Page 30 of Autumn Queens & Shadows

Thora was still looking at me as her court and Erik’s family began clearing the graveyard. Tilting her head to the side, she raised a brow and mouthed, Please die next.

Since you were so polite, I mouthed back.

She threw me a sardonic smile. Thank you.

My pleasure.

Isjordian funerals lasted too long for my liking. It was almost sunset when the last of Winter Court made their way back to their homes and left me an opportunity to have a lone moment with her. I was growing sick and tired watching her from afar.

Thora sat on her throne and alone in the massive room, one leg thrown over the other, her crown sitting high on her head and a glass of wine dangling between her fingers while she stared a hole up at the ceiling.

“What are you doing?”

The glass she held stopped dangling. “Ruling and stuff.” Glancing around in search of something, she innocently blinked at an uneasy guard who’d half hid under the shadow of a vase. “Off with his head?” She drank the rest of her liquor and threw the glass against a wall, letting the crystal shatter to tiny pieces.

The guard shot us both a nervous look and ducked further inside the shadows he was trying to hide in.

“No? Just his legs then?” she asked him, and he almost sunk inside his steel armour like a turtle.

“Kil and your sister are waiting for us, come down,” I said, reaching a hand up to her.

There was a brief pause of her gaze on my hand. “You missed that one,” she said, pointing to my ring finger that was clear of any tattoos. “Did they run out of ink in whatever hole you buried yourself for the past five years?”

“Yes.”

Her upper lip curled into a slight disdainful smile that was more scorn than anger. I realised that Thora Krigborn didn't have it in her to be angry—that she’d never really been angry with me either. She could be resentful or disappointed in you, never really angry. And somehow, that was worse than anger.

“Enough with that disappointed look.”

“To be disappointed I have to care, Malik. I’m all spent on that.” Her eyes darted towards the open window blowing flecks of snow and brisk wind, and then narrowed there for a moment before she almost ran towards it. “Did you see that?”

Nothing but snow, murky skies and a tall wall filled the window frame. “There wasn’t anything there,” I said, stretching in one of the many empty seats and plopping my feet on the one in front. “The closest breathing and feeling thing is about one hundred feet from us. Thin and short shadows. Light steps being dragged. Tired. Old. A maid.”

She shook her head, still hanging out of the widow. “I saw something.” Bracing a hand against the wall, she felt around it. “Can’t you hear that sound?”

Without even opening my senses, I could feel anxiety rise up her body and wrap like a noose around her neck.

Had she had much to drink?

“There,” she said, and then jumped out of the window, landing softly below and running towards the edge of the castle walls that had enshrouded the periphery of the castle grounds in a veil of post sunset darkness.

I faded right behind her as she tore through the snow covered ground towards…nothing.

Just before reaching the shadow cast by the castle walls, she spun round, searching the vast nothingness, her shoulders rising faster when she noticed the emptiness around us.

Worry crashed through me. “Thora.”

“No. No, I saw it and I heard it. This isn’t back then. I’m fine!” Swallowing, she repeated, “I said, I’m fine! Don’t look at me like that.”

There was no chance that I wouldn’t have caught a presence near us, I could feel every living and dead thing miles around the castle. Soldiers, maids, cooks, animals, birds. Even the dead buried as deep as the solid earth beneath our feet went. But I still asked, “What did you see?”

Reluctantly, she spoke, “I’m not sure. Looked like a black animal at first, but then it looked human. Long hair. Dark, like mine.” She put two fingers in her mouth and let out a sharp long whistle. Not even a few seconds later, a pack of dire wolves tore through the snow and made their way to her side. They sniffed the air, the ground, and even my hand when I reached to pet them. After whispering a string of fast orders in old Yslot, the wolves howled up at the darkening skies before obeying and heading to search through the rest of the open space.

“Just ask for my help, Thora.”

“I’d rather lock myself in a dungeon and claim insanity.”

“That sounds like the perfect holiday for you. And what’s wrong with being insane?”