Page 76 of Throne of the Wolf Queen

First one rose, a half-eaten meal, a hare, nose twitching and turned, its hollow eyes set upon the beasts who’d ended its life. There. My pulse spiked as a fox rose, baring its teeth at the predators who’d parted them from their mate and cubs. A smile split my face. We found them, beasts, birds, snakes, and we granted them one final revenge. The chaos of their nest vanished as I forced every scrap of ire into us. I no longer knew how the man and wolf fared as we rampaged. We tore, wrenched. We seized and devoured.

The diafol nest became a death sentence.

Our knees crashed against the floor and we hissed against the strike. We swarmed the diafol who forgot the flesh that had wandered into their camp as they turned, desperate to destroy their killers. We laughed as they snapped at the creatures they’d failed to devour. You cannot kill those already dead and as the final, pained whimper died and our chest rose and fell in great, gulping gasps, we found ourselves spent.

Our smile slipped. We cocked our heads. There must be more death, surely? There must be more corpses waiting, just waiting for us to slip in.

We furrowed our brows at the sensation against our fingers and twitched. Lips, filled with warmth and awe, pressed against ours. The salt of tears tingled and a voice filled our thoughts. ‘Love,’ it said and a hollow built as we recognised it. Him.

With a gasp, my eyes flew open. My shoulders slumped as Matthias scoured my face. His eyes closed as my arms flew around his neck, collapsing against him. Pressed my shuddering form into him. Arms, warm, strong, filled with the promise of love, wrapped around me, pulled me close. The wolf nuzzled my neck, snuffling, his breath in my face. I shattered with laughter. Gods, Pablo stank so badly after he’d torn through diafol after diafol, but none of that mattered.

I pulled back from Matthias a touch, my hands on his chest, my eyes, still veiled, still weak, scoured him for any damage. ‘We’re alive? We’re alive, aren’t we?’

He nodded, grinning before kissing me.

‘Yes, love. We survive again,’ he said against my mouth. ‘I don’t think the Gods have quite finished torturing us yet.’

I moved away, not sure what to tell him. How do you tell the man you love that I’d made a deal with the gods? That the blessed trinket he’d taken from his mother was a fragment of Vyrus’s heart and if I wanted my husband to be saved from the pestilence on his flesh, I had to locate the final remaining sections? But if I gave the section I had to the God…

Well, then I would lose Matthias once more. And no God was strong enough to make me sever this bond.

He stroked a hand down my face as I swallowed against the growing lump in my throat. No. I couldn’t tell him. I couldn’t face Vyrus turning on me.

He stood, dusting down his trousers before holding his hand out.

‘We need to find The Alliance, love.’ I raised a brow at this new little term of endearment he’d chosen for me. Through the receding swirls I caught the hint of a smirk playing on those damned lips of his. Accepting his hand, I stood. The wolf settled into position and without looking back, we hobbled away from the stench of decay.

CHAPTER 29

MATTHIAS

Vyrus watched as Evella’s hand turned, as his heart fell, tumbling towards the planet she adored. He winced as his heart shattered and turned to the one who’d shunned him. ‘Love,’ he said. ‘Why art thou so cruel?’

​— ​THE HISTORIES AND PROPHECIES OF THE STAR-CROSSED GODS: CHRONICLES OF VYRUS

My nose wrinkled as I lifted my arm and sniffed. It had been almost a day since we’d strode through the tattered flesh of the diafols. Fear shone in Sorrow’s eyes when I asked if she’d call us some horses and I wasn’t prepared to push the issue.

‘I’d swap my throne for a bath right now,’ I said, grimacing against the stench.

Sorrow glanced over and a laugh burst through me at her expression. The way her mouth turned down, those gorgeous little furrows by her perfect brows.

‘I’d throw the whole kingdom in too. Gods, man. When were you last clean?’

Grinning, I tugged her in. A glint of mischief sparked in her eyes. Gripping her waist, I pressed her against me, delighting in how she softened and rubbed my nose against that spot below her ear. The little gasp escaping her soft lips had me twitching as I sniffed.

I feigned a noise of disgust. ‘Not exactly a rose garden yourself, Villente.’

She slapped my chest, but couldn’t help the smile hooking up the corner of her mouth.

We’d followed the path back down but found no signs of life, halting briefly to burn what remained of my mother in a makeshift pyre. A part of me wanted to lay her to rest next to Raul, the king she’d loved, but who knew if I’d ever see Asmar again, let alone my own palace? Sorrow gathered a handful of ashes from the pyre, swearing to me that a part of Isbeth would return to Asmar one day.

Devastation was all that remained of the cavalry’s camp. My heart wrenched in two as Sorrow clung to her chest, fear igniting in her eyes as she felt the bodies of those slain before even I spotted them. It tore me apart to see this woman, this incredible Deviant, fear the strength and wonder of what lurked within her soul.

We had to find that damned Hawk. He was the only way she’d balance.

The diafol pit had been more than a battle. The sight of Sorrow, her hair whipping around the face that filled my dreams, the determination to survive etched into every taut muscle as she raised the dead beasts and decimated a nest of diafol, Hell, that almost killed me. My muscles burned with fury as I’d fought the diafol who’d broken through. But keeping my eyes off her took more effort than slaying the monsters.

My Sorrow, my heart, a vision from the gilded pages of the prophecies wrought in flesh.