Bound to the Alpha King novel · Chapter 12 of 24

Chapter 12: The Other Way

The old woman would speak to no one but the bound pair.

"Out," said Rorik, propped on three pillows with the sheet to his waist.

"Majesty," said Brack.

"Out, Brack. You too, Embla."

"I am your sister."

"Then you'll do as I ask for once in your life."

Embla glared at me as if I had done it to her, then dragged Brack out by his collar.

The door shut.

The old woman stood at the foot of the bed in her white shawl, hands folded over her bundle.

She was small and bent and as brown as a walnut.

Her eyes were milky with age, but they found my face without trouble.

"I am afraid," she said.

"Of what?" I said.

"Two nights ago the Chancellor sent a man to ask me what the rite-keeper said over the cup.

"I told him I did not know.

"Yesterday she was dead."

Rorik's hand tightened on the sheet.

"You're the only one left who knows the words," he said.

"I am the only one who has them by heart.

"I am also seventy-one, and not quick on stairs."

She set her bundle on the bed and unwrapped it.

Inside was a bone cup, the very one we had bled into, cracked down one side.

"She kept it," the old woman said. "She said it would be needed."

"What for?" I said.

"To say the words again.

"Slowly, this time, so the Moon can hear them properly.

"And so that you can both understand."

Rorik shut his eyes.

I felt his heartbeat stumble in my chest.

Then he opened his eyes and looked at me, and I saw something there I did not understand.

It looked like dread.

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