by Chloe Cole
“Murderer!” a man cried.
The boos and jeers continued and the shifters in the square began to push forward past the invisible barrier between them and their king.
It wasn’t until they’d almost reached him that the first of the arrows flew.
Chapter 17
“Get down!” Lucian growled.
Before I even had a chance to act, I was on my stomach in the dirt, Lucian and at least one other heavy male body on top of me. My sister was beside me, her pale face pressed to mine.
Screams broke through the sound of blood rushing in my ears, followed by shouts.
“Take cover!” Gatlin shouted above me.
Heart pounding, I wriggled furiously against the weight pressing me down and managed to get my arms and head free. People were shifting in droves, clothing shredding off their bodies as they stretched and morphed, dropping to all fours.
Snarls mixed with cries as mothers draped themselves over their children while the hailstorm of arrows continued, arcing high in the sky.
Frantically, I looked around and finally caught sight of a row of a dozen or more men lined up on the wall, each lining up their next volley of shots even as the massive gates against the walls behind us began to close.
“Loose!” the king cried, dispassionately. The nonchalant visage and sheen of control was gone, leaving behind the true face of evil. Dead eyes, ruthlessness etched in his very bones as he encouraged more violence.
More howls of agony echoed through the square as people dropped to their knees.
The hollow thunk of an arrow connecting with flesh sounded all too close by and I turned to see Viktor on his back beside me.
“No!” I wailed, breaking free of my protectors and crawling toward him. Theodora was already by his side, tears streaking down her lined face.
“Not today, you big lug,” she muttered, eyeing him as his eyes rolled back into his head. “Not after we’ve waited all this time.” The arrow was lodged close to his heart, but looked like a miss.
“Break it off, push through. We’ll stand before you to give you cover,” I said, pushing myself to my feet as my mind clicked into crisis mode.
Lucian was already standing in front of me, using his body like a wall.
“Incoming!” he called over his shoulder as another round of arrows came down.
We all braced ourselves and, when the arrows hit their marks, those nearest to me were unscathed, but the screams.
Those screams tore at my heart.
The only thing that kept me sane was that few of the hits were likely lethal shots with our ability to heal so quickly. If we got control of the situation and were able to remove the arrows—
“Poison!” a voice in the distance wailed. “The arrows have been dipped in poison!”
I turned and watched in horror as a young male shifter not more than eighteen writhed on the ground, foaming at the mouth.
My stomach clenched as I grabbed Connor by the arm and wheeled him around to face me.
“Drag Viktor someplace out of range so Theodora can tend to him and then start collecting the other wounded and do the same.”
I turned to my sister who was trembling from head to toe, her eyes glassy with shock.
“Iris?” I murmured before giving her cheek a sharp slap. “Iris?” I demanded.
She blinked twice and swallowed hard. “Yes. What can I do?”
“Go with Connor and assist Theodora.” I swung around. “The rest of you, come with me.”
I didn’t wait to see if they would follow. Powered by a cold fury, the likes of which I’d never felt, I stormed through the panicked crowd.
“Save us, Your Grace,” a passerby wailed, reaching for my shirt with one clawed hand.
“He’ll be the death of us all,” another cried.
I could hear the scuffle going on behind me as the crowd began to spar with the soldiers on the ground, but I kept my focus trained on the top of the wall.
“Lucian? How high can you jump?” I demanded, mentally calculating the feet between the top of the wall and the ground.
“Not that high,” he responded with a grim shake of his head.
“Then I need you to find me some brave birds of prey,” I said, wincing as the next volley flew.
Lucian peeled away from the group and threw himself headlong into the crowd as I prayed silently under my breath.
It was so much to ask. Too much, maybe. On the surface of it, I was exactly what Du Monde had said. A plain-faced farm girl with a tall tale. But I knew I could be a better leader to these people if given the chance. Now the only question was, would they trust me to do it?
“Your Grace,” Lucian called less than a minute later.
Three men and a female stood side by side, their heads lifted proudly.
“We are here to serve.”
I nearly wept with gratitude but I managed to keep it in as I stepped forward.
“Your courage will go down in history,” I said. “We outnumber them by many but in order to take control, we need to stop the archers. If you fly above and avoid the tip of their arrows, we can take them down, one by one. Are you with me?”
They all nodded, and a couple of them even smiled. “We are. Anything to take the bastard king down,” the female replied.
Michael began to sign quickly, and Gatlin translated. “We’ll distract them and draw fire as you come around from the back.”
My hands went slick at the thought but I couldn’t dissuade them. It was our best chance. The fact that it could cost one of them their lives…one of the men I loved, was the price I had to risk if I wanted to protect the masses.
But I wouldn’t let them take that risk alone.
“Loose!”
“Go!” I cried, spurred on by the latest flurry of arrows.
The bird shifters before me transformed quickly, their razor-sharp claws and massive wings breathtaking up close. They took flight in an unspoken vee formation as Gatlin, Michael and Lucian broke away from the crowd. I jogged behind them until we reached a clearing.
“There they are!” a low cry from above echoed down.
The men turned to face me, and Lucian shook his head. “No. Anaya, absolutely not.”
