“Any chance you two could give this poor woman some air?” A pleasant female voice comes from behind Warden and the king. “She’s going to do better without you breathing all over her.”
Instantly, the king moves aside, and Warden, even though he doesn’t leave me, moves slightly to allow me to see the woman carrying a tray.
“I wasn’t here,” I say to Warden, grasping at his arm. “And I’m supposed to give you up or you will die.”
“That old chestnut.” The queen huffs. “The Yeavering is filled with tricks like that. Take no notice.” She looks over her shoulder. “You need to have a word with your relatives,” she says to the massive Barghest. “They’re annoying the guests again.”
“They promised me they would stop,” the king says meekly.
Yes, this huge creature is not going to challenge the heavily pregnant woman. Not at all. In fact I’d describe the way he’s looking at her as puppy eyes on steroids.
“I’m Wynter.” She sets the tray down next to where I’m lying on a dark wooden carved couch. “That hairy monster over there is my mate, Reavely, king of the Barghest and the Yeavering, if you’d credit it.”
“Hazel,” I respond. “This is Warden.”
“I’ve heard of you.” Wynter looks Warden up and down. “You imprisoned the Faerie in the Shadow Keep.”
“I did. I still do. It will be a long time before I am finished with them,” Warden says. “More arrive every day, unless you or the Bluecap have killed some more.” He looks over at the king who is inspecting his claws.
“You know I don’t kill the Faerie unless I’m provoked,” Reavely responds. “And anyway, I have more to deal with these days than the simple pleasure of reaping souls.”
Wynter snorts a laugh, and he is beside her in an instant, smoothing his hand over her distended stomach in an act so sweet and so filthy I feel myself heat. Warden’s nostrils flare.
“If you do find any alive, send them my way,” Warden growls. “I’ll always have a place for the Faerie in the Shadow Keep.” He looks down at me. “My lady,” he rasps. “You had me worried out of my mind.”
“It’s been a long day…a long week…I don’t know how long it’s all been,” I reply. “I’m tired.”
As soon as I say the word, exhaustion floods through me. Once again my vision dims and I hear shouts around me. A glass is pressed against my lips, and I feel Warden’s exhortation to drink rather than hear it. The liquid is cool and refreshing.
And this time there is no voice, which is a relief because it’s either my imagination or something is getting into my head.
“What have you been doing to your mate?” Reavely asks bombastically before he is roundly shushed by Wynter.
“We have been on a long journey. My Hazel was the landlady of a tavern in the Night Lands. She does not know how she got to the Yeavering or her final destination,” Warden says. “The rest is more complicated, and we have little time to explain. I need your amulet. The amulet of Backworth.” He gazes at Reavely with a snarl raising one corner of his mouth.
Reavely continues to gaze at Wynter. “I don’t think that will be possible, Warden.”
My centaur is on his feet, in his Brag form, in the blink of an eye. And Reavely has transformed to an enormous werewolf, his jaws dripping and eyes burning as he snarls at Warden.
“We are being pursued by the Thegn.” Warden’s hind legs dance, his hooves flinging up sparks. “And he has a Dunnie in his employ.”
Reavely swirls back to his human form. “Because you have a mate?” he asks.
Warden dips his head and looks over his shoulder at me.
“I would not give up my Hazel for everything in the Yeavering, above it and below it, but my heart hurts I may have put her in danger by wanting her to be mine.”
My heart pounds in my chest, harder than before.
“I told you, we’re in this together.”
Both Reavely and Wynter look at me.
“You’re hardly fit to walk, let alone take on one of the worst creatures in the Yeavering,” Reavely says loudly. “I’d call him a monster, but then that would place me alongside him, and I am not such a monster as he.”
“Which says a lot,” Warden rasps. “You in the soul-taking game.”
“No longer, old friend,” Reavely says. “The Reaper released me the moment I raised my family from the dead.”
