Page 54 of The Wolf Queen

“The caves…”

I could imagine it, each one of them lighting up, over and over, all across the country. And, if I let my eyes lose focus, I could see them, feel them again. Power, immense power, ready to be tapped, reservoirs of it dotted across the countryside. One was under the spring I had often ridden out to from my father’s keep, no doubt imbuing the waters with some kind of magical power. Another was the one in the cellar below this building. But in Aramathia? Surely, there they would have rooted out each one, dug the crystals out and tossed them aside, or worse, carved them into trinkets and jewellery for the rich.

“I can feel them,” I told Selene, “but abstractly. I don’t know where they are precisely or if there’s one underneath the capital.”

“Because you’ve never been there,” she said. “But Higgins has. I had quite the chat with him last night. That cult of his, it has a long reach. He says there’s a major cabal within the city.”

And as her focus shifted to Bryson, ours went with it.

“There is a crystal chapel beneath the castle,” Bryson admitted. His eyes shone brighter for just a moment. “A large one. Aramathia was chosen not only for its proximity to the bay.”

“It was of great strategic value to my people,” Dane said, skewering the prince with his gaze. “And more than that.”

“More than that,” Bryson agreed. “The chapel under Snowmere is a place of worship for all three forms of the goddess, yes?” I nodded slowly. “Well, it appears there were other major sites around the country that were for just one aspect. And this one…” He shook his head. “It was originally dedicated to the Morrigan.”

Everything always comes back to you, I said inside my head, to be met by the sound of her laughter.

All of you fight me your entire lives, she replied.But in the end, I always win. You’ll come to me, little queen, if you wish to sit your arse upon a throne.

“The wolf cult repurposed it,” Bryson continued. “And I know exactly where it is.”

He pulled his shirt up to show us a black sun and a crescent tattooed on his ribs, marking him as a member of their order.

“Can we open a way to the capital from the caves below?” Dane asked me. “And do we want to do that? What the two of you did yesterday, that needs exploring further.”

“I need an army,” I said, still staring at Bryson, not at my newest mate. “If we can get you back to the capital in time to stop your brothers jostling for the throne, can you swear you’ll send the Granian army to take Callum down?”

“I’ve no desire to see a single Reaver set foot on Granian soil,” he said and I saw in his countenance what Bryson would look like as king. He shoved his shirt down and stood tall, all trace of Rake the messenger gone. Before us was a man with the kind of regal bearing I would never have, because he had been raised to rule, not had it thrust upon him. That imperious gaze held mine. “Get me to Aramathia and I’ll do everything in my power to bring this Callum and his feral pets down.”

“You sure you want to go trusting a Granian prince?” Axe growled, glowering at Bryson. “You might be delivering the next boot on our neck back to his seat of power.”

“Agreements can be drawn up,” my grandfather said. “And I will swear to anyone that needs to hear it that this deal was offered.” He turned to me. “We just need to know if it is accepted.”

I’d had one victory followed by one night of passion, of reconnection, but the business of saving our people was back there waiting for me, like the breakfast rolls on the table. Was this a mistake? Could Bryson be trusted? I realised that those questions were ones we couldn’t afford to ponder. Our numbers had been decimated and we had no other allies to turn to.

I got to my feet, putting Jan down on my chair, and then walked over to the prince, every eye upon mine. I offered him my hand then, the customary way of sealing a deal in Grania. But Bryson? His eyes twinkled with a devilish light, the corners of his mouth quirking, before he took my hand and turned it so that my knuckles were presented for him to kiss. My mates started to growl, but his lips were there and gone again, pressed against my skin, and I felt everything. How soft they were. The prickle of his stubble, not yet shaved. The heat of his hand in mine, something that seemed to linger long after he had let me go, making me rub my palm against my trews.

“Then we must go now,” he said. “If my father dies before an heir is declared, then the eldest son present becomes king, but if he endorses one of my brothers…”

“I’ll get that lazybones, Higgins, out of bed,” Selene said with a sharp nod. “We’ll meet you down in the cave.”

And so weall came to be standing right back where we’d been yesterday, though with quite different intent. My mates and I were swathed in hooded cloaks, as were the Maidens and the children, to try and hide what we were. I felt a prickle at the back of my skull, as if a headache was brewing, but rather than pain, it was a sense of having already seen us like this before. In that vision of us walking into court, with the man I now knew to be my grandfather standing before us.

I recalled how in the vision my voice had rung out imperiously as I had ordered everyone to kneel, and how they had all obeyed. I tried to channel that confidence again as I pricked my palm with my knife and pressed it against the crystals.

“Ready, my queen?” Bryson said, as he took position beside me.

My mates all rumbled their discontent as he used my knife to nick his skin as well. I felt the hot pulse of Bryson’s blood as he covered the back of my hand with his. For a moment, I stood there, staring into those odd golden eyes and wondered at what lay behind them. I had only one way to find out.

“Show me,” I urged. “Show me Aramathia.”

Chapter32

I didn’t want to be in this place, I knew that as soon as I stepped through the portal and into the cavern. This wasn’t a tight little cave like the one under my grandfather’s estate, but one with soaring walls like a cathedral.

“We need light,” Gael growled, taking position at my shoulder.

“It won’t help,” Bryson said, with complete confidence, staring out into the hazy light. The crystals still glowed blue in response to our presence, but here it was a dark, sulky colour, creating a hazy miasma of gloom within the chapel.

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