Page 44 of The Howling (Monsters of the Yeavering #2)

D espite being a prophet of doom, Linton shows little desire to vacate my castle. Even with my sweet mate offering him sustenance, I know the creature will not take any, generous though her heart is.

Bluecaps, once spirits of the underground, want only one thing. The thing which shows in his eyes. And it’s a good reason why both Bluecaps are relegated to assassins and shunned even more than a Barghest.

Linton is the most dangerous of them all.

Not because of his desire for blood—there are many carnivorous creatures in the Yeavering—but because he is even more unstable than the Lambton Wyrm.

He didn’t just kill in the Night Lands, he destroyed.

And he did these things because, at the time, he had no choice.

Even on a creature like him, it will leave an indelible mark on his psyche.

His presence in my castle means I have a sleeping volcano of a creature who could explode when I least expect it.

I do not need him in my life again.

Having suggested to my mate she might like to find the Hedley Kow, I keep a careful eye on Linton as she departs, albeit reluctantly.

“She doesn’t know what you did to Lord Guyzance, does she?”

I lift my lips to reveal my fangs. “She doesn’t need to know. He was about to take her by force. He didn’t get a choice what happened next.”

“Take her by force?”

“Mate her.”

Linton shuffles slightly on his chair, his louche pose stiffening. “ Mate her by force ?”

The snarl which rips from my lungs is something else.

“No one touches my mate.”

Linton lifts a lip to reveal a needle sharp fang, but it’s not a threat. Not when his tongue peeps through too, tasting the air.

“You’ve never mated, have you?” I hang my leg over the arm of my chair.

Linton hisses slightly. “What I have or haven’t done is my business.”

I can’t imagine anyone wanting to mate a Bluecap, not with their weird habits and diet.

“When you mate, if you mate, you’ll do anything for your mate, anything to protect, anything to keep her from harm and to avenge any slight. Including what I did to Lord Guyzance.”

“He was trying to get you to go back to the Night Lands,” Linton states.

“You seem to know a lot about my business.” I break up a bone and use a splinter to pick my fangs.

“You forget, I was there, in Lord Guyzance’s fortress, when you were in his dungeons the first time,” Linton says. “I know why he wanted you.”

“And you’ll know I was only there because I wanted to be.”

Linton’s wings shake, the dust from them swirling into the light coming in from the high windows.

Windows he avoids, the sunlight being something the Bluecap avoid.

“So was I,” he rasps, his voice hoarse. “And what you did to Lord Guyzance meant I have to start all over again.”

“I am not going to give in. The Wyrm did our jobs for us in defeating Queen Mab. All we need to do is complete the circle.”

“ Fyr-baeth - Here-Wulf - Wuldres Thegn - Gast-Bona - Sund-Hengest. ” Linton chants it as if in a trance.

“The bringers of the light.” I snort. “Like you’ll ever go out in the light.”

“ Isten-scur, the war to end all wars, is coming, Reavely. Nothing can stop it, not even us,” Linton says darkly.

“I have a mate. I am going to be married, to break the curse which binds me to the Reaper. There will be no war. And if the Faerie want revenge for what happened to Lord Guyzance, let them come.”

“What happened to Lord Guyzance, Reavely?”

Wynter’s voice shakes slightly. She is at the door to the kitchens, having taken a circular route. Behind her is the Hedley Kow, who gazes at me with a baleful look. I don’t know how long they’ve been standing there or how much of the conversation Wynter has heard.

“Are Kaitlyn and Gloriana really safe?” She turns back to the Hedley Kow.

I’m out of my seat and across to her in less than a single beat of Linton’s wing, silently cursing the great Bluecap for his lack of candour and his ability to draw me in to a conversation I didn’t want to have.

Especially as I still haven’t told my Wynter what exactly happened the night we escaped.

“Your friends from Lord Guyzance’s fortress are safe, I promise. The Hedley Kow has seen them, and she wouldn’t lie to you.”

“I wouldn’t, Wynter. They are unharmed, I promise,” she says.

My mate looks up at me, and the distrust in her eyes is something which pierces my heart.

“Reavely?”

“He was hurting you, Wynter, and no one hurts you.”

“What did you do?” Her voice is so quiet, and yet it rings around the great hall as if she is shouting.

“I tore off his wings and left him for dead,” I say through my fangs. “If not dead, then not able to hurt you or anyone else ever again.”