He finally sets me on my feet when we reach the top step, and I smooth down my dress, feeling travel worn next to the impeccably dressed princess, who has changed colour, her skin reddening.
“Sometimes,” she responds. “Depending on the quality of the males available.”
“I agree,” I respond. “So much is dependent on the quality of the males available.” I glare at Warden.
“Another human I like,” the princess says. “Come, Brag. Reavely is in the rose garden.”
She leads us through a huge iron studded wooden door and the initial darkness of a vast hall. We’re not in it for long before she takes a side door, this time far more modest, and we’re outside once again in a pretty courtyard.
An enormous male stands in the centre near a fountain. Next to him is a human woman. At our entrance, they both turn, and I see she is very, very pregnant.
For a moment, seeing her floors me. The first human I’ve seen in a long time. So long, my memory is fuzzy as to how long it might have even been.
And to see her, like this, in the Yeavering, pregnant, almost ready to give birth…it’s so normal, and yet not normal at all.
I hear Warden calling my name, but it seems like he is a long way away. There is a darkness which fills my vision and his voice is gone.
“Well, look what we have here.”
“Leave me alone,” I respond to the voice which is as much inside my head as outside. Thin, reedy, unpleasant like sulphurous smoke.
“That I cannot do. I want you. If I don’t get you, the Brag will have to die.”
“Joke’s on you. He can’t die,” I respond dryly, my mouth not wanting to form the slurred words.
“Is that what he thinks?” The voice chuckles and it makes my skin crawl. If I have skin. I’m not sure what I am anymore. “He is wrong. Nothing is entirely immortal unless it is a god, and the Brag is not godly.”
“But you are?”
“Close enough.”
“By your own logic, that’s not enough,” I respond, starting to get bored with the obtuseness of this conversation. “So if you touch him, you’ll have me to deal with.”
“Interesting.” The voice is quieter now, as if it’s further away.
“I have the sword of doom,” I call after it.
“I’ll be waiting.” The words are a whisper on the wind.
“Hazel!” There’s a bellow in my ear, Warden’s voice.
HAZEL
Iopen my eyes, not aware they were closed in the first place. His handsome, concerned face looks down on me.
“Hi,” I reply. “Everything okay?”
“Your legs stopped working,” Warden says rapidly. “The Barghest said to bring you here, to make you comfortable. The queen has gone to get you something to eat and drink.”
“The queen?” I struggle to push myself up on my elbows. “She’s pregnant.”
“Yes, the Barghest has put her into pup. She is due to whelp in a month,” Warden says. “Reavely is rather excited,” he rasps, with a look over his shoulder.
The face of the male from earlier appears. His short hair sticks up on his head like a pair of ears. He has piercing eyes and an impressive set of fangs as he stares down at me with a half smile.
“I can’t believe you mated,” he says to Warden. “I thought you were stuck in the Night Lands, never to leave.”
“I can leave the Night Lands,” Warden growls. “I can take a mate.”
