I darted onto my father’s balcony and leaned over the railing to see that a group of enemy Voiceless and Peek soldiers had gathered some of the servants from the castle. They were signing to them, asking them to join the fight. They told them that my family had turned them into slaves and that they either had to fight or die. Some of them bowed to the enemy and stepped out of line. The ones that did not were subdued and taken prisoner.
I froze in shock. Not at the sight of the castle servants bloodied and bound with ropes, but at the man who was shouting the orders.
Ashe.
Chapter 49
I hissed through a cage of teeth, and spun back to face Fray, willing him to meet my eyes, doing my very best to communicate what I was feeling rather than speak. If I spoke, I’d break, and there was no time for that.
What was the prince doing here? That dirty rat hadn’t learned his lesson. A missing limb was not enough to scare him from my land.
Not my land. Not anymore.
Ashe and the men were clearing the servants away, almost out of sight when his eyes lifted to the balcony. He looked weary and defeated. His missing arm was hidden beneath his cloak, but something sat atop his head that I’d never seen before. A thin circular piece of metal. A prince’s crown.
My body vibrated as I whispered the chant and shifted. Now, too large for the balcony, I fumbled over the railing and leapt down to the next until I essentially tumbled my way down to the ground. By the time I landed, Ashe had already taken off in a sprint.
The courtyards surrounding the castle were void of any real battle, save for the soldiers rounding up servants as they attempted to escape. One came right at me and I swiped him, and he dropped like a stone. Another, a Voiceless, wielded an ax and hurled it in my way, only to miss, but not by much. If he could have screamed, he would have as I sunk my teeth into his belly.
The Voiceless who had been bound watched from behind a large tree I’d once climbed with Henry. He’d nearly fallen and broken his arm, which had driven our mother into a frenzy. Once a place for tested bravery was now a place of protection. From me.
I gestured toward one of the fallen soldier’s swords to indicate a way to cut their bindings. One, an older man I recognized from the kitchen, nodded and retrieved the sword without fear, cutting his own ropes and helping the others.
A vision of Pyrus in chains stopped me in my tracks. I breathed and willed my heart to slow. I sunk deep inside of myself, ready for my power to take over. If I could conjure what I’d done for Fray, I could surround the entire castle and save those still trapped inside. If Pyrus and Crim, and even my aunt and uncle were still in there, I had to try.
But nothing happened.
I didn’t know how it worked. Aquarius had not had time to teach me. But I felt it in my very bones, begging for release, but my frantic heart was wrought with emotion and beating too fast to focus.
I was running out of time.
I sprinted in the direction Ashe had gone, following his scent across the grass toward the cemetery. I couldn’t see what was happening behind me, but the sounds of another wolf snapping and blades scraping told me Fray had joined me below.
“Izzy, stop.”
Ashe had stopped at the base of a tall statue of a crow atop a pedestal. I bowed my head and, with a guttural huff, stood level with the prince. This time I wasn’t ready to listen to him. I was filled with bleeding rage.
“Henry,” he said.
I stopped. “What did you say?”
Ashe swallowed. I watched the lump in his throat bob, and I wondered how good his neck would taste between my teeth. “Henry was trying to break the curse.”
I barked a laugh. “Nothing you say will save you now, Prince of the Peeks.”
Ashe reached into the pocket of his cloak. I bared my teeth, prepared to defend against any weapon he produced, but it wasn’t a weapon. It was my necklace.
“Give it to me,” I snapped.
He threw it underhand and it landed at my feet.
“I heard your mother speaking about it,” Ashe said. His voice was shaking, and so was the one hand he had left. “She said your brother left, and joined the enemy, and was working with some of them to find a way to break the curse.”
“You know about the curse?”
Ashe nodded. “Only recently.” He blinked and sunk to his knees. “Izzy, why did you do this to yourself?”
“Is that all you heard?” I bristled when he nodded. There must be more. “Tell me or I will rip you apart!”
“You’re going to anyway, Izzy. Don’t you think I’d tell you?” After a moment, he bowed his head so that his stupid crown fell off. “Kill me or take me with you. Either way, don’t make me stay here.”
I felt a rumble in my throat. Come with me? Had I not just seen him giving orders to beat and bound innocent people? He was begging, pleading with me. But it wasn’t enough. He could deal with his own father. Perhaps in the way I dealt with mine.
A plan was forming rapidly in my mind, and none of it involved Ashe. Nor did it involve his father who would certainly take Stormwall. Ending the king’s life was only the first step in revenge. My head filled with a strong sense of purpose, clearer than anything I’d ever felt.
“Change back.”
It was Fray, and he was already in his human form. His naked body was slick with blood. He looked at Ashe and tipped his chin. “Give me your cloak, princeling.” When dressed, Fray looked at me and then to the necklace at my feet. “Kill him now or never, Isabelle.”
“Never.” I backed away, and before I knew what was happening, I felt the naked breeze on my skin and heard Fray growling for Ashe to relinquish his tunic and pants. The pants were too long, and I had to bind the waist, but the tunic fit all right.
“Boots,” Fray said.
“They’re too big for her,” Ashe said.
Fray opened his hands with an expectant raise of his eyebrows. He was losing patience, and we were losing time. “Until next time, Prince,” he said, as Ashe tossed the boots to me. “Gods willing there won’t be one.”
“This feels like a goodbye, Izzy.”
I spun and faced Ashe. “Stupid prince,” I said. “That’s because it is.”
Epilogue
The sun was starting to dip below the mountains, its light casting the sky in oranges and reds, and turning the mountains an iridescent blue. Beyond that lay Fray’s home, a land unknown to me. Behind me, a castle and a life that was gone. I turned my back on it. Fray and I stole away a horse and rode together, across the snow-dusted plains, toward a new world.
