60- Statue

[CW- Body horror in this chapter - not as gory as in previous chapters. Please look after yourself while reading.]A warm wind blew over the red sands as Yonus walked Peggy and North around. Through the mind link, Peggy could feel the warm sand between his paws, his ears flicking slightly as the sand in the air annoyed him. North was slowly settling in her arms, and she was rubbing gentle circles on his tummy, making him let out little burps and murmurs. After a moment, she picked him up and held him so his head was leaning against her shoulder, and she rubbed little circles into his back. She felt him get slightly heavier in her arms.“Are you doing ok now?” she murmured to him.“Mmm…” North mumbled against her shoulder. His little hands shifted into fists on her shoulder.“Good, then-”Yonus suddenly stopped, nearly sending Peggy forward. “Yonus, what-?”Turpentine filled her nose, and she looked back toward the statue. North tensed in her arms as they both saw the large, shambling

61- Timber!

[CW- Body horror, violence, and gore. Please look after yourself while reading.]CREAKThe statue tottered, leaning awkwardly back and forth. Then, seemingly in slow motion from Peggy’s point of view, the statue fell. The head tipped over the base, falling down into the dirt below. A scream went up from the crowd around them as dust and sand flew into the air, marring the opalescent statue with red and brown. A lycan man ran toward the statue, only to be pulled back by several people around him. The body of the statue started falling. To Peggy’s horror, it started falling toward the crowd of people.Shouts rose in a language she did not recognise.THUDBlood, viscera, bones cracking.Peggy’s heart thudded in her chest, and she held North tightly. People had been crushed under the statue.The rogue growled and lunged toward the people who were crushed under the statue. Peggy felt air leaving her lungs as she screamed at the people, even if it would be fruitless, some part of her wanted

62- Kurnich heard of it

[CW- This chapter contains violence, implied domestic abuse or sexual assault, and threat to life. Please take care of yourself while reading!]Thea had learned very quickly that there were two kinds of days in Kurnich’s castle.Days when he was occupied elsewhere, and days when he was not.Today was the latter.She moved along the corridor with her back pressed close to the wall, her arms full of folded linen, her ears flat against her head. She didn’t lift her gaze from the floor. None of them did anymore. Looking up was a risk. Looking up meant you might accidentally catch his eye. Catching his eye meant he’d remember you existed.It was better not to exist.From the east wing came the sound of something shattering. Thea froze. The linen trembled in her arms.Silence. Then a woman’s sob, which the walls quickly swallowed.Then silence again.Thea started walking.The castle had been bad before the queen left. Bad in the way that a tooth that needed pulling was bad. There was always

63- Getting the message across

Father Sace-Dote was in his office, as he usually was in the evenings, carefully relabelling a collection of small prayer vessels. He didn’t look up when Thea came in.“I don’t know anything,” he said pleasantly.“I know.” Thea shut the door behind her. “I just want to talk.”He glanced up at her over his spectacles. She watched him take in the expression on her face.“Ah,” he said. He set down the vessel he was holding. “Shut the inner door too, would you?”She did. He waited until she turned back to him before he spoke.“I am… aware that there has been some information,” he said carefully,

64- Escape route

“Right,” Eli said, spreading the map on the ground. “Now we need to move.”Nobody argued with that.The map was old and imperfect and had been folded and unfolded so many times that the creases had started to wear through. Eli pressed it flat with their palm and anchored the corners with a boot, a waterskin, and the hilt of Archer’s sword, which he’d surrendered without being asked. Peggy sat cross-legged on Yonus’s back. Ariadne had North in her arms and was standing slightly apart, bouncing him gently. Archer was looking at the map with the focused expression of a man trying very hard not to look like he didn’t understand the map.“We’re here,” Eli said, tapping a point in the south. “We need to get here.” They moved their finger a significant distance northwest. “Out of Lycan territory, out of range of Kurnich’s scouts, and preferably somewhere with a bed and a door that locks.”“Agreed on all counts,” Peggy said.“The problem is getting there.” Eli traced the route with one finger

65- I special

Nobody moved.The fire crackled. Ariadne was staring at her son. North looked back at her, serious and very still, the way he got when he’d made a decision and had committed to it entirely.“North,” Ariadne said. Her voice came out strange. Too careful. “What did you say?”“I special,” he said again. Clearer this time, if anything. Making sure she’d heard it properly.Ariadne’s gaze snapped to Peggy.Peggy did not look away. “You knew?” Ariadne whispered.“... Yeah,” Peggy replied.