Free Web NovelChapter 48: Chapter 48: You Poisoned My Sister!
We dismounted and tied the horses in a thicket. Darius crouched at the edge of the trees and studied the layout. Kane checked his knives. Rylan loosened the axe in its sheath. I stood between them, cloak heavy with rain, blade already in my hand.
Niskanen’s quarters sat near the longhouse, third door on the left, same as always. A single lantern burned in the window even though the sun had cleared the hills. She was awake.
The bond hummed between us, steady and hungry.
We moved down the slope single file, boots silent on the wet grass. The air smelled of woodsmoke and roasting meat and the faint metallic tang of old blood I could never quite wash from my memory. My heart beat hard against my ribs but my hands stayed steady.
We reached the tree line at the edge of the fields. Shadowpine lay spread out in front of us, close enough to hear the low voices of the morning patrol and the clang of a hammer from the forge. Niskanen’s door was visible now, closed but not barred.
I looked at the three of them. Darius gave a single nod. Kane’s scarred fingers flexed once. Rylan’s grin was small and sharp and real.
We stepped out of the trees and started moving across the open ground.
The North had come south.
And Shadowpine was about to learn what that cost.
The ground felt wrong under my boots. Too soft. Too familiar. The same mud that had sucked at my feet the night they dragged me away in chains now pulled at me again, but this time I walked it as a queen.
The fields stretched wide and muddy under the early sun, last patches of snow melting into slush that sucked at our boots.
My cloak hung heavy with rain from the night before, but I kept my pace even, the short blade ready at my thigh like an old friend.
The kings flanked me close. Darius on my right with his ice-blue eyes scanning every shadow, Kane on my left with his scarred hand near his knife, Rylan a step behind with the axe loose on his shoulder.
Four wolves moving through enemy territory like we owned the air itself. The bond hummed between us, tight and ready, a live thing that kept the cold from biting too deep.
Shadowpine lay ahead, the wooden palisade rising from the hill like it had never changed. Smoke curled from the longhouse chimneys. The same smell of roasting meat and wet wool drifted on the wind, the same one that had filled the hall the night my sister died. My stomach tightened but I kept walking.
A boy herding goats spotted us first. He froze mid-step, staff slipping from his fingers. His eyes widened on me, then flicked to the three kings at my sides. "Elena?" he whispered, voice cracking. "Elena Voss?"
I didn’t stop. The name hit like a stone in still water. Whispers spread fast through the outer fields. Heads turned. A woman carrying a basket of eggs dropped it, shells cracking in the mud. An old man who had once patched my father’s armor stared with his mouth open.
They barely recognized me at first. The girl they remembered had been thin, desperate, covered in blood and accusations. This woman walked with three feral kings and carried the weight of a queen who had survived the North. My face had hardened, my eyes colder, my body marked by births and battles. But then the pieces clicked.
"It’s her," someone said louder. "The traitor. But she’s... alive."
"With the Blackthorn kings," another voice added, fear thick in it. "The mad ones."
A group of women who had trained with me as pups stepped out from a doorway. One of them, Mira, the one who had laughed with Lila over dresses the night before the feast, pressed a hand to her mouth. Her eyes went wide when they landed on me. "Elena... we thought you were dead. They said you killed your sister. They said the kings tore you apart on the border."
I stopped ten paces from her. The kings stayed close, silent but radiating threat. "They tried," I said. My voice carried across the bailey. "They failed. I am no longer Elena Voss. I am Elena of Frostfang, Queen of the North, mate to Darius, Kane, and Rylan, mother to Lila, Thorne, and Elara."
The name drop landed like a stone in still water. Gasps rippled through the pack. Mara, my mother’s old friend, stepped forward, hands flying to her mouth. "By the Moon... you have children? With them?" fгeewёbnoѵel.cσm
"Three," I said. "And I will have more. The North is strong. Stronger than the lies my father told you."
The crowd shifted. Some faces showed doubt. Others showed the first flicker of shame. An old friend of my sister, a girl named Soren who used to braid Lila’s hair, pushed to the front. Tears cut tracks down her dirty cheeks. "We mourned you both. We burned offerings for you every full moon for a year."
I felt the bond tighten around me, the kings’ rage and protectiveness bleeding through. Rylan’s hand brushed my lower back, grounding me. "Mourn my sister properly," I told her. "Because I’m here to finish what started that night." ƒreewebηoveℓ.com
The whispers grew louder. People pointed. A few gammas moved toward us, hands on weapons, but stopped when Darius let a low growl rumble in his chest. The sound rolled across the bailey like thunder. They remembered what the Blackthorn kings were capable of.
Mara reached out like she wanted to touch my arm but pulled back at the last second. "You’ve become something terrifying."
"Good," I replied. "Because the girl you knew is dead. She died in a wagon on the way north. What came back is the woman who survived it."
We started moving again, straight toward the longhouse. The crowd parted like water. Some eyes held fear. Some held awe. A few held the spark of old friendship mixed with guilt. I felt all of it wash over me and kept walking.
The door to the third room was closed. Smoke curled from the chimney. I could smell bread baking inside and the faint, cloying scent of the herbs Niskanen had always favored.
My hand tightened on the hilt of my blade.
Darius moved to my right. Kane to my left. Rylan stayed at my back.
I lifted my boot and kicked the door open.
The door busy open with force and eood cracked against the wall. Niskanen sat at her small table, spoon halfway to her mouth, bread and broth steaming in front of her. The same room. The same woman. Older now, softer around the jaw, hair streaked gray, but the eyes were the same calculating ones that had watched my sister drink from that cup years ago.
She dropped the spoon. Broth splattered across the table. "Elena?" She mentioned my name like it burned her mouth and looked as if she had seen a ghost.
Perhaps, I was most definitely a ghost.
I stepped inside. Darius moved right, Kane left, Rylan filling the doorway behind me. The bond burned hot between us, four wolves in a room that suddenly felt too small. Niskanen’s gaze flicked to the kings, then back to me, and I saw the exact moment she understood she was not getting out of this.
"You’re alive," she said. Her voice cracked but she tried to steady it. "They told us the mad kings tore you apart on the border."
I crossed the room in three strides and backhanded her across the face. The slap echoed. She hit the floor, chair tipping over. Blood welled on her lip. I grabbed a fistful of her hair and yanked her head back so she had to look at me.
"You poisoned my sister," I said. "You handed her the cup. You smiled while she drank it."
Her eyes darted to the door, to the kings, to the knife on the table just out of reach. "It wasn’t me. Your father—"
I slammed her head against the floorboards once. Not hard enough to knock her out. Hard enough to remind her I could. "Try again."
She gasped, blood running from her nose now. "He wanted her sick. Just sick. A sedative in the wine so she would collapse at the feast and you would look responsible. He was going to blame you for the border losses. Make the pack turn on you. I was supposed to get promoted for loyalty. That’s all."
Rylan’s voice came low from the doorway. "Keep talking."
Niskanen’s breath hitched. "The dose was wrong. The healer gave me too much. She started seizing. I panicked. I held her down so no one would hear. She died looking at me. I wiped the cup and put it in your hand while you were still screaming her name. Your father paid me double to keep quiet. Said the pack needed a traitor to hate more than it needed the truth."
