The shock and joy that surged through our bond then caused me to smile.
‘I’m already here, little wolf. I’ll never be too far from you.’
Despite the horrors of the night, I laughed.
‘Are you stalking me?’
‘Yes,’he admitted.
‘My mother told me to avoid possessive men,’I teased.
‘More like obsessive. I’m obsessed with you, Brynn. Now come to the gate so I can kiss you.’
Chapter Seventeen
Ahowl rose from far beyond the outer wall, long and low and full of something that made my throat tighten. Not grief. Not triumph. The note wolves use when the old order cracks and a new one yawns in the dark.
Kaelric.
I turned from the window and wiped Valkaryn clean on my cloak. The blood came away in a dark streak that looked like old ink. The sun was coming up on the horizon, and I needed to see Kaelric. I sheathed Val and took one last look at the broken sword and the fallen king with bright blood beneath his nose, then I left the balcony the way I had come.
I ran down the steps, hearing the castle come alive with murmurs and footfalls.
Servants pressed themselves to the walls as I passed. Some stared at the blood on my hands and cloak and clutched their chests with wide eyes. A pair of guards stood at the front door with spears lifted as I passed, then lowered them behind me once I was through. It seemed word had traveled fast.
Out front, a young man in a stable apron pointed at my hip. “Queen Valkaryn has redeemed us!” he cried.
I nodded. She had.
I took the steps three at a time as the air grew colder. The smell of horses and iron reached me. A horn sounded three short bursts from the front gate, and I wondered if it was a horn of surrender.
I burst into the covered passage that opened to the inner court. Torches wavered along the walls, their smoke clinging to the stone. Harrow’s black sun banners hung on their poles, and I wanted to stop and rip them down, but I wanted to see Kaelric more.
The front gate held a thin line of loyalists in silver helmets. Their hands trembled on spear shafts as they faced the gates. Beside them, tied up, were the two messenger guards I had sent to deliver word. Outside the iron gates, shapes filled the darkness. Wolves first. Then Wolfkin with metal armor.
Kaelric and his army.
There was someone in charge, a captain on the wall who pulled his shoulders high. “Hold,” he shouted at his men, voice cracking. “In King Harrow’s name.”
“In the true king’s name,” answered Kaelric from the center of the wolf army. The men and wolves moved as my love stepped closer. “Open them now.”
The captain flinched, and I unsheathed Valkaryn, stepping into the yard. “Open the gate,” I growled. “Harrow is dead.”
The captain spun, looking down at me in shock. His mouth pulled tight, but his hands stayed on the lever that controlled the gate.
“By whose order?” he asked hoarsely.
‘Mine,’Valkaryn said.
“By Queen Valkaryn Morvain,” I said and thrust her into the sky. A bolt of purple flew from the tip of her steel and shot up into the sky, breaking apart like a firecracker. Gasps and screams rang out around me, and I pierced the man with a look.
My display struck the courtyard like an arrow. The captain peered closer at the sword in my hand, a little gasp of surprise leaving him. Valkaryn’s blade glowed a bright purple hue. The loyal guards shifted as if their armor had grown too heavy, and over half of them dropped to their knees. A young man in a dented breastplate bowed his head.
“I won’t ask again. I’ll just kill you,” I told him, aiming Valkaryn’s glowing sword tip right at his chest.
He pulled the lever, dropping his sword in surrender.
The chains rattled, and the gates opened. The first shapes through were Wolfkin in their wolf form. Steam curled from their mouths in the cool morning air. Behind them came men and women in their finest uniforms. A few of Harrow’s courtyard guards threw down their spears as the first wolf crossed the threshold. Others lifted blades to fight and were taken by the wrist and disarmed with clean efficiency.
