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Her eyes narrowed as best they could and her nose pinched in fury. ‘Archie, you would let this woman speak to your mama like this?’
Archie raised his chin. ‘Oui, Mama. C’est ma reine.’
‘This has been lovely,’ I said calmly. ‘Really it has, but I believe I have a date with the seat of power. Do excuse me.’
Rain smirked, triumph suddenly in his eyes, then laughed. ‘You do indeed, little girl. You do indeed. Run along.’ He thought my demise at the seat of power was a sure thing. I would delight in proving him wrong.
Just let me eat a little bit of his entrails, Esme begged plaintively.
No. He’s so full of shit he’d make us ill.
True. Maybe we won’t eat him – but could we just let him bleed onto the floor? she suggested.
We’re a guest here. Blood is difficult to get out of white marble. We must be considerate.
It is stupid to make a floor out of marble. She wasn’t wrong; she rarely was.
Let’s move. Time to fire things up.
Did you bring your family? Esme asked, looking around eagerly for some hidden fire elementals.
No. It’s a phrase that means ‘to get things going’. I simply mean it’s time for us to go to the seat of power.
Why didn’t you just say that? I got excited for some fire.
Don’t worry; one way or another things are about to get real exciting. In this particular instance, I was using her definition of exciting, which to me meant hair-raising terror.
In my head, Esme’s tail wagged enthusiastically. She really was crazy, but I loved her anyway.
Chapter 29
A gong sounded and the crowd spilled out onto the terrace to watch me set off for the seat of power. Like everyone else, my ‘suitors’ had to stay and wait for my safe return however long it took. I wished to hell that they could come with me, but for once tradition was biting me on the ass.
Andrew Kearns lightly touched my elbow and warned me quietly, ‘If you fail to return at daybreak, your death will be announced and any claim you have on the throne will be void.’ Wonderful: another reason not to fail. Next to Kearns, Harden gave me an encouraging nod.
Greg was here, surrounded by our enemies. If I didn’t come back from the seat of power, another wolf couldn’t claim my death as their own and instead Greg would inherit both the Home Counties and the Devon pack. If I didn’t survive, then he probably wouldn’t either because he’d be challenged immediately. There were so many challengers, they could just sit back and wait until he was exhausted from fighting then challenge him again. There were no rules about a certain number of fights within a certain number of hours; that was another thing I planned to change.
‘There,’ Kearns said calmly, pointing to the wooden shack in the distance. ‘That is the seat of power.’
‘It’s not much to look at,’ I complained.
He grimaced. ‘Sadly it has fallen into disrepair. It is too voracious for us to approach.’
No shit. And here was I, about to stroll right into it.
Luckily, I was a woman with a plan; unlike all the suckers that had gone before me, I could pipe. If the house was sentient and I could communicate with it, I’d have a chance, albeit a slim one, to plead my case. Probably.
‘Good luck, my Queen.’ Kearns’ tone seemed sincere with a hint of regret. He thought I was going to die, but he was a little sad about it. I could work with that.
Before I left, I turned to say goodbye to my suitors. ‘Be ready,’ I said to Archie. ‘If I don’t return, defend Greg.’
His blue eyes were sombre as he nodded. ‘I will, my Queen.’ There was true reverence in his tone and I tried not to let my surprise show on my face. Archie and I had come a long way, but maybe seeing Rain had served to underscore that I really wasn’t the cause of his father’s death. Lord Samuel’s letter to Archie had certainly helped smooth things between us, though I still had no idea what it had said. When Archie looked at me now, there wasn’t even a hint of animosity in his gaze. I realised that I trusted him, not just with my life but with Greg’s too.
I squeezed his arm. ‘Good man.’
I moved on to Liam and murmured the same instruction I’d given to Archie. Not to be outdone by his friend, Liam touched his hand to his heart and gave a low bow. ‘It will be done, my Queen,’ he vowed. ‘My life before Greg Manners’.’
‘Thank you.’ I turned to Greg. My heart was hammering but I couldn’t give him a moment longer than the others; I couldn’t show that my heart was already taken or Esme’s sneakery would be for naught. I couldn’t give him a passionate kiss goodbye. ‘Be ready at dawn,’ I murmured. ‘If I don’t come back, prepare to fight for your life. Fight, Greg, and then run to the Home Counties pack and build a position of strength from there.’
