I gasp out a breath. “Air, Sae.”
She lets out a tense laugh and lifts her head to look at me. “Sorry,” she says, but she doesn’t relent.
I shake my head. “Don’t apologize,” I say, pushing her dark hair from her face. She looks pale, and she’s freezing. Her hazel eyes are slightly dull. I hate that I let it get this far. That I let him take her at all. I’m going to rip the sun from the sky and place it in her hands just to warm her up. “Are you okay? You feel?—”
“I’m okay now,” she says. She shuffles even closer. My throat closes up when she smiles up at me tearily. “You kept your promise.”
I choke out a sob and pull her close to crush her against me. I’m never letting her go again. I stroke her hair and kiss her head. When she tries to wriggle free, I grunt and hold her even tighter. “I’ll make you another promise.”
I finally let her go. She slips from my arms and looks up at me. The corner of her eye twitches slightly. She looks so exhausted. “Okay,” she says with a small smile.
“I promise,” I say, reaching up to hold her face, “that everything will be different now. I’m going to make things better.”
Her lips tremble and she nods. “That sounds like a good plan.” Then, her eyes slide up to the crown on my head. “What… what is that?”
I glance over to Stark, standing sentry at the door with Cratos. He seems to read my mind.Canhe read my mind? Anassa and I need to have a chat about how she communicates with her mate.
Stark’s jaw clenches, and I can tell what he’s thinking too, even without him saying it. He doesn’t want to leave my side right now. But he huffs, bows to me, and says, “I’ll be standing guard outside. Let Anassa know when you’re ready for me to come back in.”
Then he turns and leaves, and I’m alone with Saela and this earth-shattering news.
Explaining to my younger sister that we’ve secretly been royalty our whole lives proves to be alarmingly easy. After she gets over her initial jaw-dropping, squealing shock, she’s entirely on board, barraging me with questions about everything that’s happened since we parted.
I do my best to explain it all. Our true heritage. Mother’s ‘“madness” and the magic in her veins. In mine. How Anassa chose me on the mountain. After a while, I can’t put it off any longer.
I lead Saela to the cozy chair I found her in and sit her down, taking her hands. Then, I look up into her eyes and tell her about Mother.
Saela cries. She sits still, trembling, tears streaking down her cheeks. “So… everything’s changed,” she sniffs. Her voice is tiny. “We can’t go home.”
The horrible hollowness of grief presses on my organs. I pull her to me and hold her tight. “You will never be alone, Saela.”
She exhales shakily, clutching me. “We’re her daughters,” she says. “We’re strong.”
“Always,” I confirm.
A shudder moves through her when I wipe her cheek. It’s hard. Not just missing our mother, but knowing that our entire family line has been suffering for so long. I just hope that Saela knows it ends with me.Everythingwill be different now.
“So if I’m a princess and our family oversees the direwolves… do I get to become Bonded someday?” she asks through her tears.
Anassa chuffs an assent from behind me. She’s stayed apart from us this whole time, letting Saela and I talk. Now that Saela’s expressing interest in the direwolves, though, Anassa pads over to us.
“That means yes in Anassa speak,” I tell Saela.
Saela’s eyes widen and I try to imagine this from her perspective—try to see Anassa for the very first time. She towers over us, taking up all our vision. Her silver-white fur shines in the low light of Stark’s office, and she stares down at Saela with her wise yellow eyes. She’s fearsome and powerful.
Anassa lays down at Saela’s feet, the top of her head now reaching Saela’s waist. Saela reaches out a tentative hand, which Anassa sniffs, and then rubs her face against.
Delight sparks in Saela’s eyes, her grin so wide and bright that it’s all that I can see. She pets Anassa again and coos. “Who’s a pretty girl?” she asks, her voice high. “You’re a pretty girl, aren’t you?”
Anassa looks over at me, eyes narrowing. “Tell her not to talk to me like I’m a baby. Make sure she knows that direwolves deserve respect.”
“You don’t like that, you widdle cutie?” I tease.
Anassa reaches out a paw and swipes at me, but I hop away, laughing. “She wants you to talk to her like she’s the powerful, ancient creature that she is,” I tell Saela, who straightens immediately and nods to Anassa, getting the message.
Suddenly I can see her future—scaling Mount Wolfsbane, bonding with a huge direwolf of her own. As proud as I would be for her to join the ranks of the Bonded, in no world would I ever be comfortable putting her through the Bonding Trials.
“She doesn’t have to do the Trials,” Anassa says.“No one does, if you don’t want them to happen anymore.”
