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“Which way?” he asked the former queen, scanning the dense foliage bordering the beach, the rising hills. “Jesiba said the castle was a few miles inland, but I didn’t see anything while we were sailing in—”
Wings flapped above, and Ithan shifted on instinct, his powerful wolf’s body nudging Hypaxia behind him as he snarled up at the sky.
Two scents hit him a heartbeat later.
And Ithan’s head emptied out entirely as Hunt Athalar landed in the sand, Bryce in his arms.
66
Back in his humanoid form, Ithan sat across from Bryce and Hunt in the grass, unable to get words out. Hypaxia, seated beside him, gave him space to think.
Beyond Bryce sat Ruhn, Flynn, Dec, and Tharion—and Lidia and Baxian. Along with a female who was apparently Tharion’s wife and Flynn’s sister.
Some crazy shit had happened. Ithan knew that. But they didn’t offer any explanations, instead waiting for him to get into why he’d come here. What had happened.
His throat became unbearably tight.
“I …” They were all staring at him. Waiting. “I need Sofie Renast’s body.”
“Well,” Hunt said, whistling, “that wasn’t what I expected to hear.”
Ithan lifted pleading eyes to the Umbra Mortis. “Jesiba said King Morven has the body—”
“Had the body,” Ruhn amended, crossing his arms. His tattoos looked like they’d been put through a paper shredder. Ithan had noticed that immediately upon seeing his friends, upon hugging them all so tightly they’d complained about his grip. Ruhn went on, “The body is now technically Bryce’s.”
Ithan shook his head, not understanding.
Hunt drawled, “Morven is dead, and Bryce is Queen of Avallen.”
Ithan just blinked at Bryce, who was watching him. Carefully. Like she knew something had—
“The Meadows,” he blurted. Had they heard about it here? Had they—
“We know,” Flynn said.
“Fucking bastards,” Tharion murmured.
Bryce only asked Ithan, “How bad?”
Ithan couldn’t talk about the small bodies, so many of them—
“As one might expect,” Hypaxia answered grimly, “and then some.” Heavy silence fell.
“Whatever took you away from helping the city,” Lidia said, eyes on her sister, “must be important indeed. Why do you need Sofie’s body?”
Again, they all looked at him. And he couldn’t contain his misery as he said, “Because I fucked up.”
* * *
It all came out. How he’d found an alternate heir to the Fendyr line, freed her from the Astronomer … and then killed her.
None of it was news to Tharion, Flynn, or Dec. But judging from the way Bryce and Ruhn were glowering at the trio … Apparently, they had forgotten to mention this information in the chaos of the last few days.
How they’d forgotten to mention the thing that had literally shredded apart Ithan’s life was beyond him, but he didn’t dwell on it. He plowed on to the part of his story that was news for all of them: How he and Hypaxia had attempted to raise Sigrid. And now the Fendyr heir was a Reaper.
When he reached the end of his account, they were all staring at him wide-eyed. No one more so than Bryce, who hadn’t said anything when he’d spoken of an alternative to Sabine, someone Danika might have liked.
Ithan finished, “So if Sofie’s body is intact—”
