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“I can put things back,” he said, “I’ve never tried going through myself. I’m not sure if I could… or if I’d even survive the trip.”
“It’s still a neat trick.”
“I’d be happy to teach you all… assuming we survive this.”
“That’s grim,” said Gullie, “But not entirely incorrect.”
I shook my head. “If it comes down to us really having to use these,” I said, “I think we would really need to consider the decisions that got us to that point.”
“Because we’d be in deep trouble if we found ourselves in that situation?” asked Melina.
“Exactly. I think we should still do everything we can to get in undetected and sneak our way up to the false Queen.”
“I don’t think that’s realistic,” Valerian said, “But there’s no harm in trying.”
Colbolt padded at the floor outside the window.
“I think he’s itching to get moving,” said Gullie.
Melina grabbed one of the swords on the table, then picked up a suit of leathers Valerian had pulled out of his safehouse in Lysa. Gullie gave her a side-eye. “Are you planning on wearing that?” she asked.
Melina scanned the outfit. “What’s wrong with it?”
“Nothing,” Gullie blushed. “I’ll, uh, get Colbolt ready!” she said, and she bounded off.
As Melina headed into their bedroom, and Gullie went outside, that left Valerian and me alone together. He had a sword in his hand, and he was reacquainting himself with the weight. I walked up to him, placed my hand on his chest, and gently kissed him on the cheek.
Valerian stopped what he was doing and looked down at me, his eyes wide. “What was that for?” he asked.
I shook my head. “Just… reaffirming something.”
“Reaffirming…”
“Something better left unsaid.”
He nodded after a moment. “We are going to make it through this.”
“I hope so. There couldn’t possibly be more people counting on us… and I won’t ever be able to repay you or anyone else for the damage I caused to their lives.”
“With any luck, when all this is over, no one will remember what happened, and this version of the Winter Kingdom will be little more than a forgotten dream.”
“And they all lived happily ever after, right?”
“That’s what the stories say.”
“I hope they’re right,” I said. “I really do.”
But I knew better than that. Fairy tales with happy endings were just that, stories told to children to give them enough hope to survive the rigors and truths of life. When we were ready, we headed outside. We weren’t all going to fit on Colbolt’s back, so I took my wolf form and Gullie shrank to about the size of a hand, leaving Valerian and Melina to ride on Colbolt’s back.
The five of us, together, armed to the teeth, then set off for Windhelm… and the inevitable end of this horrible, horrible nightmare we were in.
CHAPTERFIVE
The ride to Windhelm was shorter than I had anticipated. Perhaps because in order to get to the cottage we had set out from, we’d stuck to the backroads and travelled off the beaten path. It was true, though, that in the Winter Kingdom, all roads led to Windhelm. Getting there wasn’t difficult, but seeing it again was.
By night, the castle had been a void darker than the sky itself; by day, it was much worse than that. Instead of a bright, shimmering palace, Windhelm was like a bruised thumb the color of the darkest pond in the deepest underground cavern.
It stuck out from the landscape around it for all the wrong reasons. It was no longer a beacon of light, and hope, and civilization. Now, it was an imposing figure that sent a cold spike of dread deep into my heart.
