CHAPTER 11
“No.”
“Quiet,” Conri hisses at me over the howling and cheering of the lykin.
I didn’t realize I’d uttered the word. I thought it had been kept to my mind. My whole body is numb, I don’t know if I could move if I tried, so I’m amazed my lips somehow managed to form a sound.
Conri still continues to hold me with white knuckles as he declares, “Break down your tents; we start our trek to Gualla this afternoon.”
Most of the lykin jump to activity at his decree. But many are affixed to their spots. Never before have I had so many focused solely on me. Some bare their teeth as I pass. Others shift into their wolf shapes, hairs on end and muscles tense.
The announcement of our upcoming union is already an unpopular decision. Perhaps I can use the disdain of Conri’s people to my advantage. I debate my next steps and best approaches the entire way back to Conri’s tent. He releases me only to give me a light push inside.
“Leave us, Evander,” Conri commands. The knight has remained diligently at our side. “Help the others ready to move. I don’t want any delays.”
Evander hovers in the entrance, his eyes darting from me, to Conri, and back again. He wears the same scowl as before. Perhaps this loathing comes from the announcement Conri made. I wonder if the man loves his king or just thinks me unworthy.
“Yes, my king.” Evander’s nod is jerky and forced. It looks as if he has to expend a great deal of effort to force himself to leave.
“Evander is a good and loyal knight,” Conri says with a note of approval. “I have a mind to appoint him as your sworn protector in all instances where I am kept from your side. He knows the world of the humans well, and the ways of witches. I think that would make you comfortable while you acclimate to your new home here in Midscape.”
“Married?” I blurt, completely ignoring everything he said. “Mate?”
“Yes.” Conri begins packing his things as though everything is perfectly normal. “I realize you must be stunned by the great honor I have bestowed upon you since you think yourself unworthy, no doubt. But I assure you that, with all the power you have to offer me, and Aurora’s magic within you, you will be a fitting mate.”
“I have no interest in being your mate,” I say bluntly so there can be no misunderstanding. He pauses, mid packing. His back is still to me, and his shoulders tense slightly, drawing toward his ears. “Or your wife. Or being with you for any extended period at all in any way.”
There’s a long pause where the whole world seems to hold its breath, myself included. Then he begins packing again, hands moving before his mouth. When he speaks, his tone is placid, as though I’ve said nothing more than trivial notions.
“I had hoped you would find joy in the great honor that I am bestowing upon you.” He hums. “Though, perhaps it can’t be helped; you’ve still much to learn about our ways.”
“I don’t…” I can’t say I don’t want to learn. I’m genuinely curious about the lykin and all of Midscape. What I don’t want to do is learn from the man who’s kept Aurora hostage and seems to be trying to do the same to me. “I have other priorities.”
“You will need to make me your priority now,” he says, matter-of-fact.
“Excuse me?”
“Within you is half the magic of the moon spirit.” He spins and stares down at me. “In you is the primordial power promised to my people—sworn to the rightful king of the wolves for centuries. Even if your human mind tells you that you do not love me, somewhere within you is Aurora’s essence.Thatwill love me, with all its might. And you will learn to follow its lead, in time.”
“You honestly expect me to make nice to you so you can lead your pack to wage war on my homeland?” My voice rises slightly and I shake my head. If the wolf king marches through the Fade and into human towns and cities, what was all my effort maintaining the barriers for?
Though…Bardulf and Evander broke my barrier without issue. Perhaps it was all an illusion of safety from the start. Then again, Conri just said Evander has knowledge of witches, and he was the one to try and order the spirits Rhave and Gruvun. Maybe he’s the man I really need to be careful of.
Danger lurks behind every silver eye here.
“Faelyn…”
Hearing my name from his lips stills me.
“The lykin are dying. Our lands grow more barren with every generation. Our numbers dwindle with every mating spring. We are a people without hope or future.” Conri’s eyes widen enoughto fill with sorrow. The tension between my shoulders unknots some with unbidden sympathy. He looks…genuinely afraid. “We cannot push west or we will be crushed by the Elf King and his armies for extending beyond our borders. The mountains are well claimed by the vampir and fortified for centuries—it’d be a foolish effort to walk into the land of our mortal enemies. The lands of the Natural World are fertile, still. They were once our home; pack territories extended well beyond the current line of the Fade. We have as much of a claim to them as the humans do.”
“The lykin struck a deal with the witches not to come into the lands of the human.” A deal that, knowing they lost territory, makes so much more sense now.
“Not quite. The witches gained access to spirits and magic from Midscape by allowing the Fade to be opened from time to time, and the lykin gained a rich hunting ground of the woods nearest the Fade.” It strikes me that not once have I ever questioned why the lykin were given the run of the woods when the witches, probably, could have just as easily held them at the Fade. “Can’t you see? Your people and mine…we were meant to work together. Opening the Fade to us would help you, too. It would further restore magic to the Natural World, emboldening witches to reclaim their birthright, also.”
“Witches work to protect our human brethren. We wouldn’t sacrifice them for our own power.” I regard him skeptically.
“Who is asking you to?” The corner of his mouth quirks up slightly. Amusement breaks through his kingly composure. “I never said anything of conquest.”
