Page 92 of The Wolf Queen

“Like a hammer and an anvil,” Rath said, smacking his fist into his open palm. “We can keep doing that over and over and maybe, just maybe that will be enough to give us the day.” He frowned as he considered the drawing. “As long as the walls will hold.”

They would. The keep was many things, but an everlasting symbol of Granian occupation was primary. It’d weathered years of attacks from the two souled. All they had to do was stand through one more battle. Surely they could do that. But the state of the walls was shoved from my mind as the battle raged.

My muscles burned and so did my mind, teeming with the will, the need to see this done. We surged in, despatching the Reavers that made their way into the corridor, then fell back to allow more in before killing them too. The feeling of a plan coming together, it sang in my blood, forcing me to grin through each stab.

But what happened during every moment of happiness?

Hubris is a sin the gods punish us most for, when our confidence rivals even their certainty, and the goddess was as cruel in her punishment of it as any other deity. I heard the Morrigan’s low chuckle, my head whipping sideways to see Callum approach.

I wanted my bow, cursing myself for leaving it above for Del to use, even as I knew it’d be useless right now. He was close, so close I could see the smirk on his face, and his hand as it rose. Others stabbed at the Reavers around me as I watched this.

I knew what it was, the black smoke that rose from his fingers and I felt myself go cold with fear at the sight of it. And when he reached out, I knew what would happen. First to a Reaver, he owed them no loyalty, no care as he melted the flesh from their bones, then turned them to dust, the darkness curling around him flickering higher as if feeding from this death.

But it wasn’t his own troops he confined his attention to. He carved a swathe through the ravaging Reavers, the two of us oddly working in tandem to eradicate their numbers, but each time we killed a Reaver or he did, it fed his power. He’d always drawn power from death and destruction and we…

My head whipped around and I found Dane’s eyes in the mass, saw the same knowledge there. But more than that. I caught the moment when his widened. Because when I turned back, Callum caressed the stones the people beholden to the past duke of this keep had carefully dug out, formed and laid down to create this wall and then watched something I never expected to happen.

They crumbled.

Not fell down, somehow destabilised, but eradicated, turned to dust before my very eyes. My mouth fell open in an unspoken scream, the sound stuck in my throat, unable to fight its way free, until this.

There was a flaw in our plan. There always was. People looked back over military history, pinpointed the things that had brought a side down before and then planned around in the next battle. But the insanity of the attack on Snowmere? It didn’t reveal this.

What Bryson was, so was Callum

The power of the wolf that ate the world was a destructive one, just like the Morrigan’s. They both drew power from darkness. The wolf’s power came from human initiated destruction, hers from the natural cycle of life and decay, but the end result was the same. With just a touch, Callum could destroy everything protecting our loved ones.

And that’s when the plan changed.

The Reaver king stared into my eyes, seemingly wanting to watch my every expression as my realisations came, smiling when the last one came.

“You want me, not them,” I told him.

“Darcy, no!” Gael shouted, fighting to get closer, but unable in the melee.

“It’s all I ever wanted, my love.” Callum’s voice was an insidious imitation of my mates’ softer ones. “You put all these people, all these things between you and me, despite the fact we are joined. The… links you share with these men you style as your mates, they’re nothing compared to what we share.”

He took a step forward and I fought the urge to pull back.

“I don’t have to kill anyone if I have you.”

But he did, that was obvious. It’s how he got his power. And even if he didn’t, he’d kill me, sapping my strength over and over as he brought the world to heel. All of that training Nordred gave me, moving me over and over through endless drills, I knew what it was all for now. I had the Sword of Destiny and I would kill him.

“Get everyone back inside and get that portcullis down!” I shouted, the command in my voice absolute.

I didn’t encourage, direct people. I coerced them as brutally as Callum did his Reavers, feeling them move instantly. My mates fought against that, I felt it, not wanting to pull back but to rush to my side, and there they would just be liabilities.Be my strength from within the keep, I begged furiously.Keep them safe, all of them. The bond between us bucked and twisted, like a new colt on a lead rope, but I pushed them back anyway. They made me queen and I exercised that power now.

“You want me?” I asked, brandishing my sword. “You know I’m never going to waltz straight into your arms.”

“I wouldn’t want you if you did,” Callum replied with a slow smile. “A fight then? I’ll let you get this all out, you desire to resist, to rebel, and then when it's done, you’ll be right where you’re supposed to be, by my side.”

“Or your head will be where it's destined to be, lopped from your shoulders and lying at my feet,” I countered.

Chapter53

What remained of the Reavers fell back now, forming a loose, hostile ring around us. The battlefield had been determined, it appeared. I heard people shout from the castle walls, from beyond the portcullis, but I couldn’t focus on that right now. Just this. I took a deep breath, then another, drawing my attention back to the sword in my hand, its weight, the way that was distributed, how it became an extension of my hand. The flames along the blade fluttered as I sliced it through the air.

“A sword?” Callum made the request with a bored air, but a weapon sailed through the air, tossed by one of the Reaver host, and he caught it without even looking before facing me. “This is pointless, you know.”

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