by Kamryn Hart
I glanced over my shoulder after double-checking Garstraude was safe and secure. Everyone else was standing around idly near the front of the castle, waiting on Sorissa. She was on the lookout for Babaga. She had been for the last half hour. We couldn’t afford to wait much longer. We were already cutting it close, not figuring in the possibility of delays again. I knew saying goodbye was important to her. Babaga had been clear that we wouldn’t see her again after this. But none of us had seen her since getting up this morning.
Sorissa paced frantically, creating a prominent line in the grass. She was worrying her lower lip with her teeth. She was going to make it bleed.
“Should one of us stop her?” Rodrick asked.
But there was no need. Sorissa stopped on her own. Something caught her attention down the mountain and among the rubble. It was a hunched over figure with a cane hobbling toward us: Babaga. She hadn’t disappeared after all.
Sorissa ran down to meet her. She gingerly took the witch’s arm and assisted her in the ascent until we were all standing together in a cluster at the foot of the castle. The witch was more haggard than normal. She looked older. The intense training she put us through must have taken its toll on her as well. Surely even witches died at some point. Immortals didn’t exist in reality.
Who was I kidding? I couldn’t explain Babaga’s magic no matter how hard I tried. I was fed up with the whole thing.
“Todd,” Sorissa said with a frown.
“Sorry. Just thinking,” I murmured. I didn’t mean anything by it. I was simply contemplating mortality.
“You’ll have to settle for a hard truth, Todd,” Babaga said, wheezing. “You’ll never have all the answers to the world. And you’re right. I am getting old, but I still have much left to do.”
It was one thing to get used to my pack’s thoughts and feelings, it was another to get used to Babaga and her seemingly limitless power—like how she read my mind even though she wasn’t linked to me. I frowned, and the witch smirked.
“So, you’re all ready, then?” Babaga tapped one of the roader’s tires with her cane. “I’m proud of how far you’ve come. Each one of you. The future is in good hands.”
“Thanks, Babaga,” Sorissa said as she hugged the witch, the witch she considered her mother.
Babaga hugged her back with both arms, a real hug. That was new. She tried to avoid touching if she could. “This is the last time we’ll see each other, my sweet Sorissa.”
Sorissa’s hands and lips trembled. Tears gathered in the corners of her eyes. “Does it really have to be this way?”
“I’m afraid so.”
“I can’t do anything to change it?”
“Not even you, Moonlight Child.”
“Then thank you,” Sorissa whispered. “Thank you for everything.” She clasped Babaga’s hands in hers and sunk down to her knees, pressing her forehead against their hands as tears streamed down her cheeks. “I love you.”
“I love you too, my child. No more crying. There’s no need for tears. You’re ready now, to see the world like you’ve always dreamed. You have the pack you’ve always longed for. Write your own story. Right your legend.”
Sorissa looked up and squeezed Babaga’s wrinkled hands. “I’ll do it. With my pack.”
“Stay strong. Your hardships are only just beginning, but if you stick together, you’ll get through them all. You’ve decided to meddle in the affairs of kingdoms. Tonight, you face the Alpha Challenge and the King of Wolf Bridge. You’ve all created disruptions, and all eyes are on you. Potential targets, potential allies, trust each other before anyone else.” She chuckled. “I’d tell you to run and never return to Wolf Bridge to save yourselves the heartache of pursuing such a path, but I know that some of you just can’t help your meddling. I know that others have things they can’t leave behind.”
I would have gladly left with my pack, but I had nothing tying me down. And I didn’t have the justice-centered moral compass Sorissa had.
“Come now, Sorissa. Kneeling to an old withered woman like myself does not befit a princess.”
Sorissa pressed her lips against the back of the witch’s hands and then got to her feet. “I’ll never forget you, and I’ll think of you always.”
“As will I.”
Sorissa’s sadness put a weight on the silver strings connecting us. She needed us to hold her up, and we did. The threads didn’t break. Even though they were fragile and invisible, they were powered by a core that was, well, magical. One thread, multiple threads, loose or tight, it all depended on us.
