How far back does your family go? I asked.

Hakkon turned that smile on me, a genuine one, with wrinkles fanning out at the corners of his eyes. “Oh, you’re truly curious, red one? You see it now—better to bear the young of the strong, and let your blood rule the land. We go back centuries, back to when the Fae tried their hand at creation. From father to son, our lineage has been passed through the ages.”

The Fae? I frowned, dragging my leadened thoughts through the mud to piece it together.

Then tell me this. Do your kinds share a root? I hesitated, forming my words carefully. Are fiends and wargs born of the same… ritual?

He tipped his head. “In a manner of speaking. Two races, born to Mother Blood and Father Wolf, doomed to hate each other as only squabbling brothers can.”

Brothers?

“So many questions.” Hakkon shook his head, still amused. “Yes, brothers, redling. But Mother Blood loathed us, and conspired to destroy Father Wolf and his sons, creating bindings against our kind. The Mad God fled to the depths of Foria, preserving my family line and the traditions of our blood. It was through his teachings that we learned to wear the skins of men again, how to break the charms of the Mother’s blood-drinking children and walk the earth freely. To shed blood and tears, spread agony and hatred… those are Wargyr’s gifts, his purifying baptism.”

Blood and tears again… the charms of the Mother’s children.

And the Mother and Father were Fae, truly? 

“Of course. It was with their tinkering that we were created. My kind, the firstborn blessed with the Father’s gifts… and the Mother’s children, those infected with her own blood. Both of us were born deep in the cradle of the Rift, the land that is our birthright and our home, and that is why we must have it. The pups deserve to live in the lands where they were made, not to starve in this blighted hell.”

I studied him, looking for a lie in his story, but I didn’t think he would know if he was lying. It was all folklore, tales passed down through the ages, twisted over time to suit the teller’s fancy and presented as truth.

I had a vague memory of Bane telling me that some believed Wargyr was Fae, and that he didn’t believe it.

How interesting that the Rift-kin might be right on that score, but my mind kept returning to the thought of the Mother’s charms, the blood and tears, the willingness and love that seemed diametrically opposed to the creation of wargs…

Did I have a potential weapon in my hands?

Then why murder my family? I asked, guiding the questions away from my dangerous line of thought. Why take land so far to the south?

“Because their land is rich and will feed my people.” Hakkon shrugged. “It has taken many long years to gain a foothold in Veladar. Your land will feed our strength until we’re ready to bring down the walls of the keeps, and then we will take it all.”

He laughed when I stared at him a little too long. “The war taught me something, little red one. Never rely on one plan, for it will surely fail. I will destroy the fiends here, and create nests for my pack all over your country. Even if others choose to rise and replace the Lifegiver, the Soulbreaker, the Nightstalker, the Heartpiercer, none of them will matter. Those four were gods among men, titans on the earth, mortal enemies of great value. My people will overrun the pretenders as one.”

A quavering howl rose from outside, filling the twilight sky. I started, almost tipping my chair back, but Hakkon’s eyes lit up, almost turning him into another man.

“A warning cry. They’re on the move again.”

I felt sick, my empty stomach churning. I’d hoped Bane would let me go.

I should’ve known better.

Bane will kill you. I held Hakkon’s fever-bright gaze as I spoke. You’ll cease to exist before you even know what happened.

“It’s heartwarming, redling. Your love for your husband. Your absolute faith in him.” His lips stretched in a smile. “Come. Look.”

He lifted me from the chair and dragged me to the window, forcing me to look over the side, down the steep, sheer drop.

I had spent several days doing my best to not look outside that window, not wanting to see the barren fields hosting a parasitic brood beneath its skin, not wanting to see if they had brought prisoners.

But Hakkon kept his grip around my neck, forcing me to look with implacable firmness.

I gritted my teeth as several wargs rose from the grass, too-long mouths split open all the way to their ears, panting as they watched in the distance.

There were stands of scraggly trees out there, stunted and bare, the same dull color as the grass. Above it all, the sky was a formless, maddening gray.

But from the top of the tower, I could see that the grass had been torn away all around us, radiating a thousand yards in every direction. The base was nothing but churned soil, and under that lay the endless pack, waiting for prey to step into their domain.

They would drag Bane down. They would feast on his flesh in the darkness below the earth.

“Do you think he can survive that?” Hakkon’s voice was strange; from the great distance of my emotions, I thought he sounded almost sad. “He will step onto ground hallowed to Wargyr, and he will die. Your faith is misplaced.”

He shook me once, hard, and finally released me. I closed my eyes, sinking back against the wall by my table.

My people had no idea of what lay under the field. How many lives Hakkon had sacrificed to ensure an endless swarm of death. They had told me he was making new wargs, and I didn’t believe our enemy was stupid, not in the slightest.

I thought I had likely seen a mere fraction of his pack, that Hakkon had examined every facet of Bane’s character, his strategy, and had accounted for it.

This was my moment. The brief calm before the storm, before my loved ones walked right into hell. I could send the pack into disarray and leave them rudderless, easy pickings, and my family would never need to step foot near this killing field.

The pen was cool against my sweaty hand as I surreptitiously palmed it from the table. Cool and reassuring.

Not entirely solid, but it was only one blow that counted; after that, I would be dead.

Hakkon exhaled slowly, turning back to the window; I remained slumped against the wall, the portrait of defeat, my clenched hand hidden in the folds of my skirt. I didn’t have to fake the single tear that rolled down my cheek. I hadn’t wanted Bane to come, and yet he’d come anyway, because he loved me.

“You were a better gift than I could’ve anticipated. He is hunting you. He will finally find the tide that turns him back, and drowns him. I will howl in memory of him when he is gone.”

I forced myself upright, wiping the tear away with my free hand. Hakkon stood at the window, feet braced, his hands clasped behind his back as he gazed out at the trap.

His neck was open, naked, unguarded. I tensed, accepting that I would have to kill a man, and put all my strength into the blow.

The nib skated over his shoulder, opening a line of dark blood, and Hakkon’s hand snapped up before it plunged into his throat. He gripped my wrist, squeezing, the bones grinding together. The pen dropped to the floor; I opened my mouth, and no sound came out, though I screamed on the inside as he grinned.

“There it is. I was wondering when you’d find it in your heart to kill me.”

Hakkon drove me backwards until my back slammed into the wall, the stones driving the breath from my lungs. He had both of my wrists, nails digging between the tendons, splitting skin. Blood seeped between his fingers, and still I couldn’t scream, only kick and thrash wildly.

His bulk trapped me there, making my struggles useless. A terrible smell emanated from him, the reek of hot metal and blood, and his body heat was burning.