I stood there completely naked, but it felt like I was drowning in a swamp of heat.
Oh, God… the realization hit me in another wave of fever. And the stricken look on Aidan’s face confirmed what I was going through.
Heat. I was in heat.
Wild
“She’s not dead,”Sea insisted after we popped into the cliffside stone circle and found… nothing. Just a cold, dark morning with no sign of our Flower. “We’d feel it if she was gone.”
I wished I could be so sure.
Usually, my faith in the prophecy kept me steady as a rock when it came to knowing how things would turn out with the queen the three gods had delivered upon us.
But I hadn’t warned her.
I’d forbidden her. I’d threatened her. But I hadn’t warned her.
My chest squeezed tight, and regret cut up my guts like a knife swallowed.
Instead of answering Sea, I scanned the valley stretched out before us, squinting under the dim light of the new moon. Hoping but not daring to pray to the three gods after what I’d done.
Sea had told me that one of the advantages of placing the castle tower under this stone circle was the clear sightlines it provided —nothing could sneak up on the secret kingdom, whether by land, sea, or air.
But even with my wolf vision, I couldn’t see our Flower. North, south, or east… there was no sign…
My heart dropped to my boots as the ocean crashed behind me. No sign of her at all.
“She’s not out here,” I told Sea.
“We should go into town.” Sea’s voice sounded rough, and I doubted it was due to the coastal wind scratching his throat. “You saw how fast she ran last time. With that speed and her wolf vision, she might’ve made it to Aillte Faoilmar before dawn.”
“Possible.” I scanned the human town on the far side of Loch Chlocha na nDéithe, the Gods' Stones Lake. Ten kilometers at least from where we stood. “But not likely.”
“Come on,” Sea said, grinding his jaw like he does when he’s trying to keep his head. “We’ll check the town. Then, if we need to, we’ll dive into the lake.”
I hesitated. But Sea didn’t wait for my answer.
“Neither of us will rest until we know for sure anyway,” he called over his shoulder.
It was a long trek down the cliff into the valley, where Aillte Faoilmar sat nestled on the other side of the mountain. Took us a couple of hours just to reach the road leading up to the lake.
My mood darkened with the breaking dawn. Did Sea really think she’d made it all the way to town in the few hours she’d had after her escape?
For reasons beyond me, the True King chose that moment to start talking in hypotheticals. “What’ll you do if we findher in Aillte Faoilmar, holed up in some hotel? Clever thing probably already figured out how to call Scotland. We’ll have to come up with a plan to avoid an all-out war when we bring her back.”
Her having kicked off a war with the Scots would be the best-case scenario, actually. The worst? Finding her body at the bottom of the Gods' Stones Lake.
“This is all my fault,” I choked out. “If she’s dead, then that’s on me.”
Sea stopped walking. “Wild…”
“No, don’t try to cheer me up. I don’t deserve it.” Guilt chewed away at my insides. “Why didn’t I explain things to her? Not just the tower with the red door. All of it?”
“Wild, shut up and look. Do you see what I’m seeing?”
Sea’s urgent question made me raise my eyes, and I tilted my head when I saw where the other king was pointing — toward a lone brick house on the south side of the lake, sitting in the middle of nowhere, with no farm in sight.
We Wild Wolves rarely ventured into this part of Ireland anymore, whether trekking above or below.