“May good fortune be with you. All of you,” Babaga said.
“Thank you, Babaga. I have no idea how to repay you,” Caspian said, scratching the back of his head.
“You make Sorissa happy. That’s all I care about.”
I hated to rush things, but it was time to go. We were cutting it close already, and I would feel better with at least a small time buffer. I went to the roader, hopped into the driver’s seat, and squeezed the leather steering wheel in my hands, determined to get everything right this time. This time, we would be on time. I wouldn’t repeat the mistake we made when we had gone out to the Witch Woods to retrieve Sorissa a month ago. She suffered because of our unpreparedness. I wouldn’t allow that again.
A moment later, everyone else joined me. Caspian was at my right in the passenger seat. Rodrick was directly behind me. Sorissa was next to him in the middle. Aerre was on the right. The silvery strings connecting us were putting out sparks, sizzling hot like fire.
“Let’s beat the king,” Sorissa said.
“Let’s beat the king,” we repeated in a solemn vow.
I started the engine and got us moving down the road. But then, for the first time since getting so strong together, for the first time since Babaga’s training and getting to this point of feeling like we were possibly unbreakable, something snapped. Caspian faltered. This intricate web of strings that made our bond, twisting and binding layer upon layer, grew slack as if one thread were unraveling them all. All it needed was a good tug and everything we built would be for nothing. It was there and gone in an instant. I almost wondered if it had been my imagination.
The sticky residue from that flickering doubt stayed in the back of my mind as we pressed forward, though. Like a drop of oil floating in crystal-clear waters, we were tainted.
CHAPTER 28
RODRICK
“RODRICK, WAKE UP.”
Sorissa was calling me. If that wasn’t a good incentive to wake up, I didn’t know what was. And I wasn’t tired to begin with, but long drives would always put me to sleep. I figured it was better to conserve energy and get some rest than to sit there and do nothing when I wasn’t in charge of driving. Todd was still at the wheel. A quick glance out the window told me we were in Wolf Bridge, close to the castle. Tans, dark blues, orange-reds, standing buildings, and the citizens alive and well. It was a nice sight to see after spending so much time in a kingdom graveyard.
Wolf Bridge Castle was coming up fast. The top of its tower was cut off by the roof of the roader.
Sorissa placed her hand on my thigh. “Have a nice rest?” she asked.
“Sure,” I said. “We parking in the garage?”
“The guards at the east gate instructed Todd to drive up and park at the front of the castle,” Caspian replied. “King’s orders.”
“Can’t wait to see us, huh?” I sneered.
“Something like that,” Aerre said. He was staring out his window, insides wound up tight. I’d be the first to admit that I didn’t enjoy sharing his constant anxiety, but it was insightful. I kind of understood how he worked now—and why he was such a fucking mess.
I wondered if he had gotten any sleep. Unlike me, he looked ready to pass out. The dark circles under his eyes were out of place on the golden boy. Caspian was tense about something but otherwise fine. Sorissa was quiet and still. Todd was as exhausted as Aerre, but it was his own damn fault for insisting on driving the e
ntire way. He let out a relieved sigh when he parked the roader in front of the castle.
“Job well done, driver,” I said.
Todd just nodded his head. And I realized he hadn’t replaced his beanie. There was messy fire-red hair everywhere. Had he finally outgrown the thing? That will be a change, but a good one, I thought.
“Everybody out,” Caspian said, exiting the roader first. The rest of us stayed a moment longer, exchanging looks. None of us said it, but something was off.
Aerre got out next, but he didn’t go far. A couple of guards emerged from the castle, and Aerre had his sights set on one of them in particular. He was one of the soldiers we took with us when we went to get Sorissa back from the vampires, the same one Aerre had obsessively been giving the stink eye at the time. This was Koren. Aerre’s infatuation with him made sense now, after hearing what Sorissa said about this werewolf and Aerre’s sister. Seeing him brought out more of Aerre’s anxiety. Aside from that and his young age, Koren didn’t look particularly interesting. Light skin, hair black like raven feathers, dark eyes, a typical werewolf as far as his muscular physique was concerned.
