Page 171 of In Violent Waves

Maelys’ breath caught in the back of her throat, and Wilder could feel her shifting on her feet. She knew that voice and the beast it belonged to.

“I think Lyra would disagree about belonging to anyone,” Wilder replied.

Igneous stepped into a beam of moonlight. His black fur gleamed, and a splattering of silver hairs shone on his elongated snout. But it was the protracted claws on long fingers that had Wilder squaring up. The scars from those claws still marred the skin on his back.

“You will give her to me, and we will leave here without spilling blood,” Igneous responded.

“That’s not going to happen,” Ridge whispered.

But Igneous and his wulvers heard the words, anyway.

“You seek to spill blood,child?” The reddened wulver on Igneous’ right answered.

“If you think you’re coming any closer—absolutely.” Ridge widened his stance, backing up his threat.

Killing Igneous would spark a war with all the wulvers, not just this clan. But he was under strict orders to protect Lyra at all costs. His father could handle a war with those beasts. And it would satisfy Wilder’s need for revenge.

But first, he needed answers.

“Who did you make a deal with? Besides, your dead informant over there.” Wilder jutted his chin towards the cooling body of Cyrus.

Igneous didn’t even spare the male a glance.

“You’re stalling.”

He wouldn’t tell Wilder, not even with a blade through his chest.

Dust and Oak slid into defensive stances at the tone of Igneous’ voice. Strange Otto had said there had been only onecasualty, and it wasn’t on their side. And if anyone was going to kill a wulver and spark a war—it would have to be Wilder.

This is why he hated knowing his future. Now the decision didn’t feel like his own, but another thread in the great tapestry of fate.

Igneous took another step, and Wilder relaxed his grip on the sword.

He already knew he would kill the wulver, and now he could savor the ending.

“You’re willing to die for a mermaid, Igneous?”

There were snarls from the wulvers surrounding them.

“It is you who will die, Prince,” the red wulver dared to speak again.

Wilder looked between the empty tract of land that separated the wulver from him. “Someday, sure. But not today. And between us right now isnothing and nobody.”

The threat rang like a struck bell, and the wulver had the intelligence to back up a step.

Igneous slid his black eyes towards Otto. Word of his powers had no doubt spread to all the creatures of the realm. But even if Otto had spoken the truth to Wilder, that didn’t mean the wulvers would believe it as such. It all could be a ruse.

“Enough of this,” Igneous snarled. “Give us the mermaid so we can return her to the waves.”

Wilder cocked his head.

“Does thewatermiss her?” Wilder chuckled.

Igneous opened his mouth for a quick retort before snapping it shut.

“You will not goad the answers out of me, boy.”

The glittering malice in Igneous’ eyes reminded Wilder of all those years of torture. He could do it, could kill the beast that was the root of so much anguish and torment in his mind.