I froze with my foot searching for the next step.
‘Brynn,’Val said, sharp and bright.‘Hold the image of your happy place, your anchor. Hold it tight.’
An image of my little brother, Finn, rose up in my mind. He was chasing Sable around the house with his wooden sword as my mother laughed. I gripped that image with everything I had,and the quiet faltered. My foot found the next step, and I kept moving.
Stop!the thought insisted, like a parent who had lost patience.
‘He’s strong,’Val told me.‘But we are stronger.’
It was the confidence I needed.
‘No,’I told the presence inside my head.
Light rose from Valkaryn and crawled over my skin like sunlight. The quiet retreated, not defeated, only waiting.
Alarms were ringing everywhere now, as if the castle had grown a thousand throats and was screaming. The horn calls had spread to the walls. Torches flared along the hallways. Men shouted outside. Somewhere, a gate slammed. The low pressure of Mind Render’s insistence grew as I neared the two open doors that led to a courtyard outside.
Stop. Kneel. Drop the sword.
It ordered in the same commanding tone. Each time, Val pressed warmth through me, and each time I found a thought to hold. My mother’s birthday. Sable’s breath against my cheek when she slept close on cold nights. Kaelric’s voice when he had said “little human” like he wished he could swallow the words back and keep them.
‘Good,’Val said.‘You are full of anchors.’
I was. I realized in that moment I was so blessed to have the love of so many people to help me keep my mind my own.
“I am also full of stubbornness.” I slipped through a side door and into a stairwell that twisted upwards. I was just moving at this point, knowing eventually Harrow would find me.
‘We need to distract the civilians, or they will storm this castle and tear you limb from limb. Call Kaelric, tell him to create a distraction at the gates so Harrow sends them that way.’
I trusted her strategy and relayed it to Kaelric.
‘Finally,’he said, as if he’d been waiting all night with his army to finally do something.‘Be safe,’he added.
There were guards ready for me at the top of the steps. These wore Harrow’s personal sigil, a sun split by a black slash. I took the first with a feint toward his sword and a cut to the wrist that made him drop it. The second, I met blade-to-blade. He was fast and fought to kill, not contain. He used the wall to pin me, and his knee to bruise, grinning like a man who enjoyed his work. But I knew I was staring back at Harrow, not the innocent wolf caged inside of his own mind, who was currently being used as a puppet. I smashed my forehead into his nose, and the grin vanished. Blood spattered the stone. I knew Val could easily drop them if I needed her to, but I also instinctively felt that she was reserving our energy for the bigger fight ahead. A third guard came from the side. I slid down a few steps, and when he came for me, I pinned his back to the rail, my blade between us. The tip of Valkaryn was at his throat.
His eyes went wide, then his lids lowered into a look that could only be described as evil before he sank his chin downward, forcing Val’s blade up into his skull.
“No!” I screamed, ripping the blade down and stepping backward, but it was too late. The young soldier fell, blood spraying down the steps as the weight of what had just happened hit me.
‘Harrow forced him to kill himself to show me what he’s capable of,’I told Val in shock.
‘Yes.’Her voice was small, full of sorrow.
‘Are all of his soldiers just innocents he controls?’
‘No. But most are. There was a small contingent of wolves who disagreed with how my husband ran things. They are loyal to Harrow.’
That bastard. I hated him more with every passing second.
The clicky-clack of wolf nails sounded above me. I peered up to see a dozen wolves with orange glowing eyes coming for me.
I hesitated at the snarling, curled lips.‘Do I retreat?’
‘No. He’ll send everything he has to try to take you out, because he’s scared of you,’Val told me.‘But we will avenge my family tonight.’
I steeled myself.‘Okay, I trust you.’
I gripped her in my fists and ran at the wolves, a growl in my throat.
