The Wilds (Reign and Ruin 1)

by Jules Hedger

  "Maggie, you can't go home," Lucan said, rising up beside me and standing beside Cassandra.

  "What, you don't know how?" I asked. Lucan winced and shifted awkwardly. Suddenly, I had a horrible feeling that there was something else they weren't telling me. "Tell me. You don't know how to get me home, do you?"

  Cassandra drew me aside, giving Lucan a look that said to stay back, and put her arm around my shoulders. I desperately wanted to break away but couldn't move for the sudden panic that danced around my brain.

  "You signed a contract, Maggie," she said smoothly. "And you lost."

  The cogs in my mind chugged away slowly through the thick mud of comprehension. I looked behind at Lucan, who was biting his bottom lip and seemed miserable. I didn't get it.

  And then suddenly I did. I got it and held it and tried to toss it away but the searing heat grafted it to my palm and I was left reeling.

  The connection wasn't severed. The Walk wasn't over. I had forgotten my bit and I hadn't held up my part of the bargain.

  Lucan saw my face change and grabbed me away from Cassandra. But I couldn't face him. Oh God, I couldn't look at his pitying face for one more second . . .

  I pushed away from them and ran a few steps into the woods. Putting my hands in front of my eyes, I breathed one two, one two, one two and waited. Then opened my eyes.

  Still here.

  "We're not giving you up, Maggie," Lucan said, coming up behind me. "We are going to bring Cirrus down from the throne and place you where you rightfully belong."

  "I rightfully belong in a place where I can get drunk and cry into a Rainbow Bright pillowcase without actually feeling like the world is going to end," I breathed. Lucan took my face and forced me to stare tearfully into his eyes.

  "You're one of us now, whether you like it or not. You're a Rider. The Rider. The Daughter of Palet. The people will follow you."

  "I had my chance, Lucan. I played along!" His hands moved down my neck to my shoulders as I shook my head. "And that was it. Accept it."

  "I will not!" Lucan said fiercely. His eyes burned with passion and momentarily ignited a flash of something resilient in me. "You will become Queen, and not by the side of a tyrant."

  He swooped down quickly and pressed his mouth against mine. A quick kiss, a promise and a pledge. "The revolution has already begun. And you can fight with us."

  Great. Oh, what a peach.

  Cirrus would be looking for me. That was sure.

  And somewhere in New York, once the time caught up, my uncle would be carted off to the morgue. I was not going home.

  Chapter 26

  As the ash floated in the air like pieces of soft snow and the initial cloud of the explosion dispersed, the black cars of the Council came snaking over the hill and down the drive to the wreckage of the blast. They had followed a line of smoke that could be seen all the way from the center of Grekegoria. Against the morning light it was a beacon, the only thing differentiating the sound of fire and destruction from any other recreational activity happening in the city.

  The King walked out of his front door, blinking against the sunlight that at one time could leech away even the smallest reserve of spirit. But not today – today the sun caressed his skin like a lover, wrapping around his elbows and behind his ears. The air was cold and crisp and tinged with something chemical, as if burning the house down had purged away all the taint of nightmares. It was a step out of the darkness, quite literally, for the man who could once mold it with his hands.

  He turned around to survey the destruction. The Riders had done a fine job of igniting the house and bringing down all but some of the solid outside structure of brick and beams. The inside was absolutely gutted. Behind him, people fanned out across the yard, picking their way around fallen bits of debris.

  "Cirrus! You're . . . you're alive!" a voice sputtered from beside him. He turned around to notice the Council Man gripping his briefcase. Cirrus sighed tiredly and looked around the lawn.

  "If you are here . . . does that mean . . . ?" the Council Man began to whisper. Cirrus opened his palm to display the broken chain and gleaming dreamcatcher, now cold and lifeless as a piece of tin. The Council Man let out an awed sigh and clutched his hands to his chest. "Congratulations, Your Majesty. You have won."

  "Obviously," Cirrus replied and allowed the dreamcatcher to fall back into his pocket. Maggie was nowhere to be seen. His queen had disappeared.

  "This will get cleaned up," the Council Man was saying hurriedly. "And rebuilt –"

  "No matter," Cirrus interrupted. "This place as I knew it is done with. I need to find Maggie."

  "Maggie?" Cirrus started to walk down the steps, his tattered coat fluttering behind him, and the Council Man ran to catch up. "She was taken, Sir. With the Riders." The authorities parted like the Red Sea as Cirrus strode across the ground.

  Cirrus paused before opening the door to a vehicle. He had won. His eyes closed and he breathed in the smell of victory and burning and expectation.

  "Sir, the Riders will come back," the Council Man was saying. "They are traditionalist and extremists." He looked around them nervously. "There are whispers of a resistance even amongst the civilians."

  "Yes, Maggie will come back," Cirrus murmured. "She has to." He looked beyond the trees and over the fields of the estates. He surveyed his new kingdom and touched a finger lightly to his lips where the faint taste of her skin still lingered. "Where are you, my queen, my savior? You promised your heart. You promised . . ."

  ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

  Thank you to the most supportive but grammar-stringent husband in the world, and not only because you're obligated to like it. Look out for all the rogue commas. Those are for you.

  To the gorgeous Silvia Paoletta, who was my Beta reader when I didn't even know what that was. Your support has meant the world.

  Of course, to Najla Qamber, Lindee Robinson and Carly Schneider for visualizing Maggie and the world around her so perfectly.

  And finally, to any reader who got to the end of the book. The Walk isn't over. Thank you for everything . . .

  Return to Palet in the next Novel of Reign and Ruin

  coming in early 2015!

  In the meantime, discover how the circle closed around Maggie in those final hours before swallowing the marble and step into the shoes of Cirrus, Lucan and Marty.

  THE CALM BEFORE

  (A Reign and Ruin novella)

  Available in November 2014.