Chapter 34
The moment that the curse on Thermia lifts feels as if spring is finally on its way.
Fox and I make our way back down from Silvia’s tower to find Jett and Connell waiting for us.
“Where are the wolves?” I ask, when I’ve finished hugging Jett.
Fox glances meaningfully toward the window, where we can still hear all the howling coming from the castle grounds below. “Oh, so those weren’t just any wolves then?”
Fox shakes his head, looking only slightly apologetic.
Jett explains that he and Runa arrived at the castle hours before we did, but they were immediately captured and thrown into Silvia’s tower.
Connell was still half frozen, and they had to wait for him to recover before they were able to work on escaping, by which point Fox and I had already been poisoned.
Fox had been held near the top of the tower, with Jett, Runa and Connell one floor below him.
The other wolves were on the very bottom floor, and too far away to reach mind-to-mind.
Once Connell got their cell open, he, Jett and Runa found Fox.
Then, the four of them were able to find and release the others.
“The five of us, actually,” Fox mutters, as Jett finishes his explanation. “We freed someone else from the tower too.”
I frown in confusion, but then I remember what Silvia said about our mother. My eyes widen. “Is she here?”
Fox nods. “She was with us up until we came to find you. Did anyone see where she went?”
Jett shakes his head. “No. I’d offer to help find her, but I need to go straight back to Vernallis.”
I raise my eyebrows. “Now?”
Jett nods, looking more serious than usual as he glances out the window at the horizon. “I think that earthquake was likely felt all over Ellender. Need to get back before Daemon and Alix think they have to launch the army.”
“True,” Fox agrees. “You should go.”
“Don’t forget to find Connell first,” I comment blandly.
Jett startles and looks over his shoulder toward the window where Connell had been sitting.
The chair is empty. “Fuck me,” he swears, looking serious.
“I knew he was being too quiet. Damnit, how did this become my problem? Honestly, I’m asking!
He should be Kastian and Odessa’s problem, or at the very least Daemon’s. Why am I in charge?”
I pat him sympathetically on the arm. “He did just free you all from the tower.”
“Once,” Jett hisses. “That was one useful thing. The rest of the time he lives to make my life harder.”
Fox crosses his arms over his chest and gives Jett an impassive look. “Let him go.”
“What?” Jett asks, distractedly.
“Let him go,” Fox repeats. “He’s not a normal prisoner.”
“That’s true,” I chime in. “Weren’t we only keeping him for observation to see if he was really mortal again? Well, I think we know the answer to that after he almost froze to death. So let him go and tell Daemon and Alix, or whomever, that he escaped. It’s not as if it’s a lie.”
Jett looks like he’s seriously considering it for a minute, then he lets out a harsh breath.
“I can’t. I’d better go track him down again or he really will freeze to death, and then I’ll head home.
” Jett walks halfway across the room, then turns back toward Fox and I.
“When should I tell everyone you’ll be back? ”
Fox and I glance at each other, and I shrug. “I need to go back to the camp and get Eugene.”
Fox nods. “I should go back too. At least for a few days.”
“Oh yeah, you’re the alpha,” Jett grins. “I’ll make sure all the soldiers know how we’re supposed to greet you now.”
He tips his head back and howls as he strides out into the hall. The sound echoes all the way down the corridor, and Fox stares after him in seething silence.
There’s nothing in the castle that interests either me or Fox, so we don’t linger long. I grab my satchel, and we make our way back down the winding white marble hallway.
I’m not sure whether I want to go searching for my mother or not. I haven’t had much luck with blood relatives so far, and I haven't decided what to do when Fox and I reach the gleaming entrance hall.
The choice is taken out of my hands however, because at the same moment as Fox and I step into the hall, the double doors open revealing the front steps of the palace and a tiny woman in a ragged gray dress with black hair so long that it trails down the steps behind her.
She’s panting as if she just sprinted a mile.
She stops in the doorway, her eyes wide as they land on me. She doesn’t seem to know what to do any more than I do.
Fox, looking uncomfortable, clears his throat. “You disappeared.”
Amora lets out a breath, looking grateful that he broke the silence. “I went to check on the queen.”
“The queen?” I ask, unable to contain my curiosity.
Amora nods, still breathing heavily. “Yes. I felt the curse break and I had to go check if she really thawed out after all these years.”
“Did she?” I ask, incredulous.
