Page 49 of Ravenous

He frowned. “If we combined forces, we could take other factions’ resources. Any…need for violence could also be sated.”

She laughed again. “Do you think I haven’t gotten the lay of the lands in my new home?” She’d quizzed Meera during every spare moment between training sessions. Ditch had instituted brutal regimens meant to turn novice witches—regardless of caste—into efficient killers.

Meera, as frustratingly benign as she was, knew a lot about the geopolitical realities of the Skein. Ditch said, “The Lykae run with Berserkers, drink with demonarchies, and court Valkyries. The Fey are your friends and game managers. Tell me, which ally will you betray first? Or perhaps you think thevampires’ territory, with its swamps and storms, can sustain everyone?”

“Your coven and my pack could hunt the Helter together,” he said. “I plan to scout it soon. It’s rumored to teem with game.”

“It teems withmonsters,” she added sweetly. “Contagious ones. Do you really want to go tweak the noses of the undead? Maybe they’d follow us back?”

“Across the Firis? No’ likely.” That lava river made a fiery moat. “If the Helter does no’ tempt your coven, then we should work together to manage crops and livestock.”

“Yes. Food is important.” But she also had to worry aboutmagicresources.

“For some of us more than others,” he said. “You witches can flee to Akelarre. Lykae have no world to return to.”

“Travel to Akelarre takes an obscene outlay of magic, so we aren’t going anywhere. This is good land,” she said, holding his gaze, though the truth was more complicated.

The House of Witches’ entire society ran on magic. No magic, no witches. Yet in Akelarre, it was a stripped gear, power ground to filings.

The Skein had been green with it. Some elder witches whispered theinteracting of speciesmade the light flow—that the Skein’s tapestry between beingswasmagic.

Yet it was declining too, and no one knew why.

“So we both know the stakes,” he said with a nod, as if they had made progress. “War will hurt us both and blight thisgood land. We need cooperation.”

Or a supreme ruler to govern this place.Instead, she said, “Cooperation sounds fascinating. Meet me off this mountain, wolf, and I’ll consider your proposition.”

He exhaled. “No, you will no’.”

She chuckled. “No, I will not.”

When he frowned again, she decided he had nice brows—darker than the thick hair on his head, slashing over those heavy-lidded eyes.

“Are you always so dishonest? Was anything you said the other night true?”

“I mean, the possibility exists,” she said. “What do you think?”

“I think you enjoy toying with others, and I look down on beings like that.”

His words made the inside of her chest itch. Unpleasant. “I’ll soldier on without your tender regard. Telling you to go fuck yourself will help.”

He raked a hand through his hair. “You want me off this mountain to uncover my weaknesses. But if I’m defeated, my brother Straegan is next inline.”

“And he’d fall under my charm too. Look at me.” She smoothed her locks; her tail posed shamelessly. “It’s a given.”

“I would no’ count on it.” Thane’s jaw ticked. “He’s already fallen.”

An intrigue. “Tell me.” When he hesitated, she sighed theatrically. “All take, no give. You dictate my outfit, refuse off-mount talks, won’t heel like a good puppy, and now you stonewall our peace negotiations.”

Scowling, Thane said, “Straegan is in our dungeon, lost to his beast. Yet it’s one of the most cunning and aggressive ones we’ve ever known. Having shed humanlike sentiments, Straegan wants us all to live with our most primal selves risen. It tempts many in my clan.”

“Does it tempt you?”

“My beast is also aggressive,” he admitted. “But I’ll no’ give up my life to it. Ultimately, you should be praying to Hecate for my continued health. The alternative—a pack surrendered to savagery—would make even the Helter look preferable.”

An annoying complication. Fully risen Lykae shed spells like rain. Good thing she hadn’t killed Thane so far! “Bring your brother here,” she suggested. “The Mount tempers the beast.”

“It prevents it fromrising. Straegan is now secondary to his wolf, so the Mount would actually keephimfrom regaining control. No’ that he even wants to.”