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I gazed in the mirror and focused my magic inward, warmth spreading out from my belly as my face turned doughy, my hair dark brown, my eyes an uninteresting gray—suitably dull to escape notice in this place. Then I tamped down my scent as well, something Anaria didn’t yet know how to do.
Which would make finding her easy. With luck, we’d be outside these walls and heading back toward the war within the hour.
I squared my shoulders, rumpled my short, dark hair, and let the disguise sink into me. Not skin-deep butbecoming me.
Until I was just another nameless Caladrian grunt.
When I smiled, my sharp, pointed teeth seemed to mock the wolf inside me that stared right back.
* * *
By the timeI tracked Anaria through the palace, I was fuming.
To come to Tempeste had been brave, but mostly foolish.
To sneak into the royal apartments at the very summit of the Citadelle, just one floor beneath the king’s own bedchamber on the day of a great battle was suicide.
No matter how noble her reasons were, Anaria was beyond reckless.
Beyond reckless and, while I admired her courage, I cursed every stubborn bone in her beautiful body. If Zorander and I hadn’t seen her expend her magic, we wouldn’t even know where she was. She’d be alone in this deadly place and, while she had her magic, there were terrors here she could not anticipate.
I traced my hand down the door of her bedroom, her delicate, flowery scent coating my nose and mouth so thickly I could taste her.
How many nights had I stood outside this room and watched over her? How many nights had I wondered if this girl was truly the one—the savior of our world—Julian believed her to be? She’d been so many things to me—my charge, my enemy…my wife. The latter in name only because I’d tricked her, but there was still some comfort in the title.Wife.
I liked the idea that we belonged together. Even if none of this was real.
No matter how badly I wanted her to be mine.
I took a breath and rested my forehead against the door, thinking of Anaria with Lucius. She’d taken care of him, a fact that both enraged and enthralled me. Lucius had never been a father to me, he’d left that task to Julian, and my resentment ran too deep, the roots of my bitterness so entrenched I didn’t think I’d ever shake them.
Wolves were pack animals.
But I’d never had a pack. I’d only ever had Julian, and when he’d…
I swallowed, forcing myself to the present, to the now, to what mattered.
Wolves were not meant to be alone. Alone, a wolf lost sight of themselves, turning inward and devouring themselves from the inside out. That’s what I did before Anaria came along. It’s what Lucius was doing right now.
I stared at my trembling hand and curled it into a fist.
This last shift had been…hard. Harder than most. But now was not the time to fall apart. I had to get Anaria out of here, and once she was safe, Tristan and I would return, slaughter as many guards as we had to, and get Raz out of the prison.
I pushed the door open, and Anaria whirled, her eyes narrowing on me, her hand flicking out so quickly I barely sidestepped the knife she threw. Almost perfect aim, the blade—one of Zorander’s best—imbedded into the door behind me with a hollowthunk.
Then she was moving, diving for a pile of clean sheets.
I tackled her before she reached them, her fingers scrabbling on the floor, trying to reach the hilt of the sword sticking out of the pile. She kneed me in the balls and my vision went black, pain so intense it took my breath away roaring through me before I managed to pin her down.
“That wasn’t very nice,” I scolded.
“I’ll carve your fucking cock off, you bastard.” I kept both hands pinned down. If she accessed her magic, I’d end up a smoking hulk of ash like the hounds and I had no intention of becoming one of those.
“I don’t think so,” I crooned in her ear. “You always were clever, little thief, but I’m not about to let you mutilate me. Not when I’ve come to save you.” She went stiff beneath me, but stopped fighting, something I’d scold her about later.
“Tavion?” she breathed. “Is that you?”
“One and the same.” Her body was warm and supple in my arms, and I reluctantly rolled off her with a groan then offered her a hand up. “What were you thinking, Anaria, coming here alone?” I tried, and failed to keep the heat from my voice as I pulled her to her feet.
