Page 75 of Throne of the Wolf Queen

‘And I think you’ll die.’

He barked out a laugh. ‘I think I agree.’

Reaching up, he gripped his hair, tugged as though he could pull the answer from his head.

‘I’m not prepared to let Evella take you. Not like this.’ His throat worked. ‘I just don’t know how I get us out of this.’

Fear clawed at my mind sharper than the talons of the diafol. If he still thought our fate rested on his shoulders alone, we’d never survive. As my own gifts could no longer be trusted, we’d have to work together.

A fallen king, his broken Deviant and her fucked-up wolf.

I blew a stray lock from my face as my muscles froze. We were as good as dead.

The shaggy diafol grunted as it clawed its way towards us, wailing as it stumbled back and one of its miniature friends bit its leg. Even I noticed the dark stains of blood on their fangs as they snarled. The noise attracted the attention of those below. I closed my eyes, gripped the hem of my tunic, fighting the quivering within. I gazed at Pablo, my guts churning as he dipped his head, his eyes wide.

‘If we work together. If I…’ Violet threads swirled as the tarnished silver shivered, curious to know if they could control diafol. No. I slammed them down, thanking Evella as they obeyed. I shuddered, recalling the devastation I’d caused the last time I’d tried to control one of the Vyrium cursed beasts.

‘Sorrow.’ I turned, bile rising as I saw the bronze-streaked eyes of the three torn creatures almost on us. One had been a wolf, much like Pab, another a badger and the third…? I shivered. The final hulking beast was far too gone to detect even the barest hint of what they’d once been. ‘Sorrow.’

I glanced at Matthias, the fear in his wide eyes shocking me.

‘We have to head that way.’ I pointed towards the three climbing. ‘That pit is instant death.’

‘Agreed.’ His hand slipped around mine.

‘But we have to do this together. There are the bodies of the creatures they’ve killed down there. If I… if I can use them to help us fight, you watch my back. I don’t really want Pablo to fight, but he’ll never listen.’

The diafol who’d once been a snuffling badger lunged, his claws slipping, tumbling back into the others. I grimaced as the largest slashed at him, tearing his front leg asunder.

Matthias nodded. ‘Sounds… good.’

I struggled as my chest constricted, breaths accelerating, my pulse aching. I turned to the pit. The diafols surged upwards, scraping the walls of their pit as though they could taste our hot blood. I whimpered as the two threads clasped the other, entwining. No. Obey, I demanded. What was I thinking? I was beyond useless. A Deviant more volatile than Vyrium. This was it. Our final moments before we were torn apart. My sight blinkered as I turned from one eventuality to the other.

‘Love.’ Fingers, soft and gentle, turned my chin and I met his green eyes, swallowing a great sob. ‘I grew up in the belief Glesni Grace was the greatest Deviant Evella ever blessed us with.’ I narrowed my eyes, my arms tingling as the panic threatened to consume me. ‘Till I lived to see my wife on that beach. Till I fought the dead she raised. And I knew, as I watched the empress rage, the woman I loved decimating her armada, the creatures of the sea at her beck and call, I knew Glesni was nothing, nothing, compared to the Deviant I’d married.’

I clutched his hand, nodding, a lone tear tracing down my cheek. Matthias smiled, the smile that eclipsed the stars, and I dragged in a cooling breath.

‘We’ll not die today, Sorrow. We have so much life waiting for us.’ He let go as I steadied my feet, the wolf snarling by my side. Matthias raised his sword, staring at the deadly trio as I opened my core, gathered the twisting threads. I slipped my hand into my pocket, shivering at the coolness of the ruby. There was little point praying. The gods weren’t listening, but if, as I increasingly believed, I truly carried a scrap of Vyrus’s heart, perhaps it would help. ‘I know you don’t truly trust me, not yet, but I trust you, Sorrow Villente.’ His gaze met mine as my violet threads heeded my command, spiralling towards the pit. ‘I love you.’

I jolted. The threads shivered in anticipation, corpses scattered before them, searching for the freshest, the least riddled with maggots. If I failed to say this now, the chance may be lost to eternity.

‘I love you too.’

His laugh was cut short as a huge, birdlike diafol, a sea eagle perhaps, burst from the pit. Wide torn wings swept, claws extended as it plunged towards me. I shielded my eyes as Matthias’s sword sliced across its neck, not quite severing. Black blood oozed, splattering obsidian across my husband’s face. Pablo dived, teeth crunching bones as it floundered, striking out with its claws. My gift jolted, terrified the beast would gouge out the wolf’s guts. The sword slammed down again, once, twice, the creature writhing. I clenched my fists, fighting the urge to protect my ears against its final shrieks.

Matthias’s chest heaved as he and the wolf regarded each other, something reflecting in the eyes of the other.

The threads of silver reared and for the first time in an age, I locked them away. The last time I’d set them free on a diafol, it had hunted me through the woods, separated me from the man I loved.

Talons scraped as diafol after diafol clawed their way towards us. Pablo dived forward, his jaws grasping a creeping diafol, shaking the beast, slamming it into the ground. Threads weaved through their shredded legs, the blurry glint of bronze eyes splitting the scene. I glanced across to my husband, my ever-taut threads trembling in their hunger to find a corpse capable of destroying a nest of diafol. Slashes of black covered his face as his sword swung again and again. I jolted, the threads almost returning as Pablo yelped. A creature, a stoat, scrabbled against his neck. Matthias swore, his sword slicing the thing in half.

I cursed under my breath. They’d be swarmed any moment. I had to help. I had to be of some use.

Desperation, bitter and warped, ran through me as the threads of violet failed to find any corpses capable of rising. I cursed as a veil of cloud descended across my shuttered sight. I slipped my hand back into my pocket, grasped the ruby so tight it almost split my palm. I forced them further, conscious of the increased snarling. Matthias’s grunts lost amid the sickening crunch of his sword as he cut the diafols eager for our flesh and Pablo, my wolf, ripping, tearing, allowing me space to harness my gifts. Matthias’s words flew through my mind and determination cracked through the tightness of my chest.

We would not die. Not today.

Heaving in a deep breath, I grasped swathes of violet. They writhed and thrashed as I forced my will into them, embedding my intent into each fibre of the vicious magic and, screaming, they burst from my core, darting through each fallen beast they discovered.