17. Diana
CHAPTER 17
Diana
T he day dragged, the tension in the keep so taut you could have strung a highwire with it, if you’d been so inclined.
I could have stayed in my rooms, could have practiced for the upcoming fight, but I did neither. My time here as queen was rapidly fading, and I wanted to…have my own kind of goodbye.
Raven found me in the infirmary, his presence palpable as I spoke quietly to the doctor.
“I wanted to come personally to thank you again for the work you did on our visiting allies, as well as the many years of service you have performed to the highest level.” I took the doctor’s hand—Fallan Delogha—and gripped it gently. “I hope you know that you are deeply valued.”
Fallan did a double blink and tightened his hold on my fingers gently. “My Queen. You have more than adequately expressed this on many occasions.”
I nodded. “Perhaps. But you have saved many lives.”
“And there have been some I could not.” He frowned, and my guts clenched as I could almost feel him thinking about Gavin. “But thank you. You have always been gracious.”
I slipped away, Raven shadowing me as I made my way through the keep, greeting those who’d served faithfully, making sure I said what needed to be said.
Was I dying? No, but if Elka would take what I asked of her, my time in the keep would be short. The keep where my father had raised me. Where I’d learned what it meant to be a wolf…to be a queen.
Fuck. I put a hand to the wall as emotions threatened to overwhelm me.
“Frostbite.” Raven was there in a flash. “You okay?”
He put his hand to my lower back, supporting me without being too over the top. I nodded as a guard and a maid turned down the hall toward us. The guard stiffened up and saluted.
“My Queen.”
The maid…her eyes narrowed, and she sniffed as she took the next turn to her right, avoiding crossing our paths, not speaking a word to me as if, as if I were already dead to her.
Raven let out a rumbling growl that would make a werewolf proud. “Maybe she’s the one who laced the food.”
I shook my head and pushed myself off the wall. “Lee, do you have a message for me?”
“A visitor.” Lee tipped his head. “Elka of the Killian clan has requested to meet with you.”
My heart gave a double thump. She either would accept or she would not. I had done all I could to impress upon her the importance of her choice.
“Thank you. Take her to my personal quarters. I would speak with her there.”
“Of course, my Queen. And, for what it’s worth at this late hour…it has been an honor to serve you.” He put his fist to his chest and bowed low, holding the position.
I bit my lower lip, one fang dragging across and piercing the flesh, reminding me that I was his queen for not much longer.
Walking toward him, I put my hand on his shoulder and squeezed. “You have served the crown faithfully, Lee. You have your queen’s thanks, and gratitude.”
A shudder went through him and when he stood back up his eyes glistened. “Thank you, Your?—”
“Diana,” I cut in softly. His eyes shot to mine and I smiled. “Just Diana.”
He closed his eyes and nodded, one tear slipping down his cheek as he spun away from me. “I will bring her to your rooms, my Queen.”
“So many still love you,” Raven said softly. “Saying your goodbyes will not change that.”
I wanted to lean back into him. “I know, because I love them too. They’re my family.”
Raven turned me to face him. His turquoise eyes were so intense, so different than the first time I'd met him and I'd thought him a clown. A fool. How well he’d hidden his strength and heart.
A wayward thought struck me. How much more bonded would I have felt to my true mate? Guilt flashed through me.
“I should go, Elka is waiting.”
“Go. I will follow.” He stepped back and bowed to me.
Nerves fluttered as I made my way to my rooms.
Who would I ask if Elka turned me down? Perhaps her father…but he did not have the charisma that Elka had, or the vigor of a youth who believed they could take on the world.
I didn’t have to ask Raven to wait outside my rooms. He stopped a few feet away, tucked his hands in his pockets and leaned against the wall, looking for all the world like he wasn’t guarding my door.
“Thank you.”
“No,” he said, his eyes intense even while his voice was gentle. “You never have to thank me. I am here, Diana. To whatever end comes for us and this world, I will not leave your side. Nothing but death could take me from you and even that…I’d crawl from the grave to return to you.”
His words struck through the last of the fears that were buried deep—that I would be alone in the end.
Words stuck in my throat, and I turned and let myself into my rooms.
Elka stood with her back to me, looking out the same window I preferred, her hair woven around her head in a crown braid. Was it a sign? She wore a pair of clean, tawny-colored soft pants, and dark brown leather boots that rose above her knee to her mid-thigh.
Her fitted jacket was a deep green—the royal green—and had a high collar. As she turned, the etching on the left side where the clan the queen or king came from sat the mark of Clan Killian. But on the right…was my father’s clan symbol. A lightning bolt across a sword.
Her eyes gave away nothing. She tipped her head ever so slightly. Not a bow. An acknowledgment from one queen to another. “Diana.”
I smiled. Not my title. My name, as if we were on equal footing.
“Elka of Clan Killian. I see you have made your choice.”
Her smile trembled only a little and I watched her pull herself together, locking down the emotion but still letting it shine in her eyes—gods, she was exactly who we needed.
“I have.”
Elka’s decision made it that much easier for me to go into the fight, knowing that she was ready to take on the crown.
