Page 44 of The Howling
“Danger,” he snarls.
“Redcaps?” Even the thought of them sends a shiver through me.
If Lord Guyzance has found us…I don’t even want to think what will happen. Reavely might have power of sorts, but he was the one in the dungeon, not the Faerie lord.
“No, Reivers,” the wolf says.
In a sudden rush which makes my head spin, he has hold of me, tossing me onto his back, and then we’re running through the forest, my fingers gripping onto his soft fur for dear life until we reach the heavy wood and iron castle gates.
Reavely shifts again, into his were-form, pulling me into his arms as he pushes through the small door set into the gate, stooping to gain entry.
Once we’re inside, and the door slams shut, he puts me on my feet.
I struggle to stand.
“What are Reivers?” I whisper.
“Demons from the Night Lands,” Reavely says, transforming once again into his usual form.
My teeth chatter with the adrenaline coursing through my body. It says a lot about Bessie’s workmanship that I’m disheveled from what happened but nothing is torn and all I need is a good brush down.
“Demons?” I look around.
“I dealt with them. They will not be back,” Reavely says.
“What did they want?”
He fixes me with his incredible eyes. “They wanted you.”
As if I hadn’t realised.
“They wanted you,” Reavely goes on, “because you belong to me, and if I mate, if I break my curse, they know they will never be safe.”
The chattering gets worse, my body wracked with shudders.
“The fight in the Night Lands will go on,” he says, moving his eyes away from me and to the battlements. “My curse is never ending.”
“Reavely.” I say his name softly, but it’s enough to turn his gaze back on me. “What happened to Lord Guyzance?”
“He won’t hurt anyone ever again,” Reavely says, turning on his heel and stomping into the castle.
I stare after him, not sure what he means. Did he kill the Faerie lord? I somehow doubt it, not because Reavely isn’t capable of killing but because Lord Guyzance is like a cockroach. Just when you think he’s gone, he’ll crawl back out from under a stone.
“Because no one takes what’s mine,” Reavely says over his shoulder. “Not Guyzance and not the Yeavering.”
Then he’s gone.
I’m not sure I’ve ever felt so alone.
WYNTER
Itried to sleep, but in the end, I’ve been staring at the ceiling for the last…hour, two hours, ten minutes? Annoyingly I’ve never been any good at determining time passing, so it could have been thirty seconds for all I know.
I am tired, exhausted with the day, and aching with the bruises and bumps I got earlier. My fingers itch for something to do and my mind races with both the kiss and then the sudden, terrifying attack.
What did Reavely do? To the Reivers, to Guyzance… to me?
I’ve escaped from one castle into a new one. I have a massive beast calling me his mate, meeting another human whoismated to a creature from the Yeavering andis having his baby. Oh, and demons want me.
