She swallows, looks at me. Her face is ashen.
“The whole pack has defected to Killian.”
19
STARK
The sun is too fucking bright on the snow this afternoon, glinting in sharp rays that make my eyes burn. The fog of the morning, appropriate for the funeral, finally drifted off. But it left something damp and restless inside me, something I need to work out of my body with movement and wind.
I lift my hand over my brow and squint at the wolf terraces. Noemi is finally leading Ephyse down toward us. Took them long enough. Noemi’s been quiet and dazed ever since seeing off the Eisenfall party.
“She’s not the only one,” Cratos says, nudging my side with his large black muzzle. I shove him away.
“Can you blame me? Be prepared to run hard. I want my muscles screaming.”Meryn’s state over the past couple of days has been excruciating, especially after what happened with Tomison this morning.
Maybe her trauma is bleeding through the bond.
Or, more disturbingly, maybe I give a shit if she feels bad.
I’m culpable, after all, for the way she lost control at her coronation. Onceagain, I felt her on the cusp of her power and once again, I led her astray—to disastrous effect.
I need to keep my distance from her.Sheneeds that.
“Ready?” Noemi says impatiently as she approaches, her hand on her hip. As if I were the one holding us up this whole time.
Before I can respond, there’s a sharp, dizzying twist in my brain.
I grit my teeth and lean against Cratos. The sensation is so strange and distracting andwrong, it takes a split second before I see it.
Noemi’s collapsed.
Her hair is a shock of red against the snow like spilled blood. She’s curled up on the ground with both hands over her ears, eyes screwed up tight.
She’s hurt.
Panic pulses in my veins, and I race to her side, reaching down.
Before my hand connects, Noemi lashes up to push me away. She straightens and stands. My throat tightens, and I take a step back, disconcerted. There’s something strange about her movements as she turns to Ephyse, seeming to communicate mentally with him.
What the fuck is happening right now? “Noemi?”
“I have to go,” she says sharply. Her usual open expression is tight—hard and unrecognizable.
She quickly mounts Ephyse, and they turn toward me and Cratos. We’re blocking the fastest way down from this part of the wolf terraces; to leave, they’ll have to go through us.
Alarm rings through me.
“Where are you going, Noemi?” She might wear my childhood friend’s face, but I don’t recognize the woman atop Ephyse.
“Phylax is joining King Killian.” Her voice is flat and colorless. She and Ephyse move to the right, aiming to skirt by us.
In one sharp movement, I cut them off. Grabbing Noemi by the wrist, I pull her off Ephyse and onto the ground. We hit icy rock, and I use our momentum to roll us.
Cratos steps forward, shielding us with his body and growling a threat at Ephyse.
“Like fuck you are,” I snarl at Noemi, using my knee to pin her to the ground.
She thrashes to the side and aims a punch at my head. But she doesn’t have a chance against the Daemos Alpha. I grab the other hand and wrench her wrists down so that she’s incapacitated.
