Page 66 of A Castle of Broken Memories

He tossed the empty bucket to the side with a sigh. “Bad news is they’re both within grabbing distance of the queen. And let me tell you, that is one lady I’d prefer not to come within range of. Like, ever. She’s a freaking beast. She catches me sneaking in to grab your satchel? I’ll be crushed within seconds, and she’ll need all of two fingers to do it.” He shuddered.

Jack paced in front of us, looking pensive. “Annabelle and the bean are both with the queen—which room are they in? Could you tell?”

“Given the fancy ass chair she was sitting in, I’d say the throne room,” Tenebris replied. “There was a man-sized child sitting beside her in a much, much smaller version, and your harp was playing soothing music on his left. An angry-looking guard was yammering on and on about retribution and executions, and there was a decent-sized crowd of giants gathered there listening. Not gonna lie, they seemed pretty into it.” He made an exaggerated grimace, but Jack only frowned in concentration.

“And Mariana’s satchel? Where exactly did you see it?”

“On the floor beside the queen’s feet. Her huge, hairy feet.” Tenebris shot me a look. “Those feet were made for crushing, and that’s just what they’ll do if I get near them, if you know what I’m saying.”

“We get it,” I muttered.

“What if someone distracted the queen long enough for you to grab it?” Jack suggested, pausing his back and forth tread.

“That might work,” Tenebris said. “But it’d mean teleporting one of you into the room with me, which takes a lot more energy than going by myself. Not to mention I’d still need to get your friend Harp out, and I definitely can’t take more than one person at a time.” He shook his head. “One trip back and forth I might be able to swing, but four? There’s no way.”

“I can go on foot,” I suggested. “If you give me directions to the throne room, I bet I can make it there in my wolf form before the giants can stop me. I’ll stir up a fuss while you pop in to ferry out my bag and Harp. Once you’re clear, I’ll meet you back here by the well.” I cracked my knuckles, already bouncing on my toes in anticipation of the run.

It could work.

It had to work.

“One problem,” Tenebris stated ruefully. "The throne room’s all the way at the top of the castle, and the foyer is flooded with giants. Angry, ‘we’ve been under a curse for sixty years and are raring for a fight’ giants. Even if you made it past them, odds are one of them would see which room you came out of. If they catch us here before we open the well’s portal, we’ll all be fucked.”

“If we don’t get the damn bean, we’ll be fucked either way.” I threw my hands in the air. “We have to at least try something.” I looked around our little group, searching their faces for potential answers, but they all looked as frustratingly lost as I felt. That is, until my gaze landed on Jack.

He was staring at me with a kind of sad determination, the intensity of his gaze sending a shiver of trepidation up my spine.

“I have an idea.”

The gravity in his voice hit like a bucket of ice water, freezing me in place, and when his gaze shifted away, it felt as if my heart was ripped straight from my chest. He knelt beside Tenebris and whispered in his ear.

I strained to hear what he said, but the pounding in my chest was too loud. Because I knew—I knew—whatever he had planned, I wouldn’t like it. The feeling was confirmed when Tenebris’s gaze shot in my direction, his face tense with indecision. I struggled to make my lips work so I could argue against whatever they were planning, but they refused to cooperate.

The two of them stood, and Jack turned to me as Tenebris’s hand clamped down on his shoulder. “I love you, Mari. You will always be my mate, with or without an official ceremony.” His voice cracked, and it was enough to smack me back to reality.

I lunged forward, hands reaching out for⁠—

Nothing.

My palms hit the empty ground where Tenebris and Jack had been standing and I squeezed them into fists. “No, no, no, no, no.”

Calum’s big hand rested on my shoulder as he squatted down beside me. “Ten wouldn’t have gone along with him if it wasn’t a solid plan. I’m sure they’ll be back any moment.”

Only he didn’t sound sure. Worry laced his voice despite his attempt at assurance, and I reared my head back with a howl as anger and fear overwhelmed my common sense. “How dare they run off on their own?” Black fur raced along my arms like wildfire, covering my hands as razor-sharp claws extended from the tips of my fingers. I didn’t even bother to disrobe, cotton and leather bursting at the seams while my body morphed beneath it. Only my red cloak remained unscathed.

“Calum?” Danny’s voice wavered off to the side. “What’s happening?”

“She’s shifting into her werewolf form.” Calum’s arms wrapped around my waist, his hands clasping together to create a vice-like lock. “If we don’t stop her, she’ll run off and get herself killed.”

I stood on my hind legs, my shifted form a head taller than Calum’s already formidable height, and growled low in my throat. “Get. Off.”

“Just wait a few minutes, Mariana,” Calum said, his soothing tone at odds with his shaking muscles and sweaty brow. “If you go tearing out there now, you won’t just be endangering yourself, you’ll risk getting us all killed. Trust that they have a plan.”

“Oh, I don’t doubt they have a plan.” I flexed, breaking the chain of Calum’s arms and sending him staggering backward. “But if it was a good one, they would have shouted it to the rooftops. Secret plans are almost always stupid. The reckless bastards.”

I dropped to all fours, ready to make a run for it, but then Tenebris blinked back into sight. Only it was Harp he had in tow in place of Jack, my satchel clutched tight in his fist. Sweat poured down his pale face as he staggered toward the well. “Got the bean,” he rasped, pulling out the shiny blue legume and tossing it to Danny. “Open the portal.”

I threw myself between them and the well. “Not without Jack.”