By the time they landed at the Wicklow estate, Sadie’s chest felt fit to burst as she walked hand in hand with Tadhg, her hulk of a Mountain King, and Cian, her ever-silent Shadow King.
“Right,” her High King, Declan, who was leading the way, declared. “First, we’ll feed our Sadie. Then one more round of celebrating. Then we join whatever festival they’ve no doubt already started around our lake.”
Sadie laughed at the thought of her husbands actually delaying their appearance at a kingdom-wide celebration just to spend more time in bed with her.
Seriously, how lucky could one girl who didn’t even know she was actually a bear until a few months ago get?
But then, just after they walked through the mansion’s doors, Declan extended his hand to the Mountain King and said, “If I could have my pendant back, Tadhg.”
Tadhg stopped. Frowned. “What do you mean? I don’t have your pendant.”
“What do you mean, ‘What do you mean?’” Declan also stopped walking and turned all the way around to address his fellow king. “Did you not gather my bear pendant with all my other things?”
Sadie, too, was confused. Declan had shifted as soon as he and Sadie were captured during a visit to her old Wölfennite community, to keep from having to answer any of the questions of Alban Scotswolf, the Faoiltiarn Kingdom Enforcer. Declan’s tactic had worked—Alban had not only given up on grilling both of them, he’d left Faoiltiarn to resume his futile search of Ireland’s Above for the Irish Wolves and the Wölfennite Brides they’d stolen. Neither Alban nor his warriors had even been there when the bears invaded.
So it had been easy, under Tadhg’s generalship, to not only save Sadie but break Declan out of his prison and gather what was left of his things. He’d been forced to borrow a t-shirtand pair of sweatpants from Tadhg for the plane ride home. But he wore the same shoes he’d had on when he and Sadie were captured, and Declan had spent much of the flight back to Wicklow returning business emails on the phone Tadhg had retrieved for him.
But now, something grim shifted across his expression. “I thought you were keeping my pendant safe for me,” he said to Tadhg.
“No, Dec. I wouldn’t have done that.” Tadhg wore the same terrible look on his face. “That pendant is the key to our kingdom gate. I would’ve made sure you had it back. Expeditiously.”
Sadie’s stomach dropped as she realized this was the same pendant they used to press into the stone to open the Wicklow gates.
As their kingdom members sometimes complained when no one was available to let them back in after a trip to the Above, the pendants, which were held by only a handful of people, were the only way to get into their land of secret kingdoms.
Declan cursed viciously, though he tried not to swear in front of Sadie. And the Shadow King dropped her hand. Pulling out his own Celtic-knot bear pendant, he rushed with long strides toward the ballroom where the stone circle that was actually an elevator to their secret kingdom stood.
“Maybe the bears just failed to pick it up,” Sadie suggested as Declan turned to follow behind Cian. “Or maybe they disposed of it because it’s made of silver. I know I don’t…”
She trailed off because her other two kings were already too far gone in the distance to hear what she was saying.
“Let’s hope you’re correct, strawberry,” Tadhg said, gathering her in his arms for a reassuring hug.
She was not.
When they stepped out of the Wicklow tower gate onto the lawn of the lake that separated the three kings’ residences, theyfound a huge crowd gathered around the High King, all trying to speak at once.
About the Scottish invaders they had “chased off.”
“Came in here greener than grass with swords unsheathed,” Séamus, one of the older villagers who’d remained behind along with the wives and children, was telling Declan.
His voice was reedy, but pitched in a way that allowed him to be heard over all the others shouting to get their High King’s attention.
They didn’t bother to address the pale figure beside him since everyone in the Secret Kingdom knew Cian didn’t believe in talking.
“They asked after the Irish Wolves,” an old lady chimed in, “and we let them know they wouldn’t be getting any intel out of us unless they were wanting to know where to shove it.”
The villagers laughed.
And Séamus finished the story. “The red-haired one that was leading them—had some bulk on him, he did. Could’ve been your brother, Tadhg! Anyroad, he took one look at us and told his army to follow him. Nipped right back to the tower without another word to us.”
“You mean, they ran off with tails between their legs!” another older lady called from the crowd. “If they’d tried to invade us, those of us remaining would have given those dogs a beating, wouldn’t we have?”
The rest of the bears cheered in agreement.
But Sadie and her kings did not join in.
The real story was unfolding in all their minds. Theirs was not the only stone gate. And just getting into the bear kingdom would have been all the intel Alban needed to make his next move.
