Hollis“Almost.” Standing in the training room in the castle, I adjust the shoulders of a teenage boy, training to become part of the military someday. “But you want them in line with your hips for the maximum draw distance. Try it now.”He relaxes his hold on the bowstring then pulls it back again.
Someone takes her hand. Goddess above, is that Nessa fucking Winters? I thought she died in a Dun’s Crossing prison—but even as I think that, I half remember Candace mentioning she escaped.I lower the telescope and look at Father. He stares out over the approaching army, his face lined and bleak. T
CandaceFreezing wind whips my hair into a cyclone around my head and stings my cheeks. Kieran desperately clings to his hat. Ingrid’s teeth chatter, and her face turns pink.“You have to love springtime,” Finn mutters under his breath.I stick my tongue out at him. Maybe it’s colder than any spring
Hollis and King Andri stand at the wall, islands of stillness in a sea of moving soldiers preparing to repel a siege. When Kieran slams the door shut behind us, they both turn. Hollis, with a breathless smile, touches the spot on his chest that mirrors where his mother’s necklace hangs on mine. A si
HollisJust after sunset, I drop into a thick, upholstered armchair in Father’s private sitting room as he finishes pouring two steaming mugs of mulled wine. The smells of clove and nutmeg make my mouth water.He joins me, offers me one mug, and takes the other armchair in front of the leaping fire.
“I can’t believe you just let them die.” I shake my head.“You will believe when you must make similar choices.” There’s no room for argument in his tone. “And you will, or you are not my son.”I look at the cranberry surface of my drink instead of him.“Even when you do not tempt plague, though, it
CandaceI sit in my bedroom in Kar Castle, staring at the metal-reinforced sheet of wood over my window. The bag I packed to move into town lays on its side at the foot of my bed, saliva drying on the handle, but I can’t imagine being frustrated with Kash right now. Holding the door like that… it pr
Eva, I write at the top of the page. Then, my quill stops. What can I say? The words to explain this have eluded me since I woke up next to Hollis that first morning.The attempt is what matters. I re-ink my quill and begin writing.I am sorry. If there were bigger, more powerful ways to say that, I
She groans. “I really think that might count as two parties.”With a laugh, I let them lead me out of my new bedroom in my new home and down to the temple to start the rest of my life. Ingrid, Estrella, and Raven leave to join the crowd, but Eva stays with me. According to Snowcrest tradition, she w
CandaceI drag a comb through my thin hair and stare at myself in the mirror on my vanity. More accurately, the new mirror on my new vanity. Hollis and I had to exchange one more goodbye because I had to return to Dun’s Crossing long enough to pack up my life. Some things weren’t worth the trouble o
I press my mouth to hers, mapping the curve of her smile with my tongue. She laughs up into me, breathless with relief. I trace the fullness of her cheek, the slope of her neck. She nips my lower lip. I climb into the bed with her, careful of her many injuries. Someday, we’ll talk about her mother,
Hollis‘Got some more over here,’ Zain calls through the mind-link.I drag the heavy cart across the red-mottled snow toward my Beta. My muscles burn with exertion, but I’m not stopping until this whole battlefield is clear. I won’t let a wolf suffer longer than they have to.Zain nudges ice off a h
“No!” Nessa shrieks. “I warned you about this, about her. She’s twisting your mind.”Eva laughs in her face. “She’s twisting things?”Nessa darts to Soren’s side and grabs his arm. “We can’t stop. Rowena said there would be hell to pay if—”Hollis gestures sharply with the arm I’m not holding onto.
CandaceMy heart hammers in my throat. Our weapons shine dully in the snow, Hollis’s sword dwarfing my dagger. Eva drags her gaze from them up to our clasped hands. My other arm throbs, a reminder that I don’t think I could fight her off if I wanted to.She adjusts her grasp on her knife to a stabbi
Eva scoffs and smashes the hilt of her knife into my fingers around her arm. “When have we ever had trouble talking to each other?”“Exactly.” My fingers throb as I wrap them around my sword. “That’s why it was so hard.”“Bullshit!” Her voice cracks. “Just tell me. Four little words. I found my mate
HollisAt the same moment as I reach the wide ring of defenders and ranged fighters encircling the heart of the battle, Candace limps to a stop at my side. Blood stains her gray coat in a dozen places, and my heart leaps into my throat. I meet her huge, dark eyes. She melts into a human before me. H
There. The break I need. ‘Gavin wouldn’t let you lead, would he?’The shield flickers for a moment, and I crash through it. Sweet air courses into my lungs. I can’t waste the moment, so I charge at her blindly.‘I kept him as my figurehead,’ she howls. ‘I did not need his permission to act. I needed