Start | LoTW Chapter Thirty | Index | Book 3 coming soon

Maddan was dead…

Gwen wrapped herself in a glamour of invisibility and limped through the corridors that she had ruled only hours before.

The thrice damned Court of Hours held the palace now and their Rebel Court allies stalked around as if they owned it. If that alone had been the outcome of the day it would merely have made her lip curl at the upstarts’ impudence. She could have taken it back and punished them easily enough once she rallied her loyalists, after all.

Maddan was dead and, ungrateful wretch that he was, his ghost had attacked her, throwing all she had sacrificed to keep him alive in her face. Without him as a figurehead the court would be less inclined to follow her especially since she was weakened by the wounds Maddan had inflicted. That meant retaking the Palace was not an option.

Everything was lost. All she had fought so hard to build was ashes in her hands. She would have wept but she had sublimated her grief into a cold hard rage.

Maddan was dead, the palace was taken, the crown was in that bitch Bronwen’s hands… No doubt a new Summer King or Queen would rise soon. If not the vampire girl then someone else.

Gwen had nothing left but revenge and she knew just who could help her get it… if he wasn’t dead.

The door to the dungeon was wide open, the guards fled and the prisoners released. Well most of the prisoner’s released. The one she was interested in was still sitting in his cage. New abrasions and bruises suggested he had been given one hell of a beating but he still lived. Good. She quietly shut the door and dropped her glamour. In spite of his wounds the Hollower smirked at her.

“Lady Gwendolen!” he said with the same mocking courtesy he always used with her. “This is an unexpected pleasure.” The malice in his tone became more pronounced as he took in the tears in her armor and blood streaking her limbs and face. “I heard that you lost.”

Gwen gritted her teeth at that.

“You did lose! Oh dear!” He clapped his hands and tilted his head. “So what makes you risk sneaking through hostile territory to see me? My charming conversational skills maybe?” He straightened and his tone became deadly serious. “Or perhaps you want my help?”

“They killed my son!” she grabbed the bars of his cell, ignoring the way the iron burnt her skin. “I want to see them suffer.”

“You do, do you?” he gave her a slow smile. “I think that my fellows and I can help you with that for a price, though you may not care for it.”

Gwen grasped the bars of his cell until her knuckles turned white, heedless of how the iron burned her. “You can destroy the world, you can devour my soul for all I care, as long as I get to see them screaming for mercy before you do.”

“Oh nothing so drastic as that,” he said. “You can be more useful to us alive, I think. But it seems you may be amenable to our needs. Let me out of here and we can discuss terms.”

For the first time since the Winter Warrior had killed her son Gwen felt a smile grace her lips but knew it was far from a pleasant one. She tore open the bars and offered him her hand. “Come then, Master Mage, let us find a safe place for our negotiations.”

Start | LoTW Chapter Thirty | Index | Book 3 coming soon