Page 129 of The Wolf Queen’s Curse

I wrap my hands around the crown and lift my chin, just a bit. Strong, but not defiant. “Thank you. That’s what we all want. Peace. A chance for the Packs to rebuild and return to…” I swallow my distaste. “Keeping the vermin at bay for other supernaturals.”

“That really is best for all. Of course, there’s still the matter of the debt.”

My throat goes dry. At Trevelyan, she’d demanded Bishop’s death. Surely she won’t now that she sees how “useful” he can be. But what if she demands Julius’s? Or some other wolf’s?

“Back at Trevelyan,” she says, “you made me an offer, Cordelia.”

My stomach freezes.

No.

Gods, no.

She continues, “You offered to go with me if I’d leave the Pack alone. I presume that still stands?”

My heart stops. I can’t breathe, and I want to claw at my throat, as if she’s cast the suffocation spell. Panic rocks through me, every fiber screaming no, that I will not do this, cannot do this.

I won’t leave Bishop. I won’t leave the Pack. I won’t leave my new life, this precious gift the gods have given me after ripping away everything else.

I have found a place, and all I want is to stay and make it truly mine.

But even as the panic howls inside me, a voice whispers, “Would you rather he died?”

Because death is the alternative. Even if I could protect Bishop, other werewolves will die. I see Claude, clutching my hand, begging me to watch out for Felix. I see Jacques and Miles and Charlie and all the others who’d been killed at Trevelyan, and I know there will be more. Even if the Pack somehow survives Beryl’s next attack, there will be deaths, and they will be my fault, because I could have stopped it.

All I need to do is rip out my heart and my dreams and my hopes for the future. Throw them into this forest and go to a life I don’t want, with a woman I despise.

“Cordelia?” Beryl sounds strained, as if she’s trying to be kind with a voice that doesn’t know how. She moves toward me. “You’ve developed feelings for him. I can see that. He’s handsome and he’s clever and he’s exciting and I have no doubt he’s shown you the pleasures between a man and a woman. But there’s a reason why witches don’t marry. Even kind masters are still masters.”

I look away so she doesn’t see the spark of defiance. I understand what she’s saying, and I also understand that if I say Bishop is different, she’ll only hear a silly, lovesick girl.

“I’m offering you power,” she whispers. “Power beyond measure. I have no heir. I need you.”

That’s supposed to sway me, but it only makes my stomach tighten.

“The Levines have magic you can only imagine,” she says. “We can teach it to you. I saw that show of power back at Trevelyan. You have something incredible inside you. I would love to say that your werewolf blood is useless, but it has given you power, and we can help you harness that.”

And there it is. The one thing that might make me believe this isn’t the small death it seems. Not the promise that I’ll become her heir, but that I could learn how to use what I have. Harness my power, hone it, control it, and use it … to defend my Pack against Beryl herself.

Right now, the Pack is fighting blind, desperate for any scraps of information about the Levine Cabal. I could get inside it. Learn how we can protect ourselves against it and learn how to become the dark witch I need to be.

If this were truly a choice, I don’t think I could do it, even with the incentives. But it’s not a choice. For Bishop, for the Pack, for their new allies, I need to go with Beryl, and the only thing that will keep it from crushing my soul is knowing I can find a way to resolve this.

Resolve it and come back to him.

If me leaving Bishop—walking away without a word—isn’t the thing that breaks us.

I need to trust it won’t be. He will be hurt. He will be furious. But I must trust that we can get past it because he will understand, however much he hates it.

“Cordelia?” Beryl’s voice is sharper now, all her compassion already consumed by her few words of kindness earlier.

“What’s the trick?” I say.

“Trick?”

“You wouldn’t take me in exchange for peace the last time. Why would you do it now?”

“I explained—”