“How?” I ask. “How will you do all of that in a matter of hours? Thamaos left here in a pile of bones. His reawakening wasn’t instant. What makes you think it will be any different for you?”
“Good question.” He cocks his head. “Your sister left a sacrifice to the grove when she killed that general. Best I recall, all that is needed is a life in exchange for a life. She took that lifeafterThamaos was already gone, so I’m clinging to the hope that my resurrection will be an accelerated process. Where Thamaos’s transformation will likely require weeks, if not months, to return him to a truly living state, mine should be fairly instant given Vexx’s sacrifice.”
My gods. I still hate what Raina went through, and if I had it to do over, I would’ve pulled myself together and wrapped that pike in so many vines she couldn’t have possibly seen what remained of Finn. But in my panic and shock, I didn’t, and her rage and pain will be something I forever feel in the guilty shadows of my soul.
Her destruction of the grove wasn’t for nothing, though. I found the North a weapon, and by killing Vexx, it seems she might’ve given me the means to wield that weapon more effectively.
I pull away from the wolf’s too-easy touch and gesture toward the cliffside where his bones are buried beneath scorched earth and snow. “Fine. Lead the way. If you want to live again,under my thumb, so be it. But don’t you dare complain when my rule is not so pleasant.”
His mouth quirks as though I’m humorous. “What’s unpleasant for one might be pleasant for another.” He turns and stalks toward the gloom hovering between the trees. “I rather like your bark, witch,” he calls. “Though I’m more interested in seeing if you have any bite.”
I stare at his back until he drops to all fours and lopes away like the beast he is, disappearing into the smoke bleeding from the trees. Colden strolls up beside me, wearing a pinched and concerned expression I know far too well.
“Don’t scold me,” I snap. “I’ve missed you with my whole heart, but please don’t scold me.”
He arches a brow and drapes his arm over my shoulders before touching his forehead to mine. “Wouldn’t think of it.”
“Yes, you would.” I grip his wrist, so thankful he’s here.
He kisses the tip of my nose. “But I won’t.”
“I did what I did for Tiressia, Colden. For the North and the Summerlands. Neri will be mine, and I mean to use him.”
He slips a finger beneath my chin and tips my head up. “I understand. I understood the moment that bastard explained the situation at my cell in Min-Thuret. I just need you to be careful. I know you’re quite capable, but Neri is agod. Dangerous and beyond clever.” His eyes soften at the corners, as though drawn by sadness. “I want to protect you from this, but you’ve entered into a deal with a devil, and I can’t do a godsdamn thing about it.”
A sickening knot of worry tightens my chest as I lean into his embrace, my gaze fixed on the wolf’s path toward the cliff, the path that leads to a future with Neri ever at my side.
“I know,” I whisper. “Believe me, I know.”
2
NEPHELE
“Idon’t want anyone present but me andyou.” Neri looks up. The sharp flick of his gaze punctuates that final word.
He sits on the ground beneath the remains of his memoriam tree and rests his sinewy forearms on his fur-covered knees while rolling a burnt twig back and forth between clawed fingers. He acts as though the cold against his wolven ass is nothing. I suppose it isn’t.
Before I can reply, Colden leans one shoulder against the massive tree trunk, hands tucked into black trousers, and says, “If you think I’m leaving her alone with you, you’ve forgotten who I am.”
Neri peers at Colden. “And if you think I fear your threats in any way, Moeshka, perhapsyouhave forgotten whoIam.”
Colden shakes his head and scrubs his hand down his face with an exasperated groan. “Fuck me. I don’t know how I could’ve possibly believed, even for a second, that this deal Nephele has with you could be an opportunity for anything less than a disaster. I’ve seen the way you look at her, mongrel.”
Face hard as stone, Neri reveals his fangs again. “And what way is that?”
“Like you could devour her,” Colden answers. “If she indeed returns you to your human form, trust that I’ll send you back to the Shadow World myself before I stand by and watch her become the prey in the White Wolf’s next hunt.”
“You don’t own her. She can do whatever she wants, and right now, I’m telling her that I prefer this summoning to be between her and me. No one else. So fuck you indeed,king.If she agrees to my request, you’ll have to live with it.”
Colden pushes off the tree. Beneath his fine clothes, his lean, muscular frame takes on an entirely different posture. The cocksure, boyish nature I see most often falls away, replaced with a threatening air—steel in his spine, ice in his eyes, fury in his fists. I haven’t experienced him like this often, not even when he’d meet Alexus on the training grounds, swords in his hands.
There’s everyday Colden, and then there’s Colden the soldier. The man who once led a small northern battalion against an Eastland army twice their size and not only won but left a staggering enough body count to render his name legend. I’ve never truly met that man, but I’m quickly beginning to believe that the path we’re traveling might ensure that I get to know him.
His black eyes narrow, and the air grows so cold that tiny shards of ice sleet from the sky. At the same time, icy veins travel up Neri’s tree, branching across the gnarled, burnt limbs.
Shaking from the thick frost suddenly filling the air, I curl in on myself and lift Colden’s jacket over my head, unable to discern which one of them is responsible for the sudden frigidness.
I open my mouth to berate one or both of them, but my attention snags on movement in the trees. The others appear in the near distance, coming to join us. They shield their heads, carefully glancing upward in confusion.