But his words were cut short when the arrows came again. The next few minutes went by in a blur as we dodged the projectiles raining down on us. One flew past me, burrowing into the ground just inches away, and Gatlin hollered my name.
Ground forces forged ahead, swinging swords from horseback, cutting through the people brave enough to take them on.
I risked a glance to the wall and saw the archers reloading, bird shifters nowhere in sight.
Had they changed their minds? Had second thoughts.
As the king’s men closed in from behind and the archers took aim, a sense of calm flowed through me. If this was it? If this was where it ended for me and mine, the fight would not end. We might not have succeeded but we raised enough hell that the revolution would continue long after we were dead. And for that, I had to be thankful.
Then, suddenly, a cry echoed through the square and I gasped.
Like winged specters, the bird shifters appeared, massive shadows, blotting out the sun behind the wall.
A second later, the first of the archers came toppling to the ground in a mass of twisted limbs and gore. Then another, and another. The screech of an eagle tore through the skies as two more archers plummeted to their deaths.
“Retreat!”
I wheeled around to see the king, surrounded by men with shields, trying to turn his horse around and canter back to the castle, but the crowd had him pinned in place.
“Let’s get this whoreson,” Lucian growled. The Saint John brothers, not joined by Connor, shifted as one, and their lope became a run as the crowd made a path for them.
The attack was swift and brutal. A mash of claws and teeth as they dragged the soldiers from their horses and eviscerated them. When at last, the king was the final man standing, he
began to beg.
“I can make you wealthy beyond your dreams,” he cried. “She’s nothing but a girl. They’ll overthrow her inside a fortnight and then what?”
But his cries turned to screams as the crowd converged, forcing Gatlin and his brothers out of the way and finishing the job they’d started.
I turned away, already drained and raw from the blood and the violence.
It was done. Over, for now at least.
I looked around frantically as I realized I hadn’t seen Iris or Theodora since I’d told them to hide.
I pushed through the throng of people, scanning the faces and surrounding area until one of the shifters who had been beside us on the march came close.
“They’re behind that shop,” she said, pointing toward a stone hut close to the wall.
I ran, heart hammering, hoping against hope that my friends and loved ones had survived this battle.
As I rounded the corner, I blanched to see Viktor’s massive feet and legs, still prone. The rest of him came into sight and I stopped short. He was sitting up. Pale and coughing, but alive. Theodora and my sister by his side.
“The fool,” Theodora said as she looked up and caught my eyes. “He used anahemora root to make his poison. As if I don’t carry toadstool powder and charcoal as a matter of course,” she sniffed.
She held Viktor’s hand as she gazed at him lovingly.
“This old bear thought he was going to back out on his promise of another thousand years together.”
Viktor managed a smile and leaned closer to his mate.
“But you weren’t having it, were you, love?”
I turned to Iris and waved for her to join me in giving the couple their privacy while Viktor’s body healed.
“Are you all right?” I asked, scanning her for injury.
She nodded and dragged me into a firm hug.
“Is it done then? Have we won?”
I opened my mouth to reply just as a scrap of parchment blew by on the whipping wind and a cold knot formed in my belly.
Pulse pounding, I pulled away and saw several more. Too many.
Iris followed me, calling my name as I rushed back to the square, shouldering past standers by. When I reached the center, I stopped short with a muffled cry.
The books laying on the ground before me were now nothing more than battered leather covers and binding. The pages were torn and tattered, scattered in bits all over the square.
And there it was.
Any proof that I had, protected for decades and now destroyed. The injuries, the loss of life, the whole uprising…All of this had been for naught.
I dropped to my knees and closed my eyes, feeling every bit the failure that I was.
“Stand up, sister,” Iris murmured in a low voice.
Dimly, I felt her hands on my arm, trying to drag me up.
“Damn it, get up!” she hissed.
It wasn’t until I opened my eyes to do her bidding that I realized the entire square was dead silent.
I looked around to find the entire crowd on its knees along with me, heads bowed.
“But the prophecy…” I whispered. “The proof.”
“You’re all the proof they need, sister,” she whispered.
I rose, emotion threatening to choke me, mind reeling as the silence was broken by a single voice chanting.
The chant rose up and I stared around in awe at my brethren.
"Long live the queen! Long live the queen!"
Chapter 18
The rest of the day went by in a haze.
Once the Saint John brothers rallied up a rag tag army to join them in clearing the castle of the last of the king’s men, those who agreed to swear fealty to me—which was all of them—were released with an escort and given lodging in the village until decisions could be made for the future.
The rest of the palace, including the maids and staff, had seemed overjoyed by the thought of a new regime, and had come to kneel before I’d even called upon them. Queen Gwynthryl herself, who had been found hiding in a chamber deep in the bowels of the castle, had been positively inconsolable, wracking sobs, making it hard to even understand her as she proclaimed her innocence. The shifters of Ironhaven, especially the parents of the daughters lost during the Great Sick, were bloodthirsty and would’ve seen her beheaded, but I couldn’t help but pity her.
