Chapter Twenty-One: Pillak Towers

SIGRUN

Cold.

That was the first thing I became aware of.

It slipped beneath my collar and bit at my cheeks until consciousness clawed its way to the surface. I frowned and burrowed deeper into whatever warm thing I was leaning against.

The warm thing rumbled.

My eyes snapped open.

For one disorienting second I had no idea where I was. Then I felt the horse beneath me and the arms cocooning me, and memory came back all at once.

Oh God.

I had fallen asleep on him.

I sat up so abruptly the horse neighed in protest. Varul's hand settled immediately at my waist. "Careful."

The cold hit me properly then. I sucked in a sharp breath. My breath fogged in front of me.

The air felt sharper. Older.

Like it had been here long before people and intended to remain long after.

I looked up.

The trees had changed. Ancient things, their trunks black and thick as houses, draped in dark moss.

The road climbed steeply through rocky terrain veined with ice. And then the woods simply ended, and my breath caught, and I forgot entirely about being cold.

Several stone towers rose directly from the mountainside ahead of us.

Not built against it — from it, like the mountain had always had them and someone had simply cleared away the excess rock.

Dark stone.

Sharp angles.

Towering spires.

It looked less like a castle and more like something dragged from the pages of a gothic fairytale.

Black banners snapped in the wind.

Warm amber light bled from what looked like hundreds of windows against the darkening sky.

The artist inside me immediately lost her mind.

"Oh my God," I breathed in awe.

"Pillak Towers," Varul said behind me. I detected a note of pride in his tone. "Your new home."

*

From a distance, the fortress had looked impressive. Up close, it was overwhelming.

The mountain hadn't just been built on, it had been inhabited.I didn't have a frame of reference for. Walls that rose from sheer cliff faces. Bridges at heights that made my stomach drop.

I was still processing the architecture when we passed through the iron gates and the inner courtyard opened up, and I realized with some surprise that it was loud.

Not in a bad way. Just unexpectedly alive.

People were everywhere, moving with purpose: men carrying things, women directing other people carrying things, children running around, smoke from chimneys, noise, warmth spilling from open doorways.

I'd been in the castle in the South for exactly one day before leaving, and even in that short time, I'd registered how curated everything felt there. Formal. Staged for observation. Pretty much like The Royals.

But this felt like nobody had cleaned up before company arrived, and, shockingly, I meant that as a compliment.

The Alpha's return registered first. I could see it move through the courtyard like a ripple, heads turning, people straightening, a general shift in the atmosphere.

It took me a second to identify it as curiosity.

About me.

Specifically, intensely, openly about me.

A woman said something behind her hand to the person beside her without taking her eyes off my face.

Two men exchanged a look that I couldn't read but felt.

A group of younger women, a little farther away, stared with the unguarded frankness of proud gossips.

I had no context for any of it. I was shocked to admit that even the wedding ceremony had been shockingly tamer than this in terms of attention.

This was all fish-out-of-water territory for me.

I didn't know these people or their histories or what they'd heard about their Alpha's southern bride.

I had been in this world for three days. I didn't know the rules here.

So I focused on keeping my face pleasant and my chin level.

A stable boy nearly walked into a water trough staring at us. An older woman smacked the back of his head. He bowed so fast he nearly tipped forward.

The horse stopped.

Before I could work out the logistics of getting down without embarrassing myself, Varul's hands settled at my waist and lifted me down like I weighed nothing. My soft shoes hit the cobblestone.

One glorious second of thinking I'd managed it.

Then my legs remembered the many hours of horseback riding, and everything went sideways.

Varul's hand caught me before I finished falling.

I stood there accepting his steadying grip while my legs renegotiated their contract, acutely aware that a significant number of people were watching this introduction to the Alpha's new wife and that it was not going brilliantly so far.

Around us, the pack was dissolving — laughter breaking out, someone being tackled by a packmate. Even Darren seemed to look more relaxed than I'd seen him in days.

The rigid formation of the journey simply fell away from all of them.

I spotted Rita and Conny near a wagon of luggage, surrounded by Northern servants they'd never met. Conny was smiling too wide. Rita had the expression of a woman running threat assessments on everyone in her immediate vicinity.

"Welcome home, Alpha."

A woman came down the stone staircase at the main entrance. Late fifties, silver-haired, dressed in black, with the kind of straight-backed posture I'd always envied on models spanning the runway on Fashion Week.

She bowed to Varul, and although it was deep and respectful, it looked more like an acknowledgment between equals in different positions.

Varul tipped his head slightly. "Marta."

She straightened and turned her eyes on me, giving me a thorough once-over.

I found myself straightening up for her perusal.

She reminded me of Rita, matronly with a little spice of terrifying.

Then, as though she was satisfied with the results of her analysis, her lips pulled back in a warm smile, and I let out a breath I wasn't aware I'd been holding.

"My Lady." She bowed. "I am Marta. Head of the servants at Pillak Towers. We are pleased to have you join us. We hope you will find your stay here quite enjoyable."

I cleared my throat and gave her a smile back. "Thanks. I hope so, too."

She nodded, pleased with my response. "Rooms are prepared. Baths are drawn. Supper is underway and will be ready within the hour. Welcome home, my Lady."

She turned and issued three sentences, and our audience scattered in six directions.

I looked back at the towers.

Three days ago, I was just a young woman trying to get by in New York. Now I was standing in a mountain fortress in a world I'd stumbled into by accident, with a husband who was something of a king, surrounded by people who were trying to work out what to make of me.

I was trying to work out the same thing, honestly.

Varul's hand settled at the small of my back.

I drew a breath.

Stepped forward.

The great doors of Pillak Towers opened, and I walked inside.