That off feeling grew. Our bond was being strung tight. I could almost hear the threads snapping under the strain. Babaga was confident in us and our resonance when we left. I wondered how disappointed she’d be now. We spent half a day away from her and we were already breaking apart. Was nothing sacred? I knew the answer to that. Nothing was sacred as a mortal. We were imperfect at best. The fact that we could function on a fraction of the same wavelength was damn impressive. If we were forced into crisis mode, we’d jump back to our highest rate of synchronization. That was how we worked. When it came down to it, we had each other’s backs.
No need to worry, I thought.
It would have been great if we could all keep our shit together until after the Full Moon Banquet, though.
“We’re to escort you to the throne room,” the young guard informed.
“That is unnecessary, Koren,” Caspian replied.
“But if it’s all the same…”
“The king wants you to escort us.”
“Y-yes.”
“Lead the way, then.”
“Don’t touch my sword,” Sorissa warned the soldiers guarding the castle’s entrance. She folded her arms and her lower lip protruded from her top in an epic pout. She sure was protective of the damn thing.
We made our way through the familiar Wolf Bridge Castle. It was a mostly long and silent procession across dark-blue carpet as we made our way to the throne room. The warm tan foundation of the castle was kind of a welcome change from all of the cold lunalite in Howling Sky—not that the stuff wasn’t extraordinary, but there had just been so much of it with only rare purple velvets to break it up every now and then. It got tiring.
The silence among us persisted even after the doors to the throne room were opened wide to reveal the king waiting on his throne, his elbow resting on the throne’s silver arm, his head propped up by his hand, and his bloodshot eyes staring straight ahead. His silver crown was crooked and threatened to slide off his black curls. I had never seen the king sit any other way but straight as a fucking board. I hadn’t ever seen him alone either. He was always busy with someone in the throne room or taking care of business elsewhere. As far as I knew, he never spent a moment in silence waiting for anyone.
“Cutting it close,” the king drawled. Was he drunk? He always spoke crisply, with perfect enunciation, but his words were slurred. “I thought you might’ve run away, Phantom Prince. The full moon’s in a few hours.”
He didn’t change his position. There were dark circles under his eyes, and his face was gaunter than I remembered, lost in the forest of his beard. In fact, I remembered his face had been quite full before, proud and strong. Then there was the tone of his voice. It was the most jarring difference. It always had this sort of warmth and confidence to it. Charisma. That was it, the thing all great kings, or at least powerful kings, shared. His voice was nothing like that now. It was cold and dead. He hadn’t opened with the usual verbal pleasantries either. The fake pleasantries. The way he spoke to Caspian now reflected the way I figured he felt about him ever since stripping him of his title as a Prince of Wolf Bridge.
“Will you withdraw your challenge, Caspian?” the king asked.
We hadn’t even reached the head of the throne yet. Impatient much? I watched Caspian for cues on how we should greet the king when we reached him. Usually, we bowed, but maybe the situation had changed, because Caspian didn’t bow as the guards. My heart fluttered like a bird trapped in my chest. It was uncomfortable and made no sense—until I realized it wasn’t my heart at all. It was Caspian’s.
“I will not. We will proceed as planned,” Caspian said.
The king lifted the limp hand that was resting on his thigh to signal us away. “So be it.”
I fought back growling. I was annoyed with his posture, his mannerisms. He couldn’t be bothered to sit up straight when speaking to us for the last time? Caspian gave me this look, because of course he could feel my rage. Rarely had he looked at me like this. Moonlight was blazing in his eyes, reminding me of my position, reminding me of who made me. My alpha. I nearly buckled as this immense weight came toppling down on me and forced me to show my neck in submission.
“I’m not going to do anything,” I thought to reassure him. “I won’t jeopardize this.”
