C3 Legacy

The next day, I locked myself in my room without a bite to eat. I used a heavy chest to block anyone from coming inside—even Daniel. I needed to be alone with my thoughts and my canvas and my paint.

I spent all of the morning and evening painting flowers—various flowers of make-believe kind. The flowers I wish existed—the ones I could pluck pigment from and make the most vibrant, beautiful art. They didn’t exist, surely. But I enjoyed my make-believe garden. Something about pretending I was existing in a different world than this put my aching chest at ease.

When I grew too hungry to focus any longer, I shoved my chest away and escaped my room to drift down the hall like a ghost. And like a ghost, I wanted not to be seen. I wanted to exist on a different plane of the universe—a place that allowed to me roam invisible and unbothered.

For some reason, my wish was granted. Not a soul bothered me on my way to the kitchen—not even Daniel, who floated by with fresh linens for my parents’ room. Perhaps it was the look on my face, or my struggle to pretend I was anything but miserable during the engagement party last night. I felt ashamed, betrayed, abandoned. I was a ball of radiating misery in a room full of joyful applause.

I came to a stop when I spotted Cado across the stairwell, a despondent look on his face. Thinking back to it, the only wolf in that room who looked as miserable as me was him. On the rare occasion I saw his facade fade away, I noticed a look of struggle in his eyes. There was something about this situation he wasn’t accepting any more than I was. But why? What was so terrible about marrying me?

Curious, I followed as he rounded the corner and left the castle through the courtyard. It was easy enough to hide in the garden, crouched behind a bundle of roses, watching through the thorny stems as Cado stood in the distant field near the edge of the bluff. He removed his clothing, the tall grass covering his lower half. I watched the muscles in his bare back move against the sun—saw the massive knotting scars that rose on his skin, down his spine, his lower back.

I had never known much about my father’s affair with war, other than the occasional spat for territory where the land bordered all four kingdoms. Wolves were always at war there—each wanting a bite out of each other so long as it meant more land. More game. More power.

I had never known those little battles to be so severe that they might leave scars on a person like the ones Cado had. They were terrible, those scars—long, wicked, jumbled marks that covered large portions of his body. I felt a pang of sympathy for him as I watched him crack his neck and shake out his hands. Then he burst into a wolf, the way they all did—a small explosion of bloody mist that scattered to the ground, evaporating until only a wolf remained. Cado was a gray—a dark gray. My father had always told me, “Look for companions in gray wolves, Kori. They’re the most loyal of their kind.”

Cado was loyal to my father, but I couldn’t imagine he’d ever consider a loyalty to me.

Still, it was fascinating watching him change on command. My mother had taught me that it was something a wolf learned in time. I imagined bursting into a wolf of my own and dashing through the forest between trees and over creeks and just…running forever.

I watched with envy from the rose bush as Cado shook out his fur and vanished into the forest. Then I was ordered inside by one of father’s guards.

I snatched some bread from the kitchen and scurried off to my room to continue painting. But my father’s voice captured me from down the hall and I crouched by his door, nibbling on my bread while I listened to him speak to my mother about the tensions in the North.

“Some of their wolves were spotted in our territory just days ago. It’s only a matter of time before the king calls for a full-on war.”

“I don’t care,” my mother was saying, a tremble in her voice. “I won’t have you out there on the frontlines of battle. You’re marrying Korina off for the soul purpose of your retirement, Jarl. What’s the purpose of that if you’re going to wander off into a battle field anyway? Korina can’t handle this on her own—”

“Korina won’t have to,” my father said. “I chose Cado for a reason. He’ll lead this kingdom to victory. Whatever happens to me, he is my legacy.”

He is my legacy.

I slouched back against the wall, feeling ill. I was once his legacy. Now my father wanted to join the war efforts. He wanted to sacrifice himself on the front lines and it was all because of Cado. It was all because his best warrior had been chosen to take his throne. Now there was no one to lead his army.

I slumped to the floor and stared at the paint on my fingertips. If someone else was to take the throne instead…then Cado could go back to leading his army, and my father could retire in peace.

There was a mate out there somewhere, waiting for me. I just had to find them.

Everything would fall in place if I could just find them.