Astrid shrugged. “Remember that bit about me not answering any of your questions?”
With that, she knocked on the glass, and the door opened inside of it.
Maybe,maybeI could’ve pushed past her and tried to escape again, but if my suspicion was correct, there was a wolf — either Wild or Sea with an opener somewhere I couldn’t see outside the door.
And, I for sure did not want another confrontation with Wild.
The memory of his tongue inside my folds attempted to flash again. But I tamped it down again in favor of opening the letter.
Naomi
Dearest Mairinua,
Circumstances prevent me from visiting you in person, but perhaps this letter can be a small bridge between us — a way to get to know one another despite the distance.
My mother hailed from Belfast, you know. Da visited her kingdom when he was a young king of twenty-two, the usual age when many Sea Kings gained our thrones. The number holds a special meaning for us, as it’s also when males choose their seconds for taking a she-wolf to trimate. It wasn't quite like that for me, but that’s a story for another letter.
Today, I'll tell you about my parents' romance. My father first laid eyes on my mother during a diplomatic visit to the Belfast Kingdom in honor of his recent coronation. He’d already been celebrating all day, as Irishmen are wont to do. He spotted her and asked if he could take her picture with a disposable camera he happened to have on hand. When my mother asked him why, he said it was important his brother know what she looked like when he returned to our kingdom and told him he’d found their future wife.
My mother, of course, didn’t take him seriously. But Da wrote her every week after that, sending a Wild Wolf back and forth between our kingdoms with the letters. Lucky for him, the Wild Wolves happened to be near Belfast at the Giant's Ring for Imbolc that year. The Wild Wolf would deliver his letter and bring one back from my mother to my father.
However, my mother only received five of the six letters Da wrote her. When the fellow returned for the sixth letter, he brought her with him instead. Less than three days later, she went into heat. By all accounts, she, my father, and my uncle lived happily together here in the castle until she died giving birth to me. After her death, my uncle moved onto a new trimateship. Then my father left when I was twelve, leaving me to rule over the secret kingdom with my uncle serving as my King Regent until I reached the age of eighteen.
I’m sorry this story doesn’t have a happy ending, Mairinua. Irish tales often take such turns. But enough about my parents. Tell me, what is it you dreamed of before finding yourself here?
Astrid has brought some paper and a pen for you. Perhaps you’ll write me back, as my mother did my father? I know now how Da must have felt, longing to know everything about the she-wolf he knew for certain would become his queen.
Until then, Your Sea King
I read the letter.Scoffed. Then read it again, despite myself. A pang of sadness for the motherless king lingered, but I pushed it into the farthest corner of my mind.
He co-led the contingent that had kidnapped me.
Of course, I did not write back to the male who had stolen me from the life I intended.
However, the next day, when Astrid handed me another letterfrom Sea, I tried to play it off. But my fingers moved faster than my doubts, reaching eagerly for the thick white envelope sealed in wax.
“Do you have anything you’d like me to deliver back to the castle?” Astrid asked, one eyebrow raised in silent judgement.
It was the same look Sea had given me when he asked why I made promises I couldn't keep — a look that saw too much.
“No,” I answered. “And if that changes whether he wants to write me, I’m okay with that.”
Another raised eyebrow, but Astrid left without comment after knocking on the glass for whoever was there to let her out.
Most likely Wild. I recalled Sea tapping on the wolf knot fasteners that appeared to do everything from opening doors in glass to transporting us from the stone circle back into the secret kingdom.
That probably wasn’t the kind of power one gave just anybody to wield.
A tap on my shoulder drew me out of my thoughts, and I turned to find Priscilla standing right behind me, her hands primly clasped.
“We’re gathering for prayer time now as Amanda would have wanted.”
Somehow, I managed not to roll my eyes. Priscilla had become the most dedicated Wölfennite ever in the wake of losing her best friend to “those horrible heathen beasts.”
“Sure,” I said, to keep the peace.
As soon as we were done, I found myself rushing upstairs, weirdly excited to read Sea's letter — even though I knew I shouldn’t be.
