Page 58 of Direbound (The Wolves of Ruin #1)

CHAPTER FIFTY-EIGHT

I t takes a while for me to come back to myself, but when I do, Stark is by my side. His hand is warm on my back, rubbing in gentle, calming circles. I didn’t know this big brute of a man was capable of such a small and soft motion.

I close my eyes, let myself concentrate on the feeling. On his musky, amber smell and the welcoming heat of his body next to mine.

Who would have ever thought that I’d find Stark’s presence so… soothing?

After a minute, he asks, “Are you alright?”

I reopen my eyes and look up at him. There’s no pity in his gaze, which helps. Still, the physical contact is starting to feel like too much. I don’t want to be touched by anyone, not after Killian. Not for a long while, maybe.

Maybe Anassa relays that to Cratos, because Stark removes his hand and steps back from me.

“No,” I tell him. “I’m not alright. But I’ll fall apart later.” Because as much as I’d like to wallow over Killian, there’s something much more important on my mind now. “Where’s my sister?”

“Venna and I led a small group of my pack members on an incursion into the buried dungeons. We had to… eliminate… some of the royal guards along the way.”

I narrow my eyes. “The royal guards who helped the king imprison and kill kidnapped children? Their deaths were well earned. You found her?”

He inclines his head. “We recovered the children. Venna is guarding Saela in my office. The other children are being returned to their families in the city, escorted by Bonded.”

“Take me to her,” I say.

We move quickly through the halls, Anassa and Cratos trailing side-by-side behind us. They’re eerily silent. Whatever nobility remain are likely hiding in their guest’s chambers. The Bonded are still sequestered to their side of the castle. As such, our footsteps echo deafeningly as we walk.

And I know I’m not imagining it. “Stark,” I say.

“Yes.”

“You see it?” I ask for confirmation.

I watch as his eyes dart to the corners of the halls, to the stone at our feet, back to me. “Yes,” he says.

The shadows around us are shifting. Trembling. Alive . They move with me. Every step I take, they stretch, swirl, and bend as if to follow me, like the drag of a finger through a spiral of paint.

But even so, there’s a distance. I can reach out to them and drag them along with me… but I also sense that if I had full use of my powers, I could make them do anything.

I could sever the world in two.

Venna is waiting for us in the hall, on alert with two of the Daemos Rawbonds—well, Bonded now, I guess. When she sees us coming, she pushes up onto her toes and jogs towards us. Her wolf lifts its head, watching us closely as Venna wraps her arms around me.

“Saela is safe,” she says, stepping back.

I take her hands and squeeze. “Thank you,” I say shakily. She nods and hugs my hands to her chest briefly before releasing me and leaning against her wolf’s side.

Stark pushes the door to his office open, and I rush past him. Saela is past the sparring mat, curled up in one of Stark’s comfortable chairs and buried under one of his soft blankets. She has one of his books on her lap. But when she hears the door open, her head snaps up inhumanly quickly.

She breaks into a wide smile and sets the book down before ripping the blanket off jerkily. Tears immediately burst from me. I’m so relieved that I don’t even care that Stark is watching.

Saela’s streaking down towards the mat when I reach her. I throw my arms around her, pulling her trembling form close. She grips me painfully tight.

I gasp out a breath. “Air, Sae.”

She lets out a tense laugh and lifts her head to look at me. “Sorry,” she says, but she doesn’t relent.

I shake my head. “Don’t apologize,” I say, pushing her dark hair from her face. She looks pale, and she’s freezing. Her hazel eyes are slightly dull. I hate that I let it get this far. That I let him take her at all. I’m going to rip the sun from the sky and place it in her hands just to warm her up. “Are you okay? You feel?—”

“I’m okay now,” she says. She shuffles even closer. My throat closes up when she smiles up at me tearily. “You kept your promise.”

I choke out a sob and pull her close to crush her against me. I’m never letting her go again. I stroke her hair and kiss her head. When she tries to wriggle free, I grunt and hold her even tighter. “I’ll make you another promise.”

I finally let her go. She slips from my arms and looks up at me. The corner of her eye twitches slightly. She looks so exhausted. “Okay,” she says with a small smile.

“I promise,” I say, reaching up to hold her face, “that everything will be different now. I’m going to make things better.”

Her lips tremble and she nods. “That sounds like a good plan.” Then, her eyes slide up to the crown on my head. “What… what is that?”

I glance over to Stark, standing sentry at the door with Cratos. He seems to read my mind. Can he read my mind? Anassa and I need to have a chat about how she communicates with her mate.

Stark’s jaw clenches, and I can tell what he’s thinking too, even without him saying it. He doesn’t want to leave my side right now. But he huffs, bows to me, and says, “I’ll be standing guard outside. Let Anassa know when you’re ready for me to come back in.”

Then he turns and leaves, and I’m alone with Saela and this earth-shattering news.

Explaining to my younger sister that we’ve secretly been royalty our whole lives proves to be alarmingly easy. After she gets over her initial jaw-dropping, squealing shock, she’s entirely on board, barraging me with questions about everything that’s happened since we parted.

I do my best to explain it all. Our true heritage. Mother’s ‘“madness” and the magic in her veins. In mine. How Anassa chose me on the mountain. After a while, I can’t put it off any longer.

I lead Saela to the cozy chair I found her in and sit her down, taking her hands. Then, I look up into her eyes and tell her about Mother.

Saela cries. She sits still, trembling, tears streaking down her cheeks. “So… everything’s changed,” she sniffs. Her voice is tiny. “We can’t go home.”

The horrible hollowness of grief presses on my organs. I pull her to me and hold her tight. “You will never be alone, Saela.”

She exhales shakily, clutching me. “We’re her daughters,” she says. “We’re strong.”

