Greta
Greta woke just before dawn to a sharp knock on her bedroom door. She sat up in bed, rubbing the ache from her chest. That strange dream had invaded her sleep for the second night in a row, dragging her down to the lost mining tunnels of the Fovarr Mountains, where she had found herself staring into a pair of huge, glittering eyes.
She blinked, reminding herself where she was: her bedchamber in Grinstad Palace.
On the day of the king’s wedding.
That knock came again, more urgent now.
Outside, the wind was whipping up. Greta hopped out of bed and fetched her robe as the ground began to rattle.
Another avalanche.
A glass of water slid from her desk and shattered at her feet as she swung the door open, hoping, despite everything, that it would be Alarik standing on the other side.
For a moment, her eyes betrayed her. A tall figure stood before her, his blonde hair flickering in the lamplight. She blinked, her heart sinking.
‘Elias.’ Shock coloured her voice. ‘What on earth is going on?’
The king’s spymaster braced himself against the door frame,a look of such urgency on his face, it made her heart gallop. ‘It’s the beast in the mountain. It’s breaking out. It’s going to destroy everything. When it makes it to the palace, it will kill the king.’
Panic rose, thick and fast in Greta’s chest. Elias was right. Why would a beast in such pain show mercy to the king who had ignored its suffering – its pleas – these past few months? It would destroy their beasts, too. The soldiers and the servants, and all the guests who had already gathered here for the wedding, and were sleeping obliviously in their beds.
The timing couldn’t have been worse. It was the king’s wedding day. In a few hours, the noblefolk of Halgard would descend on Grinstad, joining the oldest and most important families in Gevra in celebration. The palace would be teeming with royalty.
‘Does the king know—’
‘There’s no time,’ Elias cut in. ‘He’d only stop us, anyway.’
Greta offered no argument. Elias was right. Alarik would never let her go into that mountain now. Not if the beast was tunnelling its way out. Tor would stop her, too, offering himself in her place.
No, she could not allow it.
‘You need to get inside those mountains and wrangle it.’ Elias echoed her thoughts. ‘Now.’
There was no other way.
‘Give me a moment to get dressed. I’ll be right out.’
‘I’ll wait,’ he said, stepping back into the hallway. ‘I can show you the way.’
She summoned a grim smile, grateful for the spymaster’s bravery … that she would not have to go into the mountains alone.
Greta moved about her bedchamber in a blur, careful not to nick her feet on the shattered glass. Her thoughts were reeling. Although resolute in her task, doubt nagged at her.
She was about to betray a direct order from her king.
Alarik, the man she loved.
Alarik, who had chosen another.
Alarik, who would never belong to her.
Yesterday had been torture, the hours of indecision feeling slow and endless while she paced the forest, wrestling with the choice before her: to stay and love the king from afar, or to leave and make a new life for herself far beyond the bounds of Gevra. But when Greta thought about it in earnest, she could not stomach the thought of leaving this land or its creatures. She did not need Alarik’s love to survive here. She could love his beasts, and dwell in their love in return, devoting herself to the kingdom that had raised her to be kind and fearless, to live and thrive with the song of the wild in her blood.
It was not a perfect life. And it was not the one she truly craved in her heart, but it would be enough for Greta. This place, and these creatures. This king, who had prised her heart open and taught her how to love the man in him, just as fiercely as the beast. She could not hate him for it. She would not leave him for it, even if he couldn’t love her back.
And this morning, on the day he would pledge his life to another,she would do everything in her power to save him.
