Page 199 of Unrivaled
My head spun.I turned on him and he just lifted his chin.“Hewhat?”
“He did a trade,” Dmytro said.The words held anger and the hard edge of an accusation he was too scared to utter.
The roar of my own blood in my veins could deafen me.I forced myself to suck in a breath.The air whooshed into my lungs.It should’ve been me.
We all knew what the Butcher would do to get his hands on me again.
My skin threatened to crawl off my body at the thought.I gritted my teeth.
“Denisa?”the sorceress asked, and her hand was small but not tentative on my arm.She stood beside me, her eyes clear.“Denisa the Fearless?”
“The same,” Dmytro said, bowing his head.“She’s safe, sorceress.I know she was of your line.”
“Was?”she demanded.
“Is,” he corrected hurriedly.“She’s unhurt.Whaarghun will allow nothing to happen to our land or our magi.”
The sorceress glanced up at me, her narrowed eyes indicating she didn’t need Worg senses to hear what went unsaid.If he can.“You’ve got a twin,” she said to me.“Where’s he?”
He wassupposedto be with Whaarghun, giving the Northerners a taste of our winter hospitality.I turned to Dmytro who met my gaze, his shoulders tight, his tongue silent.
My belly rolled.I wished it was due to the vodaken I’d drunk last night.“He’s taken the throne until Whaarghun returns,” I said, sick.Not just one brother, but two doomed to die.
We couldn’t hold the throne.
Weshouldn’t.
They wouldn’t listen to me.They never had, and it had only got worse since I’d got back.They said I was acting like a kicked dog.I thought they were fighting over the gnawed-on bones of another’s kill.
None of it mattered.
“The Butcher would give us Whaarghun for you,” Dmytro said, the words so soft I doubted they’d carry to the sorceress’s ears.
I knew he would.
I knew why.
Bold of Dmytro to mention it, since it’d beenhisson’s fault I’d been caught last time.The flare of fury was old, familiar and comfortable.
I’d never be at risk of giving any of Barloc’s blood-soaked generals access to any Worg heirs with access to the Curse or the Call.The Butcher didn’t know that, though.Hewould’vemade the trade.
“Shame my big brother was too stupid to think of that.Oh, wait.He’s not.”I shoved my uncle in the chest and he fell back, shocked.A thrill of power rushed through me, chasing away the lingering darkness.
No one made Whaarghun do anything he wasn’t willing to do.He had a plan.Hope warmed the marrow of my bones for the first time in moons.I didn’t know if it was the Curse or wishful thinking, but I opted to guard it rather than question Dmytro further.Whaarghun wouldn’t have told anything sensitive to our flea-bitten coward of an uncle.
“Remind Wudenhe’sgot my bow, if you’re brave enough to return,” I said.
The gentle rush of blood through his cheeks sounded not unlike the whisper of wind through the trees on the nearby mountainside, and brought me an equal amount of peace and pleasure.That sound saideverything is right in my world.
I finished lacing my vest.“Where are these Runs where the boys went missing, Dmytro?”
“Threepine,” he said, bristling.“Signs of a camp of some sort over near Greenrow Fields.”
Unease crept up my spine.There was emotion in his voice when he talked about that camp I didn’t like.Even his aggravation at me couldn’t conceal it.Fear.“Some sort of camp?”I pressed, looping rings through my ears.“Say more.”
“Don’t order me about, girl.”
“Tell us,” the sorceress said, irritated.“There’s no time for you to nip at each other like pups.”