For my entire life, I’d hated how females had been treated as chattel. Had she had a choice, would she have even mated with the king? We’d likely never know. My instinct was to treat her with mercy, but the Saint John brothers counseled me to withhold judgment until I had a chance to settle in and interview those around her.
In the end, we compromised and had her chained by an ankle and put in a small room in the servants’ quarters until we could determine whether she was complicit or had been another one of Sebastian Du Monde’s victims. The issue of the couples’ many grown sons scattered across the lands still needed to be dealt with, but that, too, was a task for another day.
What came next was surreal. A blessing was bestowed upon me by the kingdom’s elder, and an ill-fitting crown was placed upon my head followed by a rush of activity as Iris stepped into the role of lady of the manor. In short order, she had personal reminders of the previous family packed away and had secured a wing of rooms for us all to lay our heads.
By the time I settled in my chambers, it was well after midnight. I was wearier than I’d ever been and the crown felt far too heavy in so many ways…
Once I’d dressed for bed, I stared up at the ceiling as the enormity of what we’d achieved had finally begun to sink in. We’d overthrown the most powerful man in the land and now? I was queen.
Suddenly, despite my initially wanting some time alone to process all that had happened, I found all I really wanted was to be held by someone I loved and who loved me. It was all too much, lying here with all these thoughts and no one to talk about them with.
Silently, I reached for the lantern beside my bed and lit it before swinging my legs over the side of the bed and getting to my feet. A thick, velvet robe hung in the closet beside me and I took it, wrapping it around my naked body before carrying the candle with me into the hallway.
No matter which door I selected, I knew it would open and a man I loved would be on the other side, arms wide open. Was it Connor's easy laugh that I needed right now? The strong silence of Michael's reassuring presence? Lucian's commanding, gruff affection? Or Gatlin, who had slipped that purple sash around me what seemed like a thousand years ago?
Yes, that was it. Gatlin, the male that had been there from the start and had taken this entire journey with me. I wanted to rest my head on his shoulder, to tell him everything without having to say a word. I wanted to be with him and for him to be with me right now.
Lifting the lantern, I padded my way to the door that adjoined mine and knocked gently.
When the door swung open, my heart skipped a beat. His deep umber hair was tousled, one thick curl flopped over his eye. His chest was bare and looked almost like a Greek statue under the warm light of the lantern. Best of all, his eyes were warm and clear. He’d been awake as surely as I had.
"Come in, Your Grace," he murmured, stepping to the side and allowing me to sweep into his massive quarters.
The bed covers were still undisturbed as they had been when his room had been assigned and in the corner candles were lit, illuminating the lush, red comforter and gorgeous gold bed frame.
"What were you doing?" I asked and he took my lantern to set it on a nearby table.
He motioned to the stuffed red wingback chair in the corner of the room. "Reading. There are still many books here."
I nodded, making a mental note to make sure we collected all those at the Saint John estate as well. "Anything good?"
"Not particularly. At least, nothing as good as your favorite one from my library,” he added with a fleeting grin, reminding me of the book full of sexual imagery he’d caught me reading one night b
efore our world tipped on its axis. “But my mind was racing and I didn’t want to disturb you.” He took my hand and led me to the edge of the bed where I sat beside him.
“I understand,” I said with a low chuckle as my cheeks went warm. “But please, disturb me next time. I was tossing and turning myself.”
"It's been a long day," he soothed. "You have a lot on your mind, I'm sure."
“And you as well. It was an ugly, bloody battle.” At final count, we’d lost nineteen shifters who had been part of the revolution that we hadn’t been able to save with Theodora’s antidote in time or whose wounds had been so egregious, they were unable to heal, and easily five times that many of the king’s men. The loss of life weighed heavily on me, and I could tell Gatlin was struggling as well.
“We will make it right. All I keep telling myself is that the lives that will be saved by his execution and the improvements we will make to the quality of life here in Ironhaven will make it all worth it.”
“It will take time, Anaya. A new government will have to be created. Laws re-written. Decades of tyranny undone,” Gatlin said, lacing his fingers with mine. “It’s a daunting task, but as long as we’re all together, I know it’s one we can complete.”
He turned to face me, his deep blue eyes going almost navy in the dim light.
“But none of that can be done tonight,” he added softly. “So, what do you say we remind ourselves of one of the many reasons we fought so hard for this?”
The weight coiled in my chest seemed to unfurl at his words and a smile tugged at my lips. "How is it you always know what to say?"
“Because I know you, love. And you’re my destiny.”
I slid closer to brush my lips against his and feel the warm tension of his mouth. His kiss was tender but firm, and as his tongue swept out to greet me, I yielded to him, allowing him to drive inside my mouth and coax my tongue to meet his.
Together, we pushed and pulled, falling into a rhythm as his fingers released mine and slid into my hair. With a groan, he pulled me closer and then closer still, until we were plastered together. His fingers dropped to my neck, cupping my nape as we fell backward onto the bed. I moaned as he nipped my bottom lip, teasing me and tempting me all at once, but I needed so much more. I wanted him to strip me of my robe and expose my naked body. For him to drift between my thighs and tease me until I could take it no longer.