Page 140 of Ravenous

At the door, he hesitated, confused and furious all over again—at himself more than anything. They never fought. He let her see his bewilderment.

“Go,” she repeated, pointing. “Take more than a minute.”

He stepped out into the storm and paced along the deserted ravine, letting the freezing wind scour his thoughts. One question beat like a fist against his skull:Why did I fight with her?This was the last thing she needed!

Maybe Arctos was right, and the pregnancy had strained Torben more than he’d known. His face flushed at his thoughts. More than poor Dagny who carried the babe?

He was turning back when another question struck him—

Where is Yrsa going?

Her cloaked figure hurried toward a twisting ravine, alone, her guards nowhere in sight.

If she wanted privacy, she could retire to her chambers, the choicest of all the dens in Ravinelun. Why sneak out into the maze of canyons?

Anger leaned into vigilance. He followed.

He thought about asking Arctos to back him up, but his cousin would just try to talk him out of spying on the queen.No help there.

Wherever Yrsa was heading, she wanted no one around. The deeper Torben tracked her, the more his suspicion burned. Nothing about her made sense anymore.

She must be deliberately undermining her people. But for what reason? If he could figure this mystery out, he could convince Arctos to act. Together, they could defeat even the first channeler.

But his private investigation into the queen had uncovered one contradiction after another. He’d even contacted Inkletter’s new partner—the vampire Nadje—in secret, asking her to look into the castle’s blood “donors.” This was a perilous step; should Yrsa discover his meddling, he’d pay with his life.

Yet with his child almost here, he couldn’t ignore his instincts any longer. What kind of future would he provide his family if he failed to act?

Miles passed beneath his feet. Ravines branched endlessly. He kept her trail—then lost it. Tracks vanished under windblown powder.

Damn it.

He chose a ravine, raced through, doubled back, checked all offshoots. Nothing. Sweat dripped despite the cold.

This far out, the weather began to clear, snow clouds giving way to the moon. Shafts of light beamed over the ravines, illuminating their striations like a kaleidoscope.

Some impulse told him to turn back—might Dagny need him?—but the odds of her going into labor on the one occasion he spent an hour away were slim. And just as pressing was the feeling that he was about to catch out his queen and uncover the secret to this mystery once and for all.

Years had gone by as he’d held reservations; months had gone by since he’d become convinced she was compromised.

He turned left into another ravine. This one ended in a sheltered spot with an overhang, a place for illicit affairs.

Footprints. One set? Was a Berserker lover followingbehindTorben, hurrying to meet the queen?

Raised voices drifted from deeper inside. Yrsa must be quarreling with someone! Torben caught the namesNeculainandEmilia.

Sword in hand, he charged into the grotto. Moonlight struck the scene:

Yrsa. Alone. Vampire bitten. Incense lingered in the air.

“Torben, thank the gods!” She’d backed against the stone wall, trembling. “I’ve been attacked!”

Torben scanned the area. “My queen, who did this?”

Tears streaked her face. “A vampire. He traced when he heard you coming. Look what he did to me.” She tipped her throat to show pierce marks. “Oh, Torben!”

Her eyes glimmered with remembered gentleness, like the female who had soothed him and Arctos. In that instant, he understood Arctos’s protectiveness of this female.

But it didn’t lessen Torben’s own instincts about her.