Page 10 of The Howling (Monsters of the Yeavering #2)

I get around the corner and take in several massive gulps of air, pressing down on the panic which rises inside me.

I genuinely cannot believe I challenged the huge beast in the cage. Reavely has to be close to seven foot in height. He’s impressively broad in the chest, and with his claws, he looks like he could snap me in half without even thinking about it.

He also has high cheekbones and a set of eyelashes around his fire-filled eyes which any girl would kill for.

A detail I also squash down inside me. The filthy creature basically urinated on me and thought it was fine. He is an absolute monster.

A monster I am going to add to the list to keep away from, if I can. It’s starting to be a long list, given the Yeavering is filled with things which bear humans ill will.

Starting with the Faerie. The mere fact Lord Guyzance chose to visit the dungeons when I thought I would be safe from his gaze troubles me. I don’t like he spoke to Reavely, and I don’t like the fact I accidentally nearly walked in on them yesterday.

I know what I risk every day here in the Yeavering, and keeping away from the Faerie Lord and his cohort has been my every waking thought. It’s the reason I stayed grubby, hid my hair, stayed under the radar, or the Yeavering equivalent.

In fact, I don’t think I’ve been as clean as since I came to this dingy dungeon, which is a contradiction in and of itself. I thought I was safe. I expected not to see another Faerie as long as I was down here.

But Lord Guyzance surprised me and sent everything I thought I knew into a spiral. He isn’t afraid of the dungeons and Reavely can string a sentence together which doesn’t involve the words eat and you .

I wonder which one I should be more wary of. Probably the one who thinks pissing on me is acceptable.

My work completed for the morning, and having stowed away my cleaning items in the small stone store room, I head back to my quarters.

There’s no sign of Lilburn, although, as always, the fire is burning merrily in the grate and there is a full kettle waiting to be swung in over the flames. As tea is basically what we both live for, I push the heavy cast iron receptacle into the fire and drop into my chair to wait for it to boil.

“Hello, Wynter,” a deep voice says in my ear. I jump in the air with a strangled cry, twisting to see who spoke because Lilburn had assured me we were the only people who could get into our quarters.

There’s no one there. I clutch at my chest as my heart attempts to batter out of it. Am I imagining things? As I look around, a mist coalesces in one corner, slowly solidifying into the form of a grinning Lilburn.

“What the f-?”

“I’m sorry.” She wheezes out a laugh. “It’s what I do. I’m the Hedley Kow.”

“You scare the life out of people?” I sink back into my chair.

“Not the life, although there’s nothing to say I can’t do such a thing. No, I am a mischief maker, so I make mischief,” she says, pulling the kettle from the fire as it reaches the boiling point. With a large checked cloth, she lifts it clear and fills a teapot.

“Is that what got you here in the first place?” I ask, just as the sound of a long, low howl reaches us.

“What have you done to the Barghest?” Lilburn asks, her sharp eyes on me.

“That’s Reavely?”

“There’s nothing else down here which howls.”

“I told him he was disgusting for peeing in his cage.” I hold up my hands. “Which he is.”

Lilburn smiles and continues filling the teapot before replacing the kettle and popping a tea cosy around the pot.

“I would agree, but then as an inhabitant of the Yeavering, I wouldn’t want to encounter a Barghest in normal life either, disgusting or not.”

“I know, he take souls.” I sigh, regaining my feet and collecting two cups and saucers from the sideboard along with some milk from the pantry. “And is a friend of death.”

“It’s worse than that,” Lilburn says as she pours out the tea and adds the milk, before handing me my cup.

“How can it possibly get worse than taking souls?”

“Enjoying it, as Reavely has always done. He helped the Reaper in the Night Lands, as well as fighting for the Faerie, and then once he was recalled, he continued his work with gusto.” She makes a sour face. “No one wants a creature like him near them.”

“Perhaps that’s the point. Perhaps he wants to be feared?” I suggest, thinking of my original encounter with Reavely.

“Then he has achieved his desire. Because every inhabitant of the Yeavering will drive him away if they get half a chance.”

“Wolfsbane?” I query.

“Moonstone. A rare commodity here. Said to repel the Barghest, although I’ve never seen one,” Lilburn says.

The howl comes again, low and mournful.

“But apparently you’re also something else which repels a Barghest,” Lilburn says.

“Oh, thanks, I think.” I chuckle without mirth as my stomach dips.

“Or you’re something he wants,” she adds with a strange twinkle in her eyes. “I’m not sure if that’s worse or not.”