Page 204 of A Kingdom of Wild and Power
I think the truth is what will burn us.
Tabitha Wysteria
Mal landed back upon the bed, though this time she was alone.
She did not wait for Thanatos. His warning had been enough, and she had no intention of testing whether it was true. Sliding quickly from the bed, she snatched up her sword and hurried back out into the main room.
‘Oh, there ya are!’ Wren appeared at her side as if conjured from thin air. She now wore a long black robe thrown over her wolverian clothes, and a large blue feather had been tucked proudly into her hair.
Mal blinked at her. ‘What are you wearing?’
Wren shrugged. ‘They keep gifting me things. Though da feather I won playing cards.’ She narrowed her eyes and stuck her tongue out at a soul seated at one of the tables.
Mal caught her arm. ‘We need to leave. Now.’
Wren nodded, and before she could begin the flood of questions already forming on her lips, Mal spotted a door. She yanked it open and dragged Wren through.
Darkness swallowed them.
It lasted no more than a heartbeat before they plunged into a raging sea.
Mal managed to keep hold of Wren at first, but the furious waters had other plans. The waves tore them apart and dragged them beneath the surface.
For a moment Mal lost sight of her completely, until she glimpsed the flash of Wren’s silver-white hair cutting through the water as the wolverian swam towards the shore with surprising ease.
Mal struck out after her.
Both women collapsed onto the black sand moments later, gasping for breath. They rolled onto their sides, coughing violently and spitting seawater onto the shore.
Mal recognised this ring immediately.
The dark sand. The pale cliffs rising stark against the sky.
It looked almost exactly like the place where the keep stood; the lonely stretch of land where she had spent the last few months hidden away with Ash and her uncle Morthos.
Mal pushed herself to her feet and immediately turned to check on Wren. ‘You all right?’
Wren nodded, brushing wet strands of hair from her face before glancing around them. Her blue eyes widened with open wonder as she took in the strange shoreline.
‘Stay close,’ Mal warned, helping her properly onto her feet.
‘Where are ya going?’ Wren asked, frowning.
‘I’m curious about something.’ Mal gestured towards the white cliffs rising ahead of them. The last time she had come here she had not been able to explore, but now the need for answers gnawed at her. ‘Hurry. Before the king of this ring shows up.’
They set off at once, hurrying across the black sand untilthey found a narrow path carved into the cliffs. Mal kept her sword drawn, her brow furrowed with quiet tension.
It did not take long before the path revealed what she had hoped and feared to find.
A small wyverian keep lay nestled between the pale cliffs, just as it did in the mortal world.
They stepped inside the abandoned structure. The place was eerily familiar. The main hall opened through wide arches that looked out across the dark beach below, where the restless sea still churned and foamed against the shore.
Mal glanced towards the horizon, checking whether the king of Hell had appeared.
For now, the sea alone moved wild and endless.
She turned and hurried up the staircase, her steps quick and purposeful, until she reached the door to the room her mother had once occupied.