Amora shakes her head. “No. Well, maybe, I don’t know. She wasn’t there.”
“Does that mean that Thermia has no ruler now?” I ask, glancing over at Fox and frowning. “Unless…are you planning on taking over?”
Amora startles. “Me? No, absolutely not. I’m finished with castles for this lifetime.”
“So you’ll be leaving then? Where will you go?”
“I don’t know,” she says, looking a little lost. “At the moment, I’d just like to be anywhere but here.”
I press my lips together. I know that feeling all too well.
“You can travel with us,” I offer. “If you don’t want to be alone, that is.”
She smiles, and my intuition tells me that it’s genuine.
We decide to borrow—or rather, steal—horses from the Thermian stables so we won’t have to walk all the way back to the camp. Fox says that the wolves are already on their way back. “It’s a full moon. We usually run on full moons, anyway.”
“Do you have to go with them?” I ask.
He shakes his head. “I’ll run alongside your horse on the way back.”
And that’s exactly what he does, except that he can’t exactly run right next to me. The horses are understandably wary of an enormous white wolf, so Fox stays back out of their eyeline, leaving me and Amora to ride more or less alone.
“I don’t know what to say to you,” I say after over an hour of uncomfortable silence. “My experience with meeting long lost family members hasn’t gone well so far.”
Amora laughs. “I admit, I don’t know what to say to you either. I feel like I learned a lot about you today, mostly from your bond mate, but it’s strange to think that we’ve never actually spoken.”
“I’m sure it will get easier.” I grin a little nervously. “At least, I hope it will, assuming we see each other again under better circumstances.”
“I’d very much hope that we will.”
“You could always come back to Vernallis with us,” I blurt out.
“I know you said you were finished with castles, but it’s really more of a manor, and we do live with royals, but they’re nothing like Thorne or Silvia.
It’s somewhat chaotic at times, with so many people around, but perhaps you’d like that after being alone for so long? ”
She flashes a genuine grin. “That’s a very kind offer, and I think I may take you up on it.”
I blink in surprise. “Really?”
“Yes. I’d like to see Beatrix again, at the very least, but I don’t think I’ll join you straight away.”
“Oh, alright,” I respond, only the tiniest bit disappointed. “Then where do you plan to go?”
"I think I’d like to return to Solistine, first,” she says, eyes fixed on the horizon.
“I want to return to my home village again. It’s strange, I used to think it was the worst place on the continent, but now that I’ve seen so much more of the world, I think it might not have been such a bad place to live after all.
” Amora looks sideways at me, her dark eyes assessing. “You could come with me if you like?”
“To Solistine?”
She nods. “Have you ever been there?”
I shake my head. “No. I always wanted to. I always dreamed about seeing everything on the continent.”
“Then come,” she says simply. “It would be an adventure.”
I bite the inside of my cheek, and find myself glancing over my shoulder toward the enormous white wolf who is running along the edge of the forest, far enough away to avoid scaring the horses.
His fur gleams silver in the moonlight, and when I look over, he turns his head and meets my gaze across the wide, snowy field.
I'm not sure where things stand between us. I think we’re…something. Or, I think we could be something, but I need to know for sure.
“Can I think about it?” I ask Amora.
“Of course,” she says immediately. “Would a day be long enough? I’d like to leave soon, but I can wait…”
“A day is plenty,” I say, even as my stomach twists with anxiety. “A day should be more than enough time to decide what I want.”
She smiles in a way that sends warmth flooding through my chest. “Whatever you decide, you and I have many years to get to know each other, and I intend to do that."
We ride back into the wolf camp expecting to find it deserted. Instead, dozens of soldiers mill about, some pacing or sharpening weapons; some huddled in tight circles, speaking silently; and still others who seem to be packing up their tents to leave.
The moment that Fox—now back in his usual form—strides into camp every single head snaps up. All eyes track his every movement. No one speaks, but the air crackles with expectation.
All afternoon I watch Fox being swarmed and pulled every which way, by every wolf who needs direction or reassurance.
Three times I try to catch his eye across the crowd, and all three times someone steps between us with another urgent question.
My throat tightens. I need to ask him about Vernallis, about us, about everything—but his gaze is never able to meet mine for longer than a second.
That evening, I duck into the now familiar tent, Fox and I have shared for the last several weeks and find it empty.