“I had to be sure, Warden,” he says. “When you bring a Thegn to my castle, I had to be sure you weren’t working with it.”
I return to my human form, my head bowed, my chin on my chest, my hands stretching and gripping as I wrestle with what I am, with what the Thegn made me. With what Reavely needs to know.
What I should have told Hazel.
“The Thegn took my mortality in return for granting me the tenure of the Shadow Keep. I wanted the Faerie, you see. I wanted to be sure they paid for their crimes against the Yeavering.” I lift my head and meet Reavely’s gaze. “But my mortality was not all he wanted, and the tenure was not all I wanted.” I swallow, my throat dry. “He needed my soul.”
“And what did you need?”
“I needed to imprison Lord Yetholm.”
Reavely shifts his position, growing larger and partially into his werewolf form.
“Yetholm? You have him,” he growls under his breath.
“I have him. He is in the deepest oubliette in my darkest dungeon.”
“Not enough.” Reavely bares his teeth. “For what he did.”
“None of us could have saved Burde Ellen.” My voice rasps with the misuse. “But out of all, I should have tried harder.”
“The Silkie was a warrior, and she was the best of us,” Reavely says gently. “We all mourn her passing and there was nothing you could have done.”
“It was an end which was my fault.” I drop my head to my chest once more. “I can never forgive what I did. And nor should you.”
Reavely strides across the stone flags and places a hand on my shoulder.
“You did what she asked,” he says. “You could do nothing more. Her sacrifice brought about the end of the wars in the Night Lands. It turned the tide against the Faerie.”
“It should have been me.” I shut my eyes to drown out the screams which enter unbidden into my head. “I had to have Lord Yetholm. But it has led to this. My mate lost, my heart cracked in two, my mortality a mere memory.” I release a breath which I hope will be my last. “The Thegn has it all.”
I shake Reavely’s hand from my shoulder and walk out the door, past the Barghest guards as I climb out of the dungeons, into the main courtyard, where eyes aplenty follow my progress to the gate. I stand, staring at the wood as they are slowly pushed open and I see the Yeavering beyond.
What is left for me, here and now. The Thegn gave me what I wanted and what I needed. It brought me nothing but more pain and heartache.
And it did not bring our comrade in arms back.
I step out onto the road outside the castle.
All I can think on is my Hazel. The one bright spark in the whole of the worlds, the one I swore would be mine. The one my heart told me to protect.
My mate. My lady. Mine.
Now I transform into the Warhorse.
Now is the time of the reckoning.
Now the Yeavering will tremble before me.
HAZEL
The smell of rotting fish has me wide awake and retching. It is so strong my eyes are watering. I shove myself away from the pile of ancient rope right next to my head, over the slimy flagged floor which also stinks of dead things.
I stare around me. I’m in a cave, the rough walls rising high above into darkness. The light is dim coming in from a slim crack in the rock. Waves crash dully and every now and then, there is a rush of water into where I am, on a raised stone platform, a sort of harbour, where it laps gently at the rock.
I’m back at the sea? But how? The last thing I remember is the hidden panel, made to look like stone, and inside was the red and grey stone amulet, carved into the shape of a dragon biting its tail.
It was heavy in my hands, heavier than the shape and size suggested when I first picked it up. A prickle running over my skin which concentrated at the back of my neck.
