Page 95 of The Wolf Queen

Gael ground that out, flames flickering on his hand as he tried to raise his healing power, but there was no cure for this.

Bar one.

He slapped his hand down over his thigh to try and staunch the blood flow, screaming as he felt the customary ache.

But no relief.

Red, red blood coated his hand and that was the point my field of vision took on the same colour.

Red fields, dark red sky, red flames. I grabbed the Sword of Destiny and used it not as a weapon, but as a walking stick to haul myself up with. And that’s when I heard Callum’s chuckle. I’d stumbled over to Dane, to Axe, seeing the blood bloom on their skin, seeping into the earth, my hands sliding as I tried to staunch it. But Callum’s laugh, it was a leash around my neck, hauling me away from that which I cared about and back towards him.

We are one and the same, Callum insisted.

“Never,” I growled, lurching closer.

Bryson wolf was standing over him now, a wolf with its prey. His jaws widened and I saw the fear on Callum’s face.

“You want to call back your dog,” he hissed and I had a sharp retort to that on my lips, right before I fell to my knees. The sword was the only thing keeping me up right now, the aches multiplying by the second, but more than this. I felt the kind of exhaustion that comes from pushing yourself beyond the limits, day after day.

Like I had been lately.

“Never…” I whispered rather than shouted.

“You and I are connected, Darcy.” I watched Callum’s face thin, the bones pressing against his skin. “We have been since you were born and we will be in death.” He smiled then, a terribly grim thing. “But not just our death.” With an effort, he rolled his head sideways, even as his back arched, mine arched, with the pain. Bryson wolf was sucking the very life from Callum.

And my mate was taking from everyone connected to Callum.

Selene had taughtme to connect to others, to create a pack, but she couldn’t have known that my pack was also Callum’s. Reavers dropped, died, crumbled, all around us, the earth itself rejecting their presence. The dust of their bodies blew away with the night air, but still the wolf was not satisfied.

I’d set him on this path, to eradicate Callum, not realising what it meant. All of our plans, they came to nothing. I crawled towards Callum, something he would have otherwise enjoyed I’m sure, if he wasn’t laid low himself, then grabbed the Sword of Destiny to haul me closer. But as I did, I watched the crystal in the pommel pulse, growing dimmer and dimmer.

Don’t pray to me, the Morrigan had said. You have everything you need.

What does that mean?I shouted inside my head.What do you want from me?

A raven with golden plumage landed beside me, hopping closer and tilting its head to one side as only birds can do.

You used the strength of the Maiden, she said and in my mind I watched myself train, strive, fight.You developed the love of the Mother. I saw my hands trying hard to staunch the blood flow, but those same hands swept up Jan and set her on my hip.But you’ll need my power before this ends.

How?I howled, but I knew. I’d always known. It wasn’t my lot to live a life of love and happiness. I was lucky I’d experienced it for as long as I had, which was more than I expected.

I will have my due,the raven told me in a pitiless voice.All come to me in the end, but you have more choices that most. You decide who comes with me now.

And that’s when I saw it. Nordred had taught me to fight, but in the end he’d shown me the way. To die, that was his final gift to me.

And it would be mine to those I loved.

As I blinked, staring at the sky, I hoped they wouldn’t make Jan and Del stand by my funeral pyre. I didn’t want them to cut their hair off in memory of me. I wanted them to forget they even knew me, so I could save them from this pain.

“You want me,” I told an emaciated Callum.

“No!” Dane’s shout was a ghost of his formerly authoritative one and all he could do was claw at the air to try and stop me.

“It’s all I ever wanted… Eleanor.”

He wasn’t seeing me right now, this Reaver king, and I don’t think he ever did. It was as if the layers of him were stripped away, just leaving this. A man who was not supposed to be born, the power of the queen split between him and his sister, but that schism couldn’t continue. We’d all seen what Strelae had become when this power was split and that weakness couldn’t continue.

Because she would need to be strong for what was to come.

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