The Wolf Queen's Stolen Throne

Chapter 1

SORROW

Your Alliance is nothing but a rusted nail in a decayed coffin; a feeble link to a ruined world.

The Gods, those old and new, delivered a message to the masses.

A message through their new vessel. A message through me.

I am the blaze, the cure, the resolution.

All shall bow to my might, or all shall smoulder in my pyre.

— PROCLAMATION OF THE EMPRESS ON HER ASCENSION TO THE ASMARAN THRONE

I’d hated the frigid corridors of Bronzehold as a child.

Now, a grown woman, I despised them. The way my hitched breaths misted in the pathetic shreds of moonlight.

How my boot steps echoed off the dull grey stones.

The fact that most of the fuckers here were desperate for the justice they’d been denied after I’d torn through Romero on an Asmaran beach.

Only a fool would leave the sanctuary of their rooms.

But, as the image of Matthias’s green eyes burned through my mind, I’d torn myself from the itchy sheets, desperate for a reprieve.

Pablo growled as we turned a corner. My fingers twisted into his coarse fur.

We’d been living within the unforgiving stone of my childhood home for three long days.

Sleep little more than a tattered memory.

Enfys’s rooms lay on this corridor, though as I peered through the gloom, no guards watched over their fledgling queen.

Strange.

My heartbeat scattered. I could enter those rooms. I knew I should talk to my sister. After all, she’d lost so much on that beach too. Her future as a Sister of Evella torn from her bloodied hands. Drufaera’s crown now lay upon her sun-blessed waves – Romero burnt to ashes by my flames.

The wolf halted, a low growl rumbling through him as a shadow shifted further along the dim corridor. My breath caught. At the scuff of a boot, the flash of a blade, my shoulders relaxed.

‘It’s a guard,’ I whispered, conscious of waking the sleeping courtiers, or worse, my eight-year-old brother, who’d start his incessant whining if I woke him. The guard leaned against the corner as I reached Enfys’s door.

I straightened, wiping my hands down my skirts as I stared at the wood. The wolf turned his amber eyes to meet mine, his ears twisting towards the door. My fingers brushed the handle. Blowing out a breath, I hesitated, my courage failing me.

‘She has so much to deal with,’ I said, turning away. The wolf snorted. ‘She… needs her rest.’

Ignoring how my heart twisted, I sped up. I’d head back and try and get some sleep after a quick stroll to the end of the corridor to watch the path of the crescent moon upon the—

Pablo halted, his hackles rising under my cold fingers.

I glared at him. ‘What are you—’

The wolf lunged as a blade skimmed past, barely missing my throat, sparks flaring from where it struck the stone. The guard — no, assassin –– crashed into two towering suits of armour, cursing as they collapsed upon him.

‘Shit,’ I hissed, diving inwards to grasp the silver threads of the gift Evella had blessed me with.

A sob rose through my throat as they shivered.

I’d been prepared on the beach, when I’d last fought, but now my would-be murderer had caught me by surprise.

I slammed my fist against my chest, issuing a stream of curses as the ribbons trembled, the darker, wilder purple streams rising and swamping the more subdued silver.

I didn’t need the violet ribbons, though. I’d spent eight years suppressing them after they’d swamped Mama’s body, watching, helpless as she’d attacked my little sister, before Glesni showed me how to embrace them. As my attacker still breathed, they held no value.

And if I didn’t find somewhere to hide, the only dead body would be mine.

The wolf dug his teeth into my skirts and I clung to his grey fur, my boots slipping as we tore from the assassin. I glanced back as steel clanged. The guard rolled onto all fours, eyes I couldn’t see but sensed boring into me.

‘I know what you are, traitor,’ he hissed as I dived back towards my sister’s rooms. ‘I saw what you did on that beach. I know you’re a—’

I lost the last of his tirade as my fingers found Enfys’s door handle.

Vyrus’s balls. My chest tightened as the guard screamed, sword raised as he flew towards me.

Cursing, I twisted the stiff metal, the wolf slamming into the wood as the guard roared.

I kicked the door, panic swelling as my magic slipped through my distracted grip.

I bashed my shoulder into the door before smashing my boot against it.

My assailant was so close I could almost see the whites of his eyes.

The door creaked, begrudgingly opening enough for Pablo to slip through.

Sucking in a breath, I forced myself into my sister’s chambers, slamming the door, practically melting against it as I twisted the lock.

My chest heaved as my back fell against the wood, and I scanned the dark rooms, the door shaking violently as the guard fought with the lock.

‘Enfys?’ My voice broke through the thick gloom, and Pab whined. A blade of worry stabbed into my chest. Where was Enfys? Had someone gotten to the queen?

‘Damn,’ I said, resisting the urge to slam my head into the door even as it rattled behind me. The queen. Why would the queen be in her old bedroom as the kingdom of Drufaera fell to her now, and not her father’s chambers?

The door stilled and I lay my ear against it, desperate for the tread of disappearing boots. Instead, the guard pressed his mouth to the door.

‘Think I’m alone, Deviant bitch?’ he snarled.

My weak eyes slid over to the now-rattling window as Pablo barked a warning to a shadow blocking the flickering moonlight.

I gripped my skirts. How many nights had these guards waited for their chance?

Had they followed us from Asmar, desperate for the moment they could seek revenge for killing their king?

I jolted as the door groaned. The hilt of a sword thudded against the lock, and I pushed away, gripping the wolf as I tried to make sense of my sister’s old rooms.

‘Tapestry,’ I ordered the wolf. I may not be able to see, but I knew this keep.

