Our faces were inches apart; I watched her as my fingers moved inside her. Her eyes were bottomless pits I fell into, her breathing as it quickened enough to set fire to my insides.
‘Tell me you love me,’ I uttered.
She drew a breath.
‘I know you do.’
Her hips moved against my hand. With my other I slid my fingers beneath her dress so I could trace her breast.
‘I can smell it on you,’ I breathed. ‘I can taste it.’ My tongue was against her throat, tasting the salty sweat there.
‘Tell me,’ I implored, pressing myself against the length of her body and feeling the heat between her legs.
She opened her eyes, looked at me, into me. And I knew she was about to say it. I could feel it.
And then –
‘Thorne? Where the Gods are you, kid?’
I wrenched myself away from her, startled badly by the King’s voice. Finn jerked her skirt down and stood on unsteady legs. Her cheeks were flushed, lips swollen, pupils dilated as if she’d taken a drug of some kind. We stared at each other, a little dazed.
‘Thorne!’
‘I’m coming, Ambrose!’ I roared angrily. Gods. I couldn’t get a thought to sit straight. Wanted to beat the life out of my unbelievably annoying uncle.
‘I’ll wait for you at the door,’ I murmured to Finn, then quickly retreated from her room.
‘Yes?’ I snapped.
Ambrose’s eyebrows arched. ‘What’s got you in a huff?’
‘Nothing. Sorry.’
‘I have someone for you to meet. Come on.’
‘I have to wait for Finn.’
He considered this, watching me a little too closely for my liking. ‘What’s going on between the two of you?’
I shrugged, not sure of the answer.
‘She told Ava you were friends and nothing more.’
‘Why are you interested?’
‘Because, my tetchy boy, you’re of an age to marry and I’ve started getting inundated with offers.’
‘You’re kidding.’
‘I wish I was! I never got proposed to this much. Every father in the country wants his daughter to be yours. If only they knew how boring you are.’
I shoved him in the shoulder and he laughed.
Finn emerged and Ambrose offered her a brilliant smile. ‘You are beautiful, my lady.’
She looked him up and down and then flashed a sly smile of her own. Those yellow eyes grazed me and I felt it like a touch. Without a word, she led the way.
Ambrose and I followed. He grimaced, muttering under his breath, ‘Oh dear.’
‘What?’
‘She’s not going to like this. And I see now that you haven’t a hope of keeping her in line.’
‘Why would I want to?’ I murmured, watching her. All I wanted was to set her loose on the world and watch the way it fell at her feet.
‘Why indeed.’
Coloured lanterns were strung up along the streets, people carried candles, fireflies danced under a starlit sky and the whole world seemed alight. In the town square there were three thrones on a dais. The thrones had been made from vine-leaves and thorns, and when Ava and Ambrose took their places they looked regal and beautiful together. At their sides were Ella and Sadie in their moth costumes. The girls were intent on asking Roselyn a multitude of questions while Ma fixed their crooked wings and answered what she could. Around the group stood a host of guards at the ready.
I didn’t sit in my throne – I never did. Instead I stood to the side with Finn and watched the revellers dance through the square, masked and cloaked and anonymous for a night. She was itching to dance, I could tell.
‘Go,’ I told her.
‘In a minute. I want to see her first.’
‘Who?’
‘The woman your uncle wants you to marry.’
I blinked, looking down at her.
‘I’m not quite as stupid as I look,’ she pointed out.
‘You, my Wild Girl, look anything but stupid,’ I replied.
We looked together to see that a group of people was passing, and instead of just having painted the wolf onto their cheeks, they had cut howling wolf sigils into the flesh of their faces, scarring themselves permanently.
‘Who are they?’ Finn breathed.
‘Fanatics,’ I murmured. ‘They worship Ava and all half-walkers.’
‘Thorne!’ Ambrose called. ‘Lady Sienna is here. Come and meet her.’
I could kill him. Casting an apologetic look at Finn, I headed over to meet the woman waiting before the dais. She sank into a low curtsey before me and rose gracefully.
