Page 56 of Renegade Kingdom
Damon was quiet for a long moment. The trees were getting closer now, a darkness lingered just beyond them that felt unnatural and yet there wasn’t a single part of me that wanted to turn back.
“She can fix it,” he said finally. “Alyssa. I believe that. I felt what she did to me on the ship, felt the nightmare recoil from her power. If anyone can tear this thing out of me, it’s her.”
“And if she can’t?”
“Then we try the bite.” He met my eyes, and there was a calm certainty there that I envied. “But I want to give her the chance first. She’s earned that.”
I wanted to argue. Wanted to insist that we do it now, tonight, before anything else could go wrong. The wolf was howling in agreement, pushing at my control, demanding that I step up and make the hard decision because that was what alphas did.
But I looked at my brother’s face, at the peace in his eyes, and I couldn’t do it. I couldn’t take away his choice just because I was scared.
“Fine,” I said. “But if anything changes, if that thing starts fighting for control again...”
“You’ll be the first to know.” Damon smiled, and it was almost his real smile. Almost. “Well, second. After it happens. But definitely in the top three.”
“You’re an ass.”
“I learned from the best.”
We walked in silence after that, but it was a comfortable silence. The kind we used to share on long missions, when words weren’t necessary and just being near each other was enough.
As we approached the edge of the forest, Damon slowed.
The Wildling Forest rose before us like a wall of darkness. The trees here were older than anything I’d ever seen, their trunks so thick that five men couldn’t have circled them with linked arms. The canopy above was so dense that it seemed to swallow the light entirely, leaving only shadows and the suggestion of something moving between the branches.
“Do you really think this can work?” Damon asked, his eyes fixed on the darkness between the trees. “Walking into that, finding some mythical court that most people don’t even believe exists, convincing a goddess to help us defeat her own son?”
I followed his gaze to where Alyssa was walking at the front of the group, Tank at her side, her golden hair catching the last of the fading sunlight. She was organizing the group to make camp for the night, pointing out locations, giving quiet orders that everyone rushed to follow.
“If you knew her,” I said, “you’d know never to even ask that question.”
Damon was quiet for a moment, watching her. Watching the way she moved, the way people responded to her, the way the very air around her seemed to shimmer with barely contained power.
“Tell me about her,” he said. “Not the queen. Not the magical chosen one. The person.”
I considered the question as Fizzle flew overhead, circling once before landing on a low branch near where Alyssa stood. The owl griffin was speaking to her, his voice too low to hear, but whatever he said made her nod and turn to address the group.
“She’s stubborn,” I said finally. “Impossibly, infuriatingly stubborn. Once she decides something is the right thing to do, nothing in any realm will stop her from doing it. She’ll walk through fire, face down armies, sacrifice everything, and never once stop to consider that she might not survive. She’ll put itall on the line, and not just for the people she loves, she’ll do it just because it’s the right thing to do. Without a second thought, without any doubt or reservations. The most incredible thing that could ever happen to you is to be loved by that woman right there.”
Fizzle’s voice carried across the clearing now, explaining that staying on the border of the forest was safe for the night. The only thing they needed to worry about were soldiers finding them. It was safer to wait until morning to venture into the forest proper, he said. That way, they’d have more daylight hours before they had to deal with what came out in the darkness.
“She’s also kind,” I continued. “Kinder than anyone has a right to be after everything she’s been through. She sees people. Really sees them. Not what they can do for her or how they fit into her plans, but who they actually are. And she makes you feel like who you actually are is enough.”
Damon was watching me now, not Alyssa. There was something in his expression that I couldn’t quite read.
“You love her.”
It wasn’t a question.
“More than I’ve ever loved anything,” I admitted. “More than I thought I was capable of loving. She broke something open inside me that I’d kept locked away for years, and I still don’t entirely understand how she did it.”
“And she loves you back?”
“She loves all of us. Equally. Completely.” I met my brother’s eyes. “She’s going to love you too, when you’re free of that thing. You’re meant to be one of us. We’ve all felt it. There’s no doubt in my mind that it’s going to happen. She won’t allow it to go any other way. That worm is on limited time and I think it knows it.”
Damon didn’t respond, but I saw something shift in his face. Something like hope, fragile and painful in its intensity.
We made camp as the last of the light faded. Tents were set up in a rough circle, supplies organized, a fire built in the center that cast dancing shadows across the surrounding trees. Ezra’s men moved with military efficiency, their training evident in every action, and I forced myself to stop looking for threats in their every movement.