Caspian blinked, and the moonlight was gone. My tightened muscles relaxed, and I let out a silent breath through my nose. Where had he gotten more moonlight? Hadn’t he blown everything we had fighting Babaga? Ah, but I was forgetting about all of that damn lunalite in Howling Sky. So much of it everywhere up there. So. Fucking. Much.
“The Alpha Challenge will take place tonight during the Full Moon Banquet,” the king concluded. “Guards, make preparations.”
The guards all pressed their right hands to their hearts and gave flat-backed bows like they only had one joint to bend from.
The guards made a hasty exit, leaving us with the king. Was he going to dismiss us too or keep us here all day? He kept staring at Caspian as if he was trying to see something but just kept seeing right through him instead. My heart stuttered. Caspian’s heart stuttered.
Caspian cleared his throat, pressed his right hand to his heart and gave the same perfect bow. Sorissa folded her arms in defiance along with the rest of Phantom Fangs.
“I’ll see you tonight then, my king,” Caspian said. When he righted himself, he didn’t look at the king. He whipped around and turned his gaze to the doors and began walking, leading the way out without waiting for a dismissal. Without waiting for us.
This wasn’t good at all. The Phantom Prince was breaking.
CHAPTER 29
SORISSA
AERRE AND I WERE wandering through the castle, waiting. Caspian had said he needed to do something by himself, but we had our doubts about that. I could sense his presence somewhere inside of the castle if I tried hard enough, so that meant he wasn’t trying to hide whatever he was doing. We all knew something was wrong, though he wouldn’t open up and say it. I was hoping he’d come around on his own, but it wasn’t promising. The sun was already beginning to set. Aerre and I said we’d take care of this, so Rodrick and Todd were unpacking our things back at the lair, taking good care of Garstraude, preparing for tonight. Maybe Todd was coming up with new tech. Maybe Rodrick was sneaking in another nap. We were all trying to give Caspian space, but it was beginning to look like one of us was going to have to pull him by the skin of his teeth and set him straight.
I tapped my fingers against my folded arms as I leaned on a wall next to Aerre in one of the many castle halls. Exploring the Heart or the tower would have been a lot more interesting, but Caspian was somewhere in the main body of the castle. We were staying close.
A couple guards emerged from around a corner. One of them I recognized.
“Koren!” I shouted and waved.
“P
rincess,” he said with a nod of his head. “What can I do for you?” He gestured the other soldier to continue on his way.
“Anything interesting happen while we were gone?” I asked since we hadn’t gotten to talk earlier.
“Everything’s been fine, quiet since you left. The humans are fine, well fed and taken care of. New housing plans have been made and construction is going double-time. Orderly quiet everywhere you look, a typical day in Wolf Bridge.” He glanced at Aerre. “You should visit your family. It’s been a month. They’ll be happy to have you back.”
“I will,” Aerre said, “but right now… I’m waiting for someone.”
“Waiting for Caspian,” I thought.
Aerre gave a subtle nod of his head.
“Well, I’m not waiting anymore. I’m going to find him.”
I pushed off against the wall and Koren took a step back, head cocked. “I’ve got something I need to do,” I said, mirroring Caspian’s words.
“Until tonight then, Princess.” Koren bowed.
I touched his shoulder. There wasn’t a wrinkle on his crisp dark-blue uniform. “No need to bow to me.”
With that, I dashed down the hall and zeroed in on Caspian’s thread of our bond. I imagined tugging on that moonlight string. I even held out my hands and imagined holding on to it as I moved forward. I could feel it. It grew warm in my hands like iron being heated over a flame. I cut corners without stopping to think about it. As the thread became hotter, I knew I was getting closer.
I made it to a lonely hall that was familiar. It had the same ornate silver fixtures holding glowing lightbulbs and the same dark-blue carpets, but everything was subtly grander. There was one more swirl in the sweeping designs carved into the doors. When I had stayed in this castle, my room was located in this same hall. I hadn’t noticed that each door had its own unique symbol before, though. I couldn’t remember which door my room had been behind, so I didn’t know if it was the one the thread led me to or not. It wasn’t locked, so I let myself inside.