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Leaf stepped up next to his sister. “Ok, so where’s the treasure?”
My mouth twisted. “She doesn’t really keep treasure as such, her wealth is everywhere. She doesn’t hide it away, she shows it off. You should see the castle, its awful.”
“What about the Queens before her? Where did they keep treasures? Surely there’s a treasury or archive?”
I blinked at Liss for a long second, her bright blue eyes kind as I failed to find an answer. “Uh… I have no idea.”
Noah leaned forward to rest his elbows on his knees, latching onto his mom’s train of thought. “The last queen was your grandmother, right? Did she keep anything special?”
I frowned, a little thrill of anxiety threading through me that made Liam’s grip on me tighten.
“I… I don’t know. My mother never spoke about her, and its not like I could ask. I’ve never even seen a picture of her.”
Liss frowned slightly. “Surely there are portraits in the castle? Past rulers and important people? Your father?”
My eyes widened at her words, pain slicing through my head as I tried to remember anything about my family.
“I don’t know,” I said through clenched teeth as I pressed the heel of my hand to my temple. “I’ve never seen or heard anything about anyone else. I asked about my father once and got thrown in a cell for weeks. I didn’t try it again. I can’t…”
“Woah, ok, enough,” Liam ordered, rubbing large circles on my back. “Maybe you were too young to remember.”
“Or there’s a reason why she can’t,” Saffy stated, frowning at me in concern. “Could it be a spell?”
I massaged my temple with a grimace as I nodded. “It would explain why thinking about it hurts so much.”
“You’re not thinking about this in the right way,” interrupted a gravelly voice, and the pack turned to look at Ulf where he sat closest to the warmth of the fire. “It is not about treasure, it is about what the Queen treasures.”
I felt my brow raise as his words sunk in.
“The true question you need to ask is, what is it that the Queen values above all else?”
“Power.”
Zeke’s one word answer cut across the clearing and our gazes clashed again as I began to chew on my lip in thought.
“But power isn’t a thing, that can’t be the answer,” Leaf replied, frustration clear in his voice.
“No,” I cut in. “But he’s right. Power is the only thing I’ve ever seen her care about. The stories of her conquests are literally sewn into tapestries and hung all around the castle for everyone to see.”
Memories of countless hours wandering the halls as a bored child flooded me, remembering the way I used to lose myself in the endless corridors in a bid to escape my mother’s notice while I hunted for the servants’ hidden passageways. Every hanging piece of art had shown my mother’s power in some way, showing her defeating anyone who stood against her and taking power wherever she found it. It was essentially a shrine.
A few fat drops of rain began slapping down onto the dirt at our feet, the sky an ominous grey above us now as we huddled around the dying flames.
“We need to get inside,” Liam called, lifting me from his lap and standing behind me. “Get home, stay safe, we’ll talk again tomorrow.”
The pack murmured their agreements and quickly broke away from the pit in a bid to get back to their cabins before the skies opened fully. Saffy grabbed my hand for a quick squeeze as she passed, giving me support as always. I smiled gratefully at her as Liam began to guide me away, heading for the path towards our cabin with Noah hot on our heels as a roll of thunder echoed, close enough now to send goosebumps rushing over my skin.
By the time the cabin was in sight, the rain was a downpour, soaking through my clothes as we ran up and under the wooden porch and Liam pushed open the heavy door. Wrapping my arms around myself against the chill, I glanced out at the storm, flinching a little as lightening flashed across the dark steel sky.
Movement caught my eye and made me fall still as the others rushed into the cabin, my gaze catching on a tall figure at the edge of the forest and watching as he shifted in the blink of an eye into a magnificent, jet-black wolf. Amber eyes locked on mine for a long moment, but as I opened my mouth to call to him, the wolf turned and slunk into the trees.
“Cor,” Noah prompted, holding the door open for me as Liam reappeared with a handful of fluffy towels.
I looked back at the dark forest, frustration and hurt morphing into hot anger as Zeke ran from me yet again. I was sick of him putting distance between us like I meant nothing to him. Like I wasn’t worth fighting for.
“Sweetheart,” Noah tried again, looking out at the forest in confusion. “You ok?”
I looked at him and at the warm, inviting cabin behind him, knowing that this was not where I needed to be.
