“Ronan…,” I croak.
My vision is blurry, and I can’t pinpoint where he and the other hornet monster are. My eyelids begin to droop despite my attempt to keep them open. I fall flat on the mossy ground. The world is spinning, making me sick. I close my eyes then, waiting for the dizziness to pass. And that’s the last conscious thought I have before everything goes quiet.
RONAN
Cheryl made it to a high branch, and she’s now positioned perfectly to deliver a killing blow. She won’t miss. Despite her reluctance to train with weapons in the beginning, she’s now a deadly warrior. Every time I see her on a battlefield, pride and admiration surge in my chest, but in this moment, I can’t appreciate her skills. I have to do my part and exterminate the other threat.
If I can’t reach the beast with my blade, then I have to improvise. I aim my sword and wait for the right moment to turn it into a spear. It’s a risk. If I miss, I’ll have to face the monster with my bare hands and fangs, and I don’t want to get too close to it, much less bite the thing. God knows what taking a chunk out of that monster will do to me. For all I know, its flesh is also poisonous.
I’m ready to throw the sword when I hear Cheryl grunt ahead. My attention splits for a couple of beats. She’s not hurt, but my hesitation to attack costs me. The hornet monstrosity sprays its poison in my direction. I use the sword to deflect the jet, but that doesn’t prevent me from getting splashed. The liquid burns through my jacket and skin like acid.
I’m fucking angry at my lack of focus, and the pain makes it much worse. I’m preparing to launch the sword again when Cheryl’s cry gets my full attention. She fell from the tree at an odd angle, and she’s bleeding.
“Cheryl!” I make a motion to run to her, but the buzzing of the enemy stops me short.
Letting rage consume me, I throw my sword at it with my full strength and pierce it through the chest. It screeches and begins to fly in a random manner as it tries to pull the sword out. I don’t wait to see what happens. I run to Cheryl.
A loud thud tells me the hornet monster is down, but the only thing I’m concerned about is the love of my life. I can’t lose her—not here, and not like this.
Beyond her, I see the headless body of the other hornet monster. She killed the thing, but not before it got to her. The cut on her back isn’t deep, but it’s long, and the blood oozing from it is already changing color and odor. She’s been poisoned.
“Cheryl, talk to me.” I brush strands of hair off her too-pale face. Her eyes are closed, but she’s breathing.
I look around, trying not to let desperation take control. We’re still in the Aquila Kingdom, but Vivi’s father was adamant that we leave at once. We pissed off the queen, which means I can’t hope to find help in the palace.
I glance at Cheryl again, feeling the bond that links us getting weaker.No. She’s fading already. I pick her up and glance at the forest that surrounds us. Then I take a deep breath and expand my awareness as far as it can go. The palace lies east, but on theway, we’ll come across the city that neighbors the royal property. That’s where I need to go.
“Hold on, my love. I’ll get you help. I won’t lose you. I swear it on my soul.”
Two
RONAN
ITALY, 1521
Aroar reverberates through the stone walls of the castle so loudly that, for a moment, I believe dragons have breached the fortress. Then the howling of wolves echoes, and I know the source of the noise. Karl and Cheryl are making a ruckus.
I stayed up all day, running the events of the previous evening through my head. I fucked up royally. When I finally made progress with Cheryl, the confrontation between Karl and the king happened. I couldn’t let her hurt Manu. It wasn’t only my sense of duty that made me stop her, or the fact that Manu is my friend. If Cheryl had seriously hurt Manu, her life would have been forfeit. I was protecting her as much as I was protecting Manu.
The loathing glance I received from Cheryl wounded me more than I thought it would. I don’t need to read her mind to know she believes I betrayed her, and now it seems I won’t get a chance to make amends. By the sound of it, things have escalated again.
I race out of my quarters like a bat out of hell. I expect to hear a commotion of guards running toward the noise, but the hallway is empty, which doesn’t bode well. Where the fuck is everyone?
I hear paws hitting the stone floor before I get a visual of Karl in wolf form. He’s coming for me, Cheryl not far behind him. Damn it. I don’t have a sword. I don’t want to hurt him, but I also don’t want his teeth anywhere near my neck.
I grab the nearest torch from the wall and use it as a makeshift weapon. “Stay back, Karl. I don’t want to hurt you.”
He doesn’t slow down. Instead, when he’s a few feet away, he pounces, leaving me no choice but to use what I’ve got. I hit the side of his head, not hard enough to kill, but with sufficient force to knock him off his trajectory. He hits the wall but lands on his paws and shakes his head to extinguish the small fire licking at his fur. I expect Cheryl to attack me next, but she runs to her brother instead. When he tries to sidestep her to attack me again, she blocks him. They snarl at each other.
Manu, Lucca, Solomon, King Raphael, and the High Witch appear at the end of the hallway. That gets Karl’s and Cheryl’s attention. She whirls around, forgetting him to focus her animosity on Manu, who looks worse than the last time I saw her. She’s been crying, and judging by the way she looks at her mate with the deepest sorrow in her eyes, I can guess she’s about to start again.
“What’s the meaning of this?” King Raphael asks.
“I don’t know. I heard a noise outside my quarters, and I came to investigate, my king,” I reply.
His gaze narrows. “Did the wolves attack you?”
The last thing I want is to get Cheryl and Karl into more trouble with the king, but lying when the truth is painfully obvious would be stupid.
