Caged No More: The True Heir's Wrath novel · Chapter 13 of 24

Chapter 13: The Gate

Dane Locke was on his knees in the dirt of Venomfang's south gate when I came down the steps.

His coat was torn open and blood dried black down one side of his face.

Venomfang wolves lined the wall above him, forty or fifty of them, and not one lowered a weapon.

Jonah walked beside me and said nothing.

He didn't need to.

Behind Dane, out past the lamplight, stood a ragged knot of Grimjaw wolves who had followed him across the Shadow Forest on foot.

I knew every face.

The guard who had pulled my left arm back in the courtyard stood in front.

The old wolf who had spat at my feet stood behind him, leaning on a stick.

"Ivy," Dane said, and his voice cracked in the middle of my name. "Thank the moon."

"Get up," I said.

"I can't."

He tried anyway, and his legs shook and gave out.

Ten months of unbeaten challenges, and a boy could have pushed him over.

"I'm sorry," he said. "I was wrong about the message. I should have asked you first. I've been walking since noon, and I can't hold my shape."

"You didn't ask me anything."

"I know."

"You told four hundred wolves I deserved to die."

"I know." He put both hands flat in the dirt. "Take it back, Ivy. Say the words again, and bond with me. The seat is yours. I'll kneel in front of the pack and give it to you."

A murmur went along the wall.

"You'll give me my own seat," I said.

"Anything you want."

"And the bond comes back, and the strength goes back down it to you."

His head came up.

He had not said a word about strength.

"What strength?" he said, too fast.

"The strength you've been wearing for ten months."

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