‘Your Majesty, it is an honour,’ she said sweetly. Sienna was tall and willowy, with pale creamy skin and long red hair. She was pretty and demure, keeping her eyes cast down, and I could see exactly why people would think she was the perfect woman for me. Except that she wasn’t.
‘The honour is mine,’ I said, bowing my head in greeting.
‘Dance with her, Thorne, you cad!’ the King cried. I shot him a look of daggers and he grinned. Ava was looking entirely bored with the whole thing.
‘Would you dance, lady?’ I asked and Sienna blushed, nodding.
I led her into the fray of dancers and with a lurch of my heart I noticed that Finn had disappeared.
‘Our kin would have us wed,’ I pointed out as we stepped stiffly to the music. Why I pointed that out I had no idea. I wasn’t a very good dancer, despite Ma’s continued efforts, and felt more uncomfortable than I had in a long while.
‘I … Majesty, I would be so lucky …’ she stuttered.
Believe me, you wouldn’t.
My eyes raked the crowd for yellow hair but I couldn’t see her anywhere. Something felt off about it. Ella and Sadie were still fine, dancing on the dais in full view of their parents. So what was it? It wasn’t as though it was unusual for Finn to disappear to have fun on her own, but …
Without warning, I was hit full force with the scent of danger. My beast rose to his feet and gave a low growl of warning.
I stopped dancing but was unable to see anything wrong. Pushing back through the crowd to my aunt and uncle, they both stiffened at my expression.
‘Something’s wrong. Where’s Finn?’
Finn
It happened as I was looking at the painfully gorgeous shy sweet perfect little lady who was to be Thorne’s precious little wife and wishing I could strangle her lovely long neck. They looked beautiful together; he was painfully handsome in his black cloak and mask, while she looked alarmingly like his mother.
I didn’t even notice them beside me. Two men in cloaks and masks. I wouldn’t have noticed them, because everyone was in cloaks and masks. But I certainly noticed when they threw a ward to my lips, rendering me silent, and I certainly noticed when they took hold of me and moved me so subtly back into the crowd that we vanished from view without so much as a rustle.
My body was paralysed, so they lifted me at the elbows, making it look as though I was walking, and they spirited me through the streets of the fortress and straight out the front gate. People were still coming and going through the entrance. Guards watched closely, but I could not struggle or shout, so we passed easily.
My heart was thumping, my mind trying to make the connections. At least one of them was a warder. So what would a warder want with me? None of my skin was touching theirs – they were careful about that, which meant they knew of my abilities and didn’t want to be read. Not that I could do anything with this stupid power of mine. Knowing the feel of someone’s heart didn’t make them any less dangerous to me.
I resolved to just stay calm until I had some answers.
They carried me further into the forest until we were alone, with no chance of stray festival-goers stumbling across us in a drunken haze. They had a carriage, on the back of which was a cage.
My heart lurched. This was looking worse and worse.
The men let me go, and I felt my body return
to my control. ‘If you wanted to get me alone you could have just bought me a drink,’ I pointed out.
They drew back their hoods. Both were warders: I was in trouble.
Especially because two more men emerged from the trees, and they were unmistakably Pirenti soldiers – huge bear-like men in animal pelts and wielding axes. Men with axes again. The world was really trying to teach me a lesson here. Don’t fear something frightening? Well then, let me throw it at you again and again until you see how stupid you are, Finn.
Having delivered me, the warders were apparently intent on returning to the festival. They turned and walked back through the forest. One of them paused long enough to say, ‘Be quick. They’ll be after her. And make sure she’s incapacitated or you may find yourselves in grave trouble.’
Huh? Grave trouble from me? ‘I think you kidnapped the wrong girl,’ I told them, but they’d already disappeared from view.
I faced the soldiers. ‘Whatever you’re doing,’ I said carefully, ‘I think you are seriously going to regret it. And I say that with the utmost respect for your profession of … crime.’