I’d made my way to the clearing with Lochlin and my guards. I’d invited Clan Killian and Elka to be there as well. The issue was more with Raven and my brothers. The talk before we left was frustrating to say the least.
“You cannot interfere. Not even if I am…in trouble,” I reminded them for what had to be the tenth time.
“I don’t care.” Raven shrugged. “I’m not going to watch you get killed.”
“Nor will I,” Dominic grunted. “You are my sister, and?—”
“Don’t leave me out of this.” Will waved a hand. “Your death would be a disservice to not only your people, but to us. We love you, Diana. We aren’t going to lose you now that you are in our lives again.”
If not for Will’s softer words, I would have just raged at them all.
“You think she cannot fight this fight?” Evangeline’s voice turned the three men around. “You think she has not prepared for this fight, or one like it, her entire life? There has always been the threat to her…a chance that someone would challenge her. Especially after Lycan—” She broke off, the grief plain on her face as she pressed on. “And when young Elka takes on the crown, she will need to be prepared for the same at any given time. Because there will always be a man, weak and fearful, that will try to take away the power of any woman he sees as a threat. Any excuse. Any reason. That has not changed, not in all my years. And you do this woman that you all love a great shame to believe that she cannot withstand a single opponent.”
She snapped her hands to the table she sat at and stood up. Her anger was…well I was glad it was not directed at me. With the blood she’d been force fed after the bloodworm attack, she had regained more than her smooth dark skin and the curve of her waist. She’d been reborn somewhere in those moments between life and death. Perhaps my father had spoken to her on the other side and told her to keep fighting. Whatever the reason, she was the fiery Evangeline she’d been my whole life, and a bone-deep relief filled me now that she was back.
“Auntie,” Will said, his tone low and soothing. “It’s not that we don’t believe she can do it. She would fear for us, too, if we were put in the same position.”
The Duchess snorted. “But she would not imply that you were not capable.”
“I did not,” Raven said. “I have seen her fight; I know she can do this. But if they pull a stunt?—”
I held up a hand, finally cutting in. “If they cheat, then we kill them all. Together.”
Dominic and Will shared a glance and then they both nodded. “Agreed.”
Raven’s smile was all predator. “Then I shall pray that one of them fucking sneeze at the wrong moment, so I can call it a deliberate distraction.”
I smiled as I stood in the clearing, dressed in my fighting leathers. Vest, pants, boots. No weapons. There were never any weapons in our Holmgangs. Just pure physicality.
My supporters spread out around half of the ring. Lochlin, Dominic, Will, Raven, Elka.
The other half…well the other half of the ring was as expected. Teeter and four of his men stood around the edge. It was the other wolves behind them that made my heart clench. So many wanted to see me dead. Faces of those I thought of as friends. Faces I never expected to see on the side of my enemies. Even Gavin’s wife, Mary, stood there glaring at me, her true feelings laid bare now that my position was weakened, and she had protection.
I shook my head, not bothering to reach out to any of them. They were lost to me, and, in some ways, I couldn’t blame them. Perhaps Elka would be able to reach them in time. It was the only hope I had.
“I’m surprised you would not fight me yourself.” I made myself smile at Teeter, let my anger rise through me. The shard whispered through, but I pushed that power down. This had to be on my own abilities. If there was even a hint of magic or a weapon in sight, the match would be forfeit.
“I’d love to.” Teeter smiled back. “But there are others better suited to the ring and the sheer brutality required. I won’t risk losing the future we’ve longed for over pride.”
I had to work to hide my frown, because I knew that Teeter was an excellent fighter. He’d been a soldier a long time and had nearly risen to the rank of General.
Nearly.
His violent tendencies got in the way of that last step, and he’d been let go from the ranks. So, what did that say about the wolf they did choose?
One last calm breath, and I stepped across the line into the ring. Thirty feet across sounded big, but it wasn’t a lot of room. And being thrown out of it didn’t stop the fight, it only restarted it back in the middle.
Now that I’d crossed to this side of the ring, I was committed, no matter who I faced.
A heavy footfall from the forest drew everyone’s eyes.
An energy that was dark and violent flowed ahead of my competitor and my heart…my heart nearly stopped when I saw his face rise above the others. Bright yellow eyes, tawny hair hanging around his head like a lion’s mane, his teeth were as stained as ever as he grinned across at me. Seven feet tall, and just about as wide, I knew I had the fight of my life on my hands in every sense of the word.
Cammon was the monster who’d challenged my father thirty years before. Only because of my father’s generosity and desire for change had the bastard been allowed to live after a brutal fight that had nearly seen my father maimed. It had been a shifting point in the way we ruled.
Not through violence but strength of heart and body.
But this Cammon had taken his loss to heart. This Cammon was even bigger, badder, and stronger than before. Almost unnaturally so. His arms were the size of fucking cannons, and he cracked his knuckles as he stepped into the ring.
“I’m going to enjoy killing Lycan’s little pity project.”
If there had been a moment where I thought I would tremble before him, it washed away in a wave of fury. I made myself smile at him, though I suspected it was more a baring of my teeth.
“And I am going to fix the one mistake my father ever made and bury your ass.”