‘I’ve got him. He’s going to be fine,’I assured him.
I set Valkaryn lengthwise beside his leg, and she flared a bright orange. Light threaded from her blade into the swollen joint. It felt like a thousand filaments tucking loose fibers back into their weave.
Godric grunted. Sweat beaded his brow.
“Tell me a story,” I said to keep my focus firm. “Something about Val that will make her proud.”
His mouth bent in a rough smile. “When we were little, she stole our father’s corn cob,” he said. “He counted cobs like coins. She told him the birds ate it. He planted a whole row the next spring for the birds.”
I could feel Val’s warmth and fondness for the memory, even a little aching.
‘He did,’she whispered.‘He said the birds had good taste.’
The swelling at Godric’s knee eased, then tightened once more. Val’s light surrounded the knotted part in a delicate grasp and waited. I felt her pull a little more strength across the tether between us, and felt myself sway as the edges of the world blurred for a second. Healing took a lot of energy.
Godric’s hand closed hard around my wrist. “Enough, Brynn,” he said, voice low. “I can walk.”
“I need you to run,” I said.
‘Let him rise,’Val urged.‘If I do more, you will take too long to recover fully, and we could be attacked at any moment.’
I drew the sword back, and the light dimmed to a soft ember that glowed above his skin. Godric pulled himself upright, tested the knee, and exhaled. He stood, wobbling a bit, then steadied.
“I owe you a life debt,” he said.
“You can pay me back by not dying,” I told him, taking in a deep breath through my nose as my vision got sharper and my wolfkin magic re-energized what my human half would not have been able to. I handed him a sword from one of the fallen guards.
He took it and weighed the balance, then nodded briefly. “Thank you.”
We did not linger. I dragged one of the unconscious guards into the cell and shut him in. Godric set the other on the stool and tipped his head against the wall, as if drunk. It would buy us seconds at best.
“Do you know where Maelis is being kept?” I asked as we moved toward the stairs.
“My guess would be the third floor, in the east wing. There is a room just off the king’s quarters that was once a nursery. He would probably use that for his… concubines.”
Val had said the same thing, so I decided that’s where we were going.
It was time to find Harrow and end this.
Chapter Fifteen
“There is a secret door that leads to the old nursery behind a tapestry of a stag hunt in the library. It’s what I once used to…” Godric’s mouth tightened. “I don’t think Harrow knows about it.”
What he once used to smuggle Kaelric and Elia out?
The idea that Harrow slept with Maelis next door to him to be at his beck and call turned my stomach. I tightened my grip on Valkaryn.
‘Keep your mind still,’Val said.‘You will need your anger later.’
We climbed the steps. Godric’s limp shortened as we went, like a man warming into a familiar ache. He moved with the confidence of a commander, even half-healed. He was sure of himself, of this place, like he’d walked its halls a hundred times. He knew where all the alcoves were to hide us. He knew where the stones were loose on the stairs.
On the first landing, a trio of servants pushed down the hall with baskets of linens.Did Harrow make them work all night?I’d assumed the castle would be dead as everyone would be sleeping. But it seemed Harrow had people working overtime.Godric and I sucked into the alcove until they passed, then we were out again.
We reached the second floor and paused beneath a stone archway. The corridor beyond was paved in black stone, each tile so polished it looked wet, like a river frozen mid-flow. Heavy tapestries swallowed the walls, thick with dust and metallic thread that glinted under the torchlight.
Music drifted from somewhere deep inside the castle. A flute, soft and sweet, tangled with a woman’s voice. The sound slid over my skin, too gentle, too careful. The hairs on my arms rose, warning me it wasn’t meant to comfort.
‘I’m shielding you both,’Val murmured from the sword.‘But don’t listen long.’