‘Lippy bitch,’ one of the men grunted. The other backhanded me across the face. It made a loud crack and I felt the shock of it through my entire body. Pain blitzed my head and I fell to my knees. The world spun. I’d never been hit before. Never been physically harmed at all, actually. It was not fun.
The same soldier stared down at me expressionlessly. He had pretty green eyes. And that was when real fear found me, and real understanding. I came from Kaya, which, ninety-nine per cent of the time, was safe. Women were treated the same as men. There wasn’t much violence, not a great deal of crime. You could say what you wanted and nobody was going to hit you in the face for it.
But Thorne had said it, hadn’t he? You have no idea of the world you just stepped into.
Blind fury exploded in my heart. I hated that there was a place in the world where if you were a woman it meant you were in danger. I hated it. I loathed the fact that the only way to stay safe was to learn to fight and hurt others. Loathed the fact that one hit could make me feel like I was dying and pretty much deny me any chance of escape.
I didn’t want to be weak, but I also didn’t want to learn to fight. So where did that leave me?
In a cage. That’s where.
‘If you want me to stop talking,’ I said coldly, ‘you’ll have to cut out my tongue.’
‘With pleasure.’
Green Eyes stopped his companion. Then he drew his own knife and he didn’t cut out my tongue – he stabbed me in the guts.
I woke some time later, staring up at the wooden slats of the cage. Grey and black trees moved above me. The carriage was travelling but I had no idea how far it had moved. I felt every rock in the road, every tiny bump or pebble we crossed as it jolted my body into a spasm of agony. The knife was still inside me. I didn’t know why he hadn’t removed it. Maybe he didn’t want me to bleed to death until we got to our destination.
It came to me in a rush, too late, the reason I had woken up. There was someone in the cage with me. Green Eyes. Undoing his breeches with tattooed hands and gazing down at my body.
Terror struck, and rage.
It coiled inside me, a living, breathing throbbing thing. It wanted out. It wanted free. It wanted no more seconds to pass in this life with this man doing these things.
A scream erupted from my mouth, and with it came my soul and my power and every ounce of magic I had been denying for so many years. Without thought, without decision, it sprung forth and slammed into Green Eyes, knocking him back against the cage where he slumped and did not get back up.
I felt woozy. My head was made of rubber. It hurt and hurt, but I had a sense that there was still more inside me, wanting to get out. Trying to move, I tore at the knife inside me and let out a cry.
The carriage stopped.
Oh no no no.
As quickly as I could manage, I tried the latch to the cage but it was padlocked. If I had a weapon I could probably get through the wood, but they would hardly equip a prisoner with a weapon. Footsteps sounded as the second soldier jumped out of the carriage and approached. Okay. This was okay. I needed him to open the door for me anyway. But what in Gods’ names would I do then?
Green Eyes had nothing on his body that I could use, except maybe his heavy belt buckle. But I was in bad shape, and trying to manoeuvre it off him proved too painful for me in such a cramped space.
Too late. Soldier number two was here anyway. I readied myself, letting the power unfurl like a whisper inside me. He stopped, taking in the scene. ‘You stupid bitch,’ he sighed. Then he undid the cage.
I let go, let myself explode, and he flew off his feet at the sheer force of the pressure I had sent into him.
It snapped back into me with a terrible snap and I nearly lost consciousness once more. Groaning, I struggled to sit up and looked at the two bodies in fear. What had I done? Had I killed them? The thought sent waves of nausea through me.
Fearfully I reached out and touched Green Eyes’ ankle and felt the faint beat of a rotten, rotten heart. ‘Oh thank Gods.’ Then muttered, ‘Not that you deserve it, you monster.’
I started dragging myself out of the cage, needing desperately to be free of it. The drop to the ground was anguish. I landed on the knife and jerked it sideways, right through me. A strange sound ripped into the air and I realised belatedly that it was my scream.
Reaching as far as I could, I managed to touch the second soldier’s hand and found him barely alive. And so with relief swelling inside my chest I allowed myself to lose consciousness.
