Page 36 of The Ordeals
It’s already killed tonight. But that doesn’t mean it’s not scenting us, marking us for when it needs to kill again.
When the hunting lodge is in sight, the relief leaves me dizzy. It’s just wood and iron and silver, but there’s at least some protection between us and what is in the woods. The silver will dispel them, and perhaps the iron does too. Alden covers me as I knock, listening for Edmund to draw the bolt and let us in. After we are all insideand he closes the door, I sag against the wall, lowering the rifle to the floor, my hands shaking violently. ‘When you say,their kind, do you mean there could be something other than werewolves stalking the Morlagh?’
Alden eyes me quietly, his gaze flitting to Edmund then back to me. ‘Possibly.’
After Alden administers the wolfsbane to Greg, we drag blankets and pillows from the bedrooms upstairs and set them up in front of the crackling fire in the lounge. Tessa and Greg talk quietly in the corner as Edmund takes the first watch by the front door. I curl up as best I can on a pile of blankets, watching the flames devour the logs. Alden hunkers down beside me, and I pass him a pillow.
‘Thanks,’ he says, shoving it under his head. It’s clear none of us are really sleeping tonight, not with the howling outside, and the thought of something else that may be lurking. Not to mention the forty or so other desperate hopefuls that might be looking for a way to diminish their rivals.
‘I can take over from Edmund in a bit if he needs a break.’
Alden smiles and maybe I imagine it, but he seems to shift a little closer. ‘My brother sees it as his duty. Oldest brother and all. Plus, Mother will be quizzing him tomorrow.’
‘Does she live far from here?’ I ask, propping myself up on my elbow as I turn away from the dancing fire to face him. ‘This is where you grew up, right?’
‘Right,’ he says, features falling into serious lines. ‘Our home is a few miles away. After boarding school, I came back here for a few years to help her manage the estate and the woodland.’
‘Big job, all this land …’
He sighs, reaching for another pillow. ‘Luckily she’s still got Edmund to help her. It was time I attended Killmarth. Completed my training.’ Then he looks at me. ‘Did you grow up in Dinas Tar?’
‘I did,’ I say, watching him. Wondering how much to impart, whether he’ll still be an ally after this Ordeal is over. We might not be partners for the rest of them, and the question of who murdered two other hopefuls still hangs over all of us. I want to trust him, and I can’t help but like him … but even now, I have the Collector’s voice in my ear, telling me to tread carefully. ‘Didn’t leave much. I was homeschooled.’
‘Your family wanted to keep you close?’
‘You could say that,’ I say quietly. ‘My training absorbed most of my time.’
He smiles again, the light from the fireplace smouldering in his eyes. ‘That explains the wooden stake. And how you think and act.’
I shrug, dropping onto my back. ‘I have nothing to compare it to, so I wouldn’t know.’
‘Is anyone else hungry?’ Greg asks from the other side of the room. ‘Maybe it’s transforming for the first time, but I could eat a deer.’
‘Probably quite literally in your wolf form,’ Alden remarks dryly and I choke out a laugh. He raises an eyebrow, glancing at Tessa, then at me. ‘Too soon for werewolf jokes?’
‘He’ll have to get used to them,’ Tessa says with a grin, rising from her heap of blankets. ‘Do you keep the kitchen stocked? I’ll make something.’
As if on cue, my stomach growls and Alden chuckles, getting up. ‘There’s usually food. The groundskeeper keeps it stocked just in case.’
We congregate around the big kitchen table as Tessa and Aldenraid the pantry, pulling out eggs, butter and cheese from the cold store and even bottles of rhyn. Alden lights the oven, pulling out a pan as Tessa hunts for plates and a grater. Within minutes, the scent of omelettes cooking fills the kitchen and I rifle through the drawers, pulling out a deck of cards. I take a swig from a bottle of rhyn, clinking it against Greg’s. He’s still pretty pale, but he hasn’t bled through his bandages. ‘To staying alive.’
He grins ruefully. ‘To people who don’t abandon you in a forest when you turn into a monster.’
Alden tips the first omelette onto a plate and Tessa passes him cutlery. He practically inhales it, then takes another swig of ruby rhyn. Alden makes four more, plating one up for Edmund, and I crack open the cards, dealing them to each of us. Within minutes, we’re playing a fast game of Brig and Twist, laughing as we spear pieces of omelette, calling foul between mouthfuls. I drink the rhyn, laughing more than I have in months, especially when Greg wins, twisting his terrible hand of cards round on Alden.
Alden shakes his head, laughing as well. His eyes are glittering, cheeks ruddy from the rhyn and the heat from the stove, and in that moment, my heart is singing. I chortle, twisting my own hand on Tessa and she thumps her set of cards on the table as Greg cackles. This. Like those nights with Dolly and Banks, when it was just the three of us, no assignments looming the next day. My smile falters. I get up, sweeping up the plates, carrying them to the sink as my chest aches, as it always does now when I think of Dolly.
I feel a hand brace my shoulder and find Alden standing next to me, those brown eyes soft as he passes me a tea towel. ‘I’ll wash; you dry?’
I expel a breath and nod. ‘Sure.’
Later, when we’re back in front of the fire, when we’ve all stopped talking, my eyes flutter closed, just for a moment. When I wake, it’s dark and quiet. I find Alden’s arm draped over me, his face turned towards mine, eyes closed as though he too has accidentally drifted off. He’s frowning slightly, his arm suddenly tensing across my chest, and when I shift to face him more fully, his eyes open. We stare at each other, the dying light from the fireplace at my back illuminating the gleam of our eyes in the dark.
He props his head up on his other hand and moves closer to me, so our legs are touching under the blankets. He lifts his arm from around me and reaches up, smoothing my hair behind my ear, fingertips lingering on my skin. I can’t take my eyes off him. My stomach clenches and I smile, reaching up to touch his face, smoothing my fingers along his jawline. Our lips are inches apart, and I wonder if I dare. If I dare kiss him now that all the pretence has dissolved, now it’s just me and him, and the light from the fire at my back. I shift even closer, heart fluttering beneath my ribs, and find the muscled edges of his body. He presses closer, our hips grazing, thighs touching and heat sparks along my skin. If we were alone right now, if it was just the two of us … My breath stills as his lips hover over mine, as he brushes the softest kiss over the corner of my mouth. I melt, just a little, wanting more, wanting him toreallykiss me, when a howl splits the silence.
Right outside.
My eyes widen and Alden’s on his feet, moving towards Edmund in the hallway as I grasp my switchblade, slinking across to the window. I turn to Tessa and Greg and hold my finger against my lips as Greg nods gravely. The pack are calling to him. I exchange a glance with Tessa and see their hands locked before turning back to peer through the window.
