The Warlord of Wycliffe: The Dethroning of My False Mate novel · Chapter 7 of 24

Chapter 7: The Yard

Dorian knelt at the edge of my father's open grave and looked down.

The coffin lid had been pried up and thrown on the grass.

My father lay inside in his old general's coat, with his hands folded.

Whoever had come had not touched him.

They had taken what lay beside him.

"The sword," I said.

"What sword?"

"The Ivorymoon blade. It was buried with him. A hundred years old, and the Wycliffe seal is cut into the hilt." My voice was thin. "It's the proof of the line. Whoever carries it can claim the Wycliffe name and the Wycliffe soldiers."

Dorian rose slowly.

"By mate law, a mate may claim the sword of the family he marked."

"He has my ring," I said. "He wants my sword."

I picked up one of the spades.

The handle was stamped with a small brand, a wolf's head inside a ring.

Greyhollow lodge's mark.

I closed my hand around it.

"Elowen."

"I'm fine."

I was not fine.

But I turned from that grave, and I helped Dorian put the lid back, and I put my father's stone in its place, with my own two hands.

Then I said, "I'm not going back to Greyhollow tonight."

"You're not going back at all."

"I'll go back when I choose," I said. "On my terms."

We slept in the lodge ruins, in separate corners, with a Stormreach wolf standing guard at the door.

I did not sleep.

At dawn, Dorian was already in the old training yard behind the ruins, stripped to the waist, with a wooden practice staff in each hand.

I came out in his spare shirt and a borrowed pair of boots.

He looked up.

For one second, his gaze went down the length of me, and came back up.

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