Thorne
There was a howl inside me, right in the heart of me. He was howling with rage and despair, and with a savage need to find her. And that was how I knew: my beast loved her too.
They weren’t listening to me. They were reasoning. Telling me they were sure she had just gone to find wine or fun or dance. And yes. These did sound like things that Finn would do, normally. Before the last few days, I would have agreed. But not now. Not after the words I’d said to her, not after witnessing what she had with Blain of Slaav, after meeting Ma and after this evening in her room.
Not now.
‘Listen to me. Something’s wrong,’ I repeated, harsh. ‘I can smell it.’
This made them fall quiet.
‘Send a score of guards to search the fortress,’ Ava ordered and men ran to do her bidding.
‘She’s not within the fortress,’ said a soft voice I had not expected. I spun on my heel to see Osric, the only first tier warder in the world. Oddly, my dog Howl was with him; the man’s hand was threaded through the dog’s fur in a way he normally didn’t let strangers touch him. The warder was looking at me with his streaked eyes and I could see that he knew. Whatever it was, he knew.
‘I’m here for the festival,’ he explained unnecessarily, as if I cared.
‘Finn,’ I managed.
‘She has been taken,’ was what he said.
My eyes fell shut for a brief moment.
I couldn’t speak, so Ambrose asked, ‘By who?’
‘Two warders. Illegals. I saw it. Came as fast as I could, but I was too slow. I feel their residue still. And hers. She has a very distinct imprint.’
‘Where?’ I managed.
‘Out. Somewhere in the forest. I know not where.’
‘What do they want with her?’ Ava asked, but I was already moving. Running.
At the gate I shouted up to the guards, ‘Two men and a woman in a raven mask?’
‘That way, sire,’ came the answer, so I followed his pointed finger. Howl was with me, moving with swift certainty. Following the road, I stopped to breathe deeply, picking up the very faint lingering of her scent. It took me some time to find their tracks and follow them into the forest, away from the road.
It took us all night. I found where their tracks met the wheel grooves of a carriage and Howl and I followed those through darkness until th
e world turned to the grey of predawn. I ran every minute, scenting blood, her blood, and barely keeping it together. He wanted to be free, and I wanted the same.
Not yet, I told him. Soon.
But when at last I came upon them there was no one to kill, for they already lay dead on the ground. Howl yelped.
And there lay Finn, my Wild Girl, and she had a knife in her stomach, and there was a pool of blood spreading beneath her. My beast gave one mournful bay inside me and then he curled up in a ball, and I sank to the ground beside her, my knees soaked in her blood. Howl made a horrible high-pitched whining sound and sniffed the blood, padding frenziedly around us.
Reaching for her with trembling hands, I tried to shake her awake, not knowing what to do. I didn’t know what to do. ‘Finn,’ I said, my voice scraping in horror.
Her eyes miraculously fluttered open. My heart slammed out of beat. ‘Thorne?’
‘I’m here.’ I moved her gently into my lap so that I could stroke her hair and hold her. I was covered in blood – she was still gushing it.
‘When that desperate bastard wakes up tell him girls with knives in their stomachs generally aren’t up for a good time.’
I choked on a laugh, then realised what she was saying and literally saw red. I was losing control. I would tear him limb from limb.
‘Thorne,’ she said again. ‘Don’t kill him. You’ll need answers.’
‘How come you’re being more rational than I am right now?’
‘Must be blood loss.’
‘It’s all right. I’ll get you home.’
‘There were warders with them,’ she said in a rush. ‘Warders. Two.’
‘I know, it’s okay, just relax.’
‘Tell Jonah –’
‘Don’t, Finn. You’re fine.’
‘Just in case, tell him he’ll get to keep all his joy now.’
‘Don’t. Please don’t.’
She looked at me then, and her eyes were her tawny shade of yellow, except brighter, somehow. Richer. ‘Thorne,’ Finn murmured. ‘I’m so in love with you. And I’m sorry I was too cowardly to say it sooner.’
I started to cry, my tears falling on her face as I leant to kiss her lips, even though there was blood spilling from them.