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None of us had seen that shit coming, and I was mad as hell at all the teachers who had ever told me that gobbelins were completely extinct. Unfortunately, I had a feeling they were just repeating the same lies they’d been taught as students. Somewhere in Saori Sang’s history, generations ago, someone had been a little cavalier with the truth and woven boasts into the stories that should have contained warnings.
“The city is impressively empty,” Valanga said, sweeping a paw elegantly toward the quiet streets. “It makes our job easier.”
“There are holdouts. Not many of the commoners wanted to trust their lives to the palace at first,” I admitted.
“A change in guard will always mean some are slow to trust, but they’ll come around,” Valanga said, her voice holding a faraway lilt that told me she wasn’t only talking about the vampires.
“Why did Vento come?” I blurted, then scrambled to backtrack. “I’m very grateful. Just... the old alpha...”
“The old alpha was hard. Vento can be hard when needed, but he’s also kind. And he understands what we younger wolves do - this world is not meant to be lived in isolation. This world is better with community. The gobbelins are as much a threat to us as to you, so why would we deny the aid when we hope you would not deny us?”
The question was loaded, and I found myself wanting to apologize for my own ancestors, the vampires who had taken back the wolves’ ice magic and locked them out of the Vault. But Valanga saw the words in my eyes and smiled, shaking her head.
“We are not our ancestors. Judge me by my own actions, and I will do the same for you.”
“Thank you,” I said again, feeling a ray of actual hope shining for the first time in a while. Hope was different from the dogged determination I felt when I thought of the battles to come. I knew I could push through - I could protect my city. Hell, I’d even died twice now. But with Valanga’s talk of community and moving forward together, the burden of pushing through felt easier.
“Beyond that, though, we are bound to honor Khione. She has awakened in you, and so the ice wolves are here. It is the covenant,” Valanga continued, and my eyes widened. Vento had called me Khione, recognizing something in my icy blue eyes thenight he brought the gobbelin to Merden’s court. Whatwasshe to the ice wolves?
“Who is she?” I managed, my mind swirling with questions, and I felt the light touch of Blaise’s fingers on my shoulder, offering stability.
“One of the ancient sources of power. She transcends the races, like Iaga once did. Not vampire, not ice wolf. Just... Khione. The wolves in the Sans Cesse Mountains have always served the Goddess of ice and snow,” Valanga said, as though it were the simplest concept. And if I’d grown up with bedtime stories of this goddess, perhaps it would have been. But the vampires had long ceased to truly worship the magical energy of Haret, no matter whose name it bore.
I’d once thought Iaga was the end of the ancients, but she had passed her magic to Queen Carlyle, my friend. Now Khione had been awakened in me. What other Goddesses and magic lay sleeping in Haret, forgotten and discarded?
The vampires had been disconnected from the Ancient Magic as long as they’d been disconnected from the goddesses of Haret. I blinked, trying to grasp the tail of the thought and haul it into the light. This... this may be the piece I’d been missing. The unraveling of the mystery of our magic being locked away for so long, and the answer to why it had to bemewho claimed the throne from Merden.
It wasn’t just my bloodline that was important, passed from generation to generation.
IwasKhione. Her chosen vessel.
I had never wanted to be Queen, and I was even less certain about becoming a Goddess, but if that was what my people needed, I would. Suddenly, my decade-long vendetta to kill Merden made sense within the mess of the gobbelins’ return.
I wasn’t here just for a revenge kill.
I was supposed to undo all of our city’s recent horrors, by killing Merden, of course. But I was also meant to release the Ancient Magic and remind the vampires of what they’d lost when they stopped holding Haret’s magic higher than their own. Khione was the embodied destruction and death of winter - of snow and ice.
But once winter is over, spring renews everything. Khione would help me destroy, and the Ancient Magic would help me rebuild.
It was suddenly so clear, I could have laughed out loud. Of course, I still had no idea how to actually make that happen.
Before I could turn back to Valanga and break the growing awkward silence, though, another ice wolf skidded to a stop beside her.
“Gobbelins. West side of the city,” he barked out.
Valanga cursed under her breath, but she was grinning, too. Glancing at Blaise and me, she nodded curtly and shot away with the messenger, shifting into full wolf form.
“Let’s keep the guards with the palace. You and I can head into the city and see the damage,” I suggested, and Blaise smirked, already turning toward the palace entrance.
“I’m always in the mood for violence,” she said, stalking in the direction of the weapons room. We’d been gathering everything left behind and equipping anyone willing, but there were a few choice stashes left.
“That’s probably why we get along so well,” I answered, beckoning to a nearby guard so I could have him spread the word. I made certain he understood to find Kas first, so my thief could make sure the commoners stayed safely inside the palace. We didn’t need them panicking or worse - trying to play hero.
“You know, you’ll make a great Queen, too,” Blaise said as we headed west into the city.
I pressed my lips together to avoid the smile. I hoped she was right.
By the Goddess, I hoped she was right.
