Chapter 18: Lucan: The Seal on the Pass

Lucan's POV

The mountain had swallowed three trucks and a woman of fifty-five, and I could not make it give them back.

My guards dug at the rubble with their bare hands for half an hour.

The stone shifted, settled, and shifted again.

The captain took me by the arm and said, "Highness, it's unsafe. The tunnel is cut."

"Then find me the other end of it."

"There's a service road around the north shoulder. Four hours by truck."

"Take me there."

I turned and found Morwen standing behind me in a guard's greatcoat.

Blood had dried down her sleeve, and her eyes were on the rock.

She had not said a word to me since I arrived.

"Your shoulder," I said.

"It will heal."

"Morwen."

"I'm going to the service road."

"You're hurt."

"Margery is on the far side of that mountain, and I'm the one who drove here alone."

She turned and looked at me, and her eyes were dry and very grey.

"Why didn't you tell me you were coming?" I said.

"I stood outside your study yesterday morning," Morwen said. "I heard the end of it."

I did not understand her.

"You told the Duke I was useful," she said. "You told him any wolf would have served."

The words went into me like a blade.

I had said them.

I had said them to my uncle with my face flat.

Three days before, he had asked me over a glass whether the new bride was a weakness.

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