinked at that, the muscle in my jaw ticking as I gritted my teeth before nodding.

“I have a sword.” My fingers flexed, feeling the need to have it in my hand. Gael shook his head at my reflex action, but retrieved it, and we all noted the way the crystal flared to life when I grabbed the hilt. “And I have power. So what now?”

“For those answers we need to talk to the duke,” Dane said, raking his hand through his hair. “I admit, I find it difficult to reconcile myself to asking a bloody Granian for advice on such things, but…” He sighed. “The queen went across the border and took what power she had with her, reducing us down to our human forms for the vast majority of the time, lest we get lost in fur or battle fever without her guidance to bring us back. Her descendants went somewhere. We’d always assumed they became good little Granian citizens, members of the very aristocracy that strove to keep their ancestress’ people down, but…”

His eyes met mine and I knew we were of the same mind. Nordred had been father, stable master, legend, and cunning as a weasel, moving all of the pieces around on a board hundreds of years old. I sat up and scrambled out of bed in my haste to get answers, then instantly regretted it as my head started swimming, the edges of my vision going black. Dane offered me his hand.

“I’m not sure if I’ll be as useful, not being formally mated…” But his voice trailed away as he raised me up. He always would, I realised that now, whether I wanted to or not. He’d shown me he believed in my potential in much the same way Nordred had, and I treasured that.

Because, once again, I was being forced to adjust.

My father’s view of me, and Linnea’s, had shaped my own, for so very long. But now? I gripped Dane’s hand, keeping hold of it when he went to pull away. I watched his eyes light up, gleaming a brighter blue in response, in the way all of them would if I was to reach for them. The protection of the people of Strelae had felt like a burden I must shoulder, a responsibility I must honour, if we were all to survive. But perhaps it could be like this. A connection born of love or affection, something that would grow beyond its individual parts. The sensation lit something inside my chest that carried me out of the room, pulling on Dane’s arm to make him and the others come with me to corner my grandfather in his study.

“Darcy.”My grandfather got to his feet immediately, something my father would never have done, even when he was capable of it. He set his quill down and then came out from behind the desk to look me over closely. “You are recovered? You’re still pale, my dear. Perhaps you should rest—”

“I can rest once I know more,” I said. “You and R—” I stopped myself. “You and the crown prince seemed to know quite a lot about all of this.” I shook my head. “About me. Perhaps now would be time to share that knowledge?”

“Yes, of course. Take a seat and I’ll call for some tea.” He pulled a velvet rope, which from experience I knew would set off a specific bell in the servants’ quarters. As he settled, he regarded me steadily. “You have so much of your mother in you.” There was a fondness there, but it was somewhat unnerving that it was inspired by another woman, not me. “I saw it the moment you walked in here, but… Seeing Eloise last night.” He shook his head as his eyes strayed to the window, as if he could see her still. “It drove that home so much deeper. Perhaps that’s why your father was such an… indifferent parent.”

“Because he loved my mother?” I asked, hardly able to believe that.

“Because he was forced to marry her at the king’s behest,” my grandfather replied, with a sad smile. “His Majesty made clear that he thought the alliance was a worthy one and sent word to me to consider no other suitors, because he knew.” His fingers laced together across his stomach. “Eloise had shown herself to be a very capable, very accomplished young woman, beyond the confines of what was seen to be seemly in a lady of Granian heritage. People started to talk and the king himself saw her when he came to visit my estates. Strong young women of Eleanor’s line have been dealt with in the same way for generations. Married off to men who had proven themselves loyal to the crown, men who would ensure those women kept their place.”

“But you are a duke, with massive resources at your command,” Dane said. “Only Darcy’s father could rival you in rank, and his lands, his stature, are nowhere near as grand. Why not strike back against the king? Or did you fear the king would have your daughter executed by royal decree?”

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