by Amy Cross
"It's me," Hastings said. "Listen, I can't quite believe I'm saying this, but... That thing you said would happen. You told me to call you if it did. Well... it just happened. I think we need to activate the Sangreth Protocol."
Epilogue 2
"This is your plan?" Duncan asks as we stand in a dark corridor, outside a pair of ornate doors. "Seriously, Jess?"
"Is it better than your plan?" I ask.
He pauses. "My plan involved a hot air balloon, a motorbike and lots of dynamite."
I smile. "My plan's better than your plan."
"Okay," he says, shrugging.
"One," I say.
"Two," he continues.
"Three!" I say, and we kick the door open. The two elderly people in the large double bed immediately sit bolt upright, startled looks on their faces as Duncan and I enter the room.
"Your Majesty," Duncan says to the lady. He turns to the man. "Your Royal Highness."
"What is the meaning of this?" the woman shouts out. "Call the guards!"
"The guards are asleep," Duncan says. "They'll wake up soon, but my friend and I needed an uninterrupted word with you first." Duncan and I go to either side of the bed. Duncan sits next to the woman. "I've come to tell you a secret. A deep, dark secret. Are you ready?"
The woman stares at him, her mouth hanging open. "Is it you?" she asks. "Merlin, is it -"
"Here's the secret," Duncan says, interrupting her. "You will never, ever, ever, ever send troops after the werewolves again. Nor will you allow any government to ever do so. And this commitment of yours will be passed down from one generation of the Royal Family to the next, forever. Do you understand?"
"I..." the woman says.
"Or," says Duncan, reaching into his pocket and pulling out a piece of paper, "this will make its way to every newspaper, every blog, every social media page, every everything." He throws the piece of paper onto the woman's lap.
The woman picks up the paper and looks at it. As she reads it, her face goes completely white.
"How... how... how..." she stutters.
"Never mind," Duncan says. "The point is, you don't want this particular piece of information to become public knowledge, now do you?"
The woman frowns, anger spreading across her face. "This is outrageous," she says.
"No," says Duncan. "What's outrageous is genocide. And extermination. And deciding to kill all the werewolves just because you want to reclaim the tiny little estate your family agreed to give us many centuries ago." A dark look comes across his eyes. "Do you want me to tell you how many people died this week? Do you want me to tell you the horrors that -"
"No!" the woman says, before pausing and regaining her composure. "No, that's quite alright. I'm sure we can manage to come to some sort of arrangement."
"Excellent," says Duncan. He turns to me. "Come on, Jess. We've got to get to India. Via the Himalayas, though. You might not believe this, but I need to go and check on some monks." We leave the room, turning as we reach the door. "Sorry to have bothered you, Your Majesties," Duncan says.
"Yeah," I add. "Sorry."
Duncan pulls the door shut, and we're once more alone in the dark corridor.
"That went well," I say. I think about it for a moment. "Did she call you Merlin?"
"Yeah," says Duncan, laughing and looking a little awkward. "Crazy old coot, eh?" He looks concerned.
"What's wrong?" I ask.
"Nothing," he says.
"Tell me!" I insist. "I know that look you get when something's wrong!"
"It's nothing," he mutters, although he's clearly distracted.
"What's wrong?" I ask. "Scared?"
"Me?" He looks momentarily offended. "Let me assure you, my dear Jess, I've never been scared of anything in my life. Well, maybe one thing. A piece of paper. But apart from that, nothing at all."
"What piece of paper?"
"Never mind," he replies with a scowl.
"Then what's bothering you?" I ask.
"Well..." He pauses. "Before we go to India, there's something I need to pick up."
"Cool," I say. "What?"
He seems reluctant to tell me. "It's... Well, it's complicated. I'm not entirely sure where it is."
"Right."
"Or what it looks like."
"Okay."
"Or who has it."
I stare at him.
"Or what it really does."
"What is it?" I ask.
He pauses. "It goes by many names," he says.
"Spit it out."
He turns to me. "Have you ever heard of Excalibur?"
Epilogue 3
Later, when Jess is asleep, I sit by the window, staring out at the street below. After a moment, I reach into my pocket and pull out the envelope containing Anna's letter. Turning it over, I run a fingertip against the edge. It has been so long, and I know I should have opened the letter a long, long time ago, but I'm not ready. Not yet. After a moment, I put the letter back in my pocket. There'll be time to read it in the future. First, I need to deal with Lumic, and Excalibur, and then I need to determine if the rumors about Sangreth are true. Lots of fights, lots of battles, lots of blood to be spilled.
I can't possibly read Anna's letter yet. I simply don't have the time.
Books in this series
1. Werewolves of Soho
2. Werewolves of the Other London
3. The Children of Black Annis
4. Destiny of the Last Wolf
5. Werewolves of Sangreth
6. The Immortal Wolf
7. Wolves of the Red Church (coming soon)