Page 164 of The Lure of Wolves and Whispers

Below, the sea crashes against the rocks, and a narrow, winding path wraps around the base of the castle’s foundations, perched on the edge of the cliff.

The path is barely wide enough for one, but Wolf doesn’t let go of me. We make it down the slope, backs pressed against the rough mountainside as thunder splits the clouds above. Lightning forks a vicious trail across the skies, and in the distance the faint glow of Quayside glimmers along the shore.

A longing so intense it pulls my ribs apart fills my chest. I don’t get the time to wonder if I’ll ever set foot in those streets again or see Keeva’s wry grin while we grind herbs in her stall.

Old Ones, how will I tell her about Finn?

“Keeva?”

Her name on my lips splinters. The rough stubble alongWolf’s chin scrapes at my cheek as he leans down, running a thumb along the edge of my lips—and I wince.

“We got her out of the city,” he promises.

A fresh slice of pain opens deep in my chest. Why couldn’t they have gotten Finn out too?

Wolf gazes into my eyes, like he can feel the pain seizing me tighter and tighter.

This time, I’m the one who tears my gaze from his.

The winding path opens up, and we’re on level ground again. Fang waits on the edge of the cliff side on a caoranach, a second one at its side that narrows its yellow eyes at Wolf as we near, and the figure atop that one gleams in polished black-and-green armor.

Is this all that’s left of them?

There were dozens of them in the attack.

Fang’s long navy cloak whips back from her head in the furious wind. Her lips pull tight, and Wolf grimaces as the caoranach beneath her stretches out its tattered black wings as if about to take flight.

“About time,” she snarls at him. His muscles shake against me, like he’s fighting to stay standing. A ragged grimace catches in his throat. A heartbeat later, he lets out a breath, and the shaking slows. “The High Queen fortified the entire northern half of the castle in the three days it took you to find her. The Treasury and the Crown are hers, thanks toyouletting slip our plans.” Her black eyes narrow savagely on me, then jerk to Cash. “Thatone’s head is now worth enough gold to buy an entire navy.” Fang sweeps a pointed finger out behind us, toward the sea. “And Martyr knows we’re going to need one.”

I can’t manage turning more than an inch before pain screams in my muscles, across my swollen, too-tight skin.

But Old Ones help us—it’s enough.

The skies flash, revealing an armada of ships docked below the cliffs.

Longships, their prows carved in brutal icons of the Cymrean goddesses of war. A single mast rises up from each one, the sails snapping in stripes of white and the same pale blue as the High Queen’s eyes.

Sorrow and dread and fury riot inside me.

A vortex of pure rage, and grief. We did everything—Igaveeverything.

And with Cymrea here, the High Queen will drain what’s left in the Wells all the same.

With a furious roar, Fang raises both hands, and the caoranachs tear back on their hind legs, shrieking. Tendrils of magic swirl around the mage’s fingers, weaving and climbing up her wrists as she snarls a series of words I can’t understand, her eyes flaringblack.

I taste static. I feel the surge of the storm-black clouds parting. Every hair down the length of my spine rises, reaching out for the energy charging the air and aching to answer the strange, wild keen singing through my bones.

A vicious, thick bolt of lightning strikes the southern cliff side of the castle and sends half of it crashing into the sea, tumbling down over the rocky, winding path we just crossed.

Talon whistles appreciatively.

But there’s no energy left in me to react, and my legs give out.

Wolf catches me before I hit the ground, and everythingslams into me at once. Ringing fills my ears, and I can’t hold back the ragged sob.

I want Finn back. I need my sister here with me. Need to explain everything, understand all the things we never got to share. I need to know her truth.

Now I’ll never get that chance, and the grief is a wild beast devouring me.