Page 113 of Throne of the Wolf Queen

‘Shut up,’ I snarled, ignoring my sister’s gasp. The threads weaved together. The balance. They knew something.

‘My sweetest Sorrow. I am your protection. I am his protection. And I swear, I will protect him till the moment you pass over and join him.’

‘Fuck you,’ I hissed, setting my unseeing gaze towards the sound of Evella’s too-calm tone.

‘Sorrow…’ The captain’s fingers threaded through mine, and I pulled away, dragged myself to my feet as my head tilted. The threads pulsed in time to the frantic beat of my heart.

‘My queen⁠—’

‘Damn you, Asher,’ I hissed. ‘I need to focus. Say one more word and I’ll dismiss you from service.’

He snorted. ‘After this I’m resigning.’

I lunged out, meeting nothing but thin air. The ribbons slithered, tentative and scared, through the rubble and ash to a form we knew more than ourselves. To a king who’d loved too hard, a man I needed more than air.

They tested him, slithered through the sticky blood cooling far too quickly among the ruins. Writhed over his frozen form.

‘There’s a heartbeat…’ Enfys’s voice came from where I’d known the altar had stood. Where Vyrus had fallen.

‘Matthias?’ Asher asked.

‘No,’ we said together.

‘Vyrus,’ I added, stumbling over rocks. ‘We need to revive the God.’

Asher gripped me as my knee sliced into a jagged chunk of marble.

‘You.’ Enfys’s voice was incredulous. ‘You want us to resurrect the God of Vengeance?’

‘Not vengeance,’ I said, swallowing down the hope tearing at my chest. Pablo nudged my hip and I crashed down, grabbed his face. ‘The heart. Give him his heart.’

‘My sweet Sorrow.’ I clenched my jaw at Evella’s dulcet tones. Damn her. ‘I understand the pain⁠—’

‘Do you?’

Enfys whimpered as I snarled at the Goddess.

‘Yes.’ Pablo placed the still-warm heart in my palms, and I reached out for my sister. ‘I once loved a mortal and his death destroyed me. But I know he is safe, just as I know⁠—’

‘You said it yourself, Enfys. There’s a heartbeat. It’s not Matthias’s. But if we bring back the fucking God, he owes us. We had a deal.’

‘We really need to have a talk about your life choices, Sorrow.’ My sister’s voice broke as Evella laughed.

My threads wrapped around the heart, the faint pulse as familiar as my own.

Trembles overtook me as I called for Asher. ‘Take Enfys. Put this in his chest.’

‘Enfys!’ The Goddess my sister had vowed her life to spoke. ‘This is a path that will only lead to more heartache, more⁠—’

‘I’m only a simple healer. You’re sure, Sorrow?’ my sister asked, even as she pulled away, the captain guiding her to the corpse of a God.

‘No. Though I have a suspicion you’re far more than a simple healer.’ How I wish I could see this. I blew out a breath, steeled my spine. This was no time to lament what I didn’t have.

Pablo crept beneath me. I gripped him tightly, grateful I’d taken a chance on a dying cub others would have left to perish. I cocked my head, trying to make sense of every scrape, crash and scratch. My wolf nuzzled my hip. Did no one have the sense to tell me what was happening?

‘Is it working?’ I called, impatience claiming my thoughts. ‘Is he⁠—’

A solid blast of scarlet exploded at the fringes of my sight. Enfys cried out for Evella. I may have lost my sight, but I knew the God stood among the shattered remains of his temple once more.