I remembered asking Abiyaya what it all meant, the way my blood had turned thick. She had said something terrifying would happen to my heart. There was a darkness that would try to consume me. Soon, I knew, I would have to learn how to use the powers given to me by Aquarius, and maybe then I would be able to keep the darkness at bay.
I looped my arms around Fray’s waist as he steered the horse and pressed my cheek between his shoulder blades. We had saved each other, and may continue to do so, if that was what life had in store for us. Being with Fray, with someone so strong and loyal, would be my life’s greatest blessing. It would be more than I deserved.
But there was no time to think of such things. Instead, I brought up a memory of a conversation with Lulu after the news of Henry’s death.
You can find solace in the sun and the moon because no matter what, they will always be there.
I whispered her name. It felt good to hear her voice again.
For a moment, the weight of the moment hit me. My life as a princess was over. I’d taken lives. I was trading a vast and powerful kingdom for something completely unknown. Who was I going to become? If we found Fray’s home and the other Gwylis, would they accept me?
But just as quickly, the feeling of panic vanished. I didn’t care about fitting in, I never had. I would have Fray, and no matter what I believed, he would stay by my side no matter what. I’d become a Gwylis and forsaken
my past. I could find out what Henry had been doing and pick up where he left off. I could do anything now. Even break the Uncanny’s curse.
I felt Fray exhale deeply, as if he could read my mind, and I tightened my grasp on him. He took a free hand and placed it over mine. We listened to the wind carrying our memories into the beyond. Memories of lives we once had and buried in the ground beneath the snow. He pulled on the reins for the horse to stop, and I sat back and adored the twilight sky.
Fray’s eyes burned into my own. I wondered how long he had been sitting there like that. I wrapped my arms around his waist once more. He took one hand and interlocked our fingers. I could feel his warmth fall over me. We were aligned. I could almost read his thoughts.
“Are you scared?” he asked.
Yes. “No.”
“We’re going together. Don’t be afraid.”
My head fell onto his shoulder, exhaustion falling over me. A single tear dropped. It wasn’t fear or anger that brought it down to my cheek. It was relief. Hope.
We sat, still and silent, for a moment longer before he nudged the horse to move again. Fray was my family now, and it would do me no good to look back. So, I focused my eyes ahead, holding Fray close.
“Look,” he said, suddenly. “There, up ahead.”
I looked and saw, no less than a mile away down the small rise where we’d stopped, where the mountains parted into a naturally formed arch, perhaps hundreds of feet high. The path leading through it was lit by torches. As we approached, the arch seemed to grow taller and more frightening. It was as if it were its own entity and not made of stone at all.
I steeled myself and we rode, together as one, through the Archway and into the unknown land of the Old Kingdom.
Acknowledgments
You’ve come this far. How about a little further?
This story started with a song. I had just come off finishing another manuscript, so I was happy for the lull. As I was working out (trying to lose that baby weight!) the song came up on a random playlist. As I listened to it for the first time, a scene began playing out in my head. Although some aspects changed in later drafts, the inspiration stayed the same. I had a girl who was trapped, surrounded by foes at a party she did not agree to, and there was a boy who found her in the darkness and loved her, against all the odds. A defining moment happened near the end of the song-a defining moment in the story that only began to take shape.
As angry as I was to have another idea marinating in my head after only a few days break, I was also excited to see where it all went. As a pantser, writing is like Christmas morning. The words came out quick as lightning. I opened a new playlist and songs began to mount up (that’s how I know the story is meant to be). Writing a book is a daunting task, and sometimes it chooses us and not the other way around. Inspiration can hit us at any moment. One song formed Unspoken.
Another defining moment was the day I got the email that Unspoken had found a perfect home. For this, I want to thank Amanda, Shayne, Chantal, Loni (you took my book to a whole new level. Thank you!), and Aimee for all their work on my book baby. Also to everyone working behind the scenes making dreams come true.
To all the authors who became friends and to those I have yet to meet, thank you for the support and answering all my questions. I could not be prouder to be part of such a close-knit and beautiful family.
Thank you to everyone who has had to listen to all my crazy ideas over the years. To my brothers who spent hours with me while we were children making up crazy stories. Some I still have! To my mother and father for putting up with my loud typewriter in the middle of the night while I aspired to be the next Stephen King.
To my fourth-grade teacher, Mr. Marshall for giving me an A+ on a book report for a book I’d made up. He never found out.
To Sandra, for reading the early drafts of Unspoken and giving me amazing feedback. I know you think I’m weird for writing about hot wolf-boys, but I think you’re weird too and that’s OK.
To Casia, Mackenzie, and Destinee, the best book buddies in the whole wide world, who cheered with me through my successes and got me through my disappointments. I still haven’t read that yet, want to buddy read?
To Marissa for being you.
To my husband for putting up with my moods, caffeine addictions, and lack of cooking skills while I’m revising, writing, editing, and thinking of scenes in longer than necessary hot showers. I’m impossible and hugely secretive of my projects. To my son, may he never give up on his dreams. Ever.
Thank you to all those people (and more) for molding me into the person I am today. Lastly, to my readers and future readers, I would not be here without all your love and support. And an extra thank you to those who blog and review Unspoken, you are the backbone of the book community, and I am grateful for every star this book receives, even the low ones.
To the girls wondering if they should be fighters or princesses: you can be both. Shine that sword and polish that crown. You are fierce and beautiful, and you can conquer worlds.
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About the Author
Celia Mcmahon is a devourer of books and coffee. If she’s not busy buying more books than she can read or discovering new ways of being tired, you can find her scouring the world army-wife style for book ideas.
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