Page 79 of Spirit Rites

Again, I ignore her snark. “But what does it mean? Last I heard, guivres were stuck in their form.”

“Yeah.” That’s from Taren. I take in the bleak looks on all their faces.

“Okay. Why do they keep coming here anyway? Why are there so many of them attacking? I can count on one hand the attacks we’ve had near the Wolf Kingdom.”

“Nobody knows why,” Taren says. “But they’ve increased a lot over the last few years.”

“And now, they can turn back to their human forms, even though they’re supposed to be cursed and unable to do that,” I point out.

“Yeah. All that,” Reika snaps. “Where’s Kal?”

Just like that, the mood changes. “We don’t know,” Jorren says.

“I was out of it a little bit. What happened in the arena?” she asks.

“A guivre carried him off.” Reika blinks at Jorren’s gruff words. “Seriously?” He nods, and she whirls on Evren. “And where were you when your father was trying to kill our king?”

“I had nothing to do with that,” he defends in a low voice.

“Yeah? Well, you sure didn’t do anything to stop it.”

“Because it was my father!”

“Yeah, well, he was a threat to the king. You should have taken care of it.” Reika has her hands on her hips, and she’s furious. I try to think of something that could diffuse the situation.

“I knew Kal would take care of it,” Evren says in a defeated voice.

“Hmm. Okay. Did you also take into account that a man would turn into a forsaken guivre? And that one of those creatures would carry him off?” Reika demands.

“We’re not going to figure out anything by fighting,” I finally say, trying to step in. That was the wrong thing to say.

Reika whirls on me. “You don’t get a voice. Nothing has gone as it’s supposed to since we met you!”

“Reika, knock it off.”

She ignores Taren. “Ever since you showed up, everything’s been turned on its head. Are you sure you’re not the one calling the guivres here?”

I stare at her in shock. “Are you kidding me right now?”

“He would have never been out there fighting for his life if you hadn’t shown up. He took your place. If he’s dead, it’s on you!”

No. Absolutely not.I want to scream at her, to rage at her. But that won’t solve anything. I keep my voice level.“I loveKaldar. I had nothing to do with any of this.” I look at each of them. “I’m going to meet with the personal advisor and find out what I need to do to keep things running. I need the four of you to find Kaldar, find our king.”

Reika crosses her arms across her chest. “Newsflash, we don’t take orders from you.”

“Actually, you do. Kaldar left me in charge. You may not like it. In fact, you probably hate it, but that’s what yourkingchose.”

She lifts an eyebrow. “What? Are you going to do something if we don’t follow your orders?”

Knowing the captain of the guard is still over by the door, listening to every word of our conversation, I call out, “Hey, Zarreth.”

“Yes, My Queen.”

“What do you do with soldiers that won’t follow orders?” I ask without ever taking my eyes off Reika.

“I take them off your hands. There’s a special place for soldiers like that.” I don’t ask because I really don’t want to know.

I merely lift a brow at Reika.Your turn.