“Always,” I confirm.

A shudder moves through her when I wipe her cheek. It’s hard. Not just missing our mother, but knowing that our entire family line has been suffering for so long. I just hope that Saela knows it ends with me. Everything will be different now.

“So if I’m a princess and our family oversees the direwolves… do I get to become Bonded someday?” she asks through her tears.

Anassa chuffs an assent from behind me. She’s stayed apart from us this whole time, letting Saela and I talk. Now that Saela’s expressing interest in the direwolves, though, Anassa pads over to us.

“That means yes in Anassa speak,” I tell Saela.

Saela’s eyes widen and I try to imagine this from her perspective—try to see Anassa for the very first time. She towers over us, taking up all our vision. Her silver-white fur shines in the low light of Stark’s office, and she stares down at Saela with her wise yellow eyes. She’s fearsome and powerful.

Anassa lays down at Saela’s feet, the top of her head now reaching Saela’s waist. Saela reaches out a tentative hand, which Anassa sniffs, and then rubs her face against.

Delight sparks in Saela’s eyes, her grin so wide and bright that it’s all that I can see. She pets Anassa again and coos. “Who’s a pretty girl?” she asks, her voice high. “You’re a pretty girl, aren’t you?”

Anassa looks over at me, eyes narrowing. “ Tell her not to talk to me like I’m a baby. Make sure she knows that direwolves deserve respect. ”

“ You don’t like that, you widdle cutie? ” I tease.

Anassa reaches out a paw and swipes at me, but I hop away, laughing. “She wants you to talk to her like she’s the powerful, ancient creature that she is,” I tell Saela, who straightens immediately and nods to Anassa, getting the message.

Suddenly I can see her future—scaling Mount Wolfsbane, bonding with a huge direwolf of her own. As proud as I would be for her to join the ranks of the Bonded, in no world would I ever be comfortable putting her through the Bonding Trials.

“ She doesn’t have to do the Trials, ” Anassa says. “No one does, if you don’t want them to happen anymore. ”

My eyes widen in surprise. “ What are you talking about? I thought the direwolves designed the Trials. That’s what Egith said. ”

“ It’s a lie, ” Anassa growls. “ The Bonded were told this to keep them from revolting against the king. This was his way of controlling our population—he wanted our strength, but not in large enough numbers to rise up against him. ”

Even after everything I’ve been through over the past two days, after everything I’ve learned, this shakes me to my core.

All of that bloodshed. All of those lives. For nothing.

Anassa senses my grief and says, “ It all can change now. You can make the change. The Trials can be whatever you want them to be. ”

The gravity of that statement is almost too much to bear. Whatever I want. For the first time, I truly realize that I get to make the calls.

I’m in charge now—of the Bonded, and all of Nocturna.

“ First, you need to claim the crown publicly, ” Anassa corrects me. “ In order to lead, you need people to agree to follow. ”

She’s right. They need to know, all of them. Everyone in the castle, and throughout the country. It’s going to be a big undertaking.

“ Call Stark back in here, ” I tell her, already thinking about what we’ll need to do.

A short moment later, he strides back into the office with Cratos, the two Daemos riders—Helene and Grigore—trailing behind him. “Do they know?” I ask Stark.

Helene and Grigore exchange confused looks.

“ I can reach them now ,” Anassa says. “ I can reach all the Bonded. Shall I try? ”

“ Yes ,” I say. “ Show them the truth. ”

My mind taps into what feels like the pack unity bond, but amplified by an unbelievable magnitude. Where was once a single river, connecting me to my pack, is now a confluence—reaching out to each individual pack and its riders. Anassa sends the truth spiraling to them both, feeding them images and information.

Helene gasps, her hands covering her mouth. Grigore looks up at me quickly, shock plain on his face, then drops to one knee. “My queen,” he says.

Before I can tell them anything else, there’s a menacing crack and a thud. I whip around, moving to draw my blade. But it isn’t an attacker.

It’s much worse.

Saela’s fallen. She convulses on the ground, eyes rolled back in her head, muscles twisting her body until tendons strain and ligaments pop. Something sickly sweet is in the air, like the smell of rotten fruit.

I lunge for her, desperate to help, to stop her pain. Helene gets there first, running past me to reach down and lift Saela up.

And before I can join them, Stark snatches my arm and yanks me back. I’m about to tear him apart with my fucking teeth, but then I see it.

Helene flinches backward like she’s been struck. Her hand whips up to her throat, her green eyes wide.

Blood, I realize.

There’s a gaping wound in her throat that she’s trying to hold closed.

Saela twists towards me with terrifying speed. Her body locks into place, feral. There’s blood all over her mouth and chin.

She snaps at Grigore with… with fangs .

“A Siphon!” he shouts.

This is all a mistake. This isn’t real. She…

“Meryn!” Stark begs, pulling me against his chest and closing his arms around me from behind, pinning me in place. I realize that I was still yanking towards her, desperate, as if laying my hands on her could undo all of it.

A scream tears from me that rips my throat raw. I know now what Killian meant.

As a parting gift, I’ve left you a little surprise.

The shadows around the room rise, pulsating. They snuff out all the light in the room, moving in ways I can’t comprehend and can’t fully control.

Killian has changed her, corrupted her. Turned her into one of… them .

But now I know the powers that live inside me, the powers that are my birthright.

I won’t accept this. I don’t. First, I’ll find a way to fix my sister… and then I am coming for him.

Fury streaks through my veins, like a thousand knives wrought from the deepest shadows.

I am Meryn Sturmfrost, Queen of Nocturna, and I will use the twisting dark in my bones and my blood to hunt Killian Valtiere to the ends of the earth.