Knew the hidden corridors Matthias and I had spent countless hours exploring in our youth, openings hidden by artwork that lined the walls of this infernal building.

Pablo tugged me forward, my hip slamming into some lump of furniture.

The door shook with a promise of violence as I pushed an unseen tapestry to the side, cursing as I failed to find the tell-tale slip of a hidden escape.

I didn’t even need to ask Pablo to find the next. He gripped the fabric by my hip, and I stumbled, following him to the other side of the chamber. The coarse fabric of another tapestry bunched up in my hand, my heart lurching as a breeze whispered against my wrist. Freedom!

I fumbled for a lever near the floor, yanking hard and groaning as it refused to give.

The wolf grabbed hold alongside me. Glass smashed at the window.

My pulse pounded as a portion of the stone wall parted, exposing an escape.

We slipped in, sliding the door gently back into place as boots thudded across Enfys’s floor.

For the space of a few thundering heartbeats, I stared into the inky void. The damp walls narrowed against me, constricting my heaving breaths. The wolf licked my fingers and I clutched him. We took a step, the dark swallowing us greedily.

‘Asher,’ I whispered, the wolf pushing against me. ‘We need to find Asher.’

I glanced up as we hurried forward, tears prickling my eyes, cursing Evella. The corridor shrunk, and Pablo slipped ahead of me as we lost space. What was the point of praying to a Goddess of protection anyway? Where had she been each and every time the world conspired against me?

I tugged again on the silver threads within me, loosening a breath as they untangled themselves tentatively.

The purple swarmed my chest, eager to consume another body, but I tamped them down.

I was safe within the unused tunnels of the keep.

All I had to do was find Asher, find my captain.

But as my fingers trailed the damp walls, locating a crossroads I couldn’t recall, my heart stuttered.

‘Which…’ Pablo bumped my hip with his heavy snout. ‘Which way, Pab?’

His breath on my hand told me he’d turned.

Pablo had never learnt these hidden routes.

As a child, I’d always had Matthias with me, a torch or fluttering candle lighting our steps as we hid from the courtiers who held no love for us.

Now… well, I had my wolf and his keen sense of smell.

Bronzehold was a massive blot on the landscape, a sprawling mass of stone and power.

But if anyone could find a single captain within these walls, it was the wolf.

‘Can you—’

I halted, my pulse shattering as I peered over my shoulder. Despite the chill, a bead of sweat trailed down my back. The softest brush of leather boots stilled my breath. I’d taken myself into the heart of Bronzehold, where I should have been safe, not a soul knowing where I’d gone.

But we’d been followed.

Pablo nipped my fingers sharply, shocking me back into myself. Once more I grappled with the silver threads and this time, as I stumbled through corridors of ink, they finally obeyed.

I exhaled as the mice of the keep answered my call, thousands of beady rodent eyes turning towards the hidden corridors. Even the cats who hissed in my presence crept to come to my aid.

Pablo increased his pace. An amber glow of flames spread like a plague across the walls behind me, gaining with each harried step.

I could only hear one set of footsteps on the hunt, but the eyes of at least two assassins sought me.

I gripped my skirts, throwing the questions of the other man’s location to the back of my mind.

My elbow caught against the stone and I hissed, pressing forward and praying my assailant carried a torch. That it wasn’t the fire Anomaly my gut told me he was.

A satisfied huff bounced off the walls and boots thundered closer. I almost fell over the wolf as we ran through the belly of the keep. With each heartbeat, my silver threads called to the beasts scurrying towards me.

‘Keep running, you blind witch. You won’t see daylight again.

’ The vitriol in his voice split my lungs and I gasped in air.

‘I spent my life by King Romero’s side. Was there when he found Mercy and you…

the bloody bastard. Begged him to drown you, but damn Evella, the man was too good, too noble to listen. ’

Crying out, I stumbled over the wolf’s tail, slamming awkwardly into the stone. Pab grasped my collar. Digging my trembling fingers into his pelt, I stood as the first few rodents spilled into the corridor. But they weren’t enough.

Not yet.

I swore as the boots thundered closer, and then I ran, throwing out my threads, desperate for any creatures.

‘And I watched you turn his daughter against him. Watched you kill him on that beach, Deviant.’ He spat the word as spiders, moths, the flies emerged through the gaps in the dripping stone walls.

Up ahead, the barest pale glow danced. At this time of night, there would only be one place lit up like that. The main hall, where there would be other guards. Salvation!

‘Years ago, after your accident, I caught him sneaking around here like a dirty thief, defying Romero after all he’d done for him.

You should have heard that rebel scum husband of yours cry out…

’ Tears streamed down my face as I heard the mewling of cats and I sent a message to ignore the rodents they usually hunted.

‘I beat him shitless again and again in these tunnels when he tried to get to you, the little fucker.’

I fought the urge to turn there and then, anger searing through me at the thought he’d been the one to punish Matthias for trying to see me after the accident. For being the reason I’d believed the one I loved had abandoned me.

The light grew. A few more steps and I’d—

My chest heaved as the creatures swarmed the corridor, my shoulders finally relaxing as I reached the main hall, and turning, I saw the hazy form of the assassin burst from the dark.

The creatures streaked forward, smothering my assailant, and his screams broke through the silence of the night.

The man – there was no way to make out his features – fell to the ground, his torch scattering embers into the empty hall, writhing as the mice and rats tore open his neck and devoured him.

Pab snapped his jaws at them. I tugged him back.

‘They’re helping us, mutt,’ I said, my brows furrowing as he flinched, tugging me away. I turned, gasping, as a blaze struck my skirts.

And the whole world exploded with flames.