With Fangs and Claws (The Wolf Queen Book 1) by Sam Hall

Author:Sam Hall [Hall, Sam]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2022-05-20T16:00:00+00:00

Chapter 29

I watched Axe jerk his head in acknowledgement before holding Poll still as our horses passed him by, his hand rising, a small smile forming as he waved to me.

“Won’t take long?” I said to Gael when Axe was out of earshot. “You know what I want to talk to you about?”

“You were with the women. Women gossip,” he replied, then did something I hadn’t seen him do. I was riding on his right side, his blind side, the one he kept shrouded under his hair, so when he reached up and pushed the sweep of it behind his ear, I sucked in a breath.

I shouldn’t have. It made it seem like it was his eye, his face, that I was reacting to, and I saw his fingers pause mid-way in response. But he resolutely shoved the hair back, revealing the hidden side of his face to the bright sun.

Someone had tried very hard to ruin Gael. Long angry red scars scraped across his face, the deep ridges showing just how far the claws had dug in, but that wasn’t all. I’d seen blind people before. Some of the older villagers had eyes cloudy with cataracts, some were born with perfect looking eyes that just didn’t work, but that wasn’t what was happening in Gael’s case. I’m fairly sure he could still see me through the fractured blue orb. It moved, studying me like it could. But where his other eye was a deep blue that lightened when he was roused, this one was milky pale and shattered, like a smashed porcelain vase that had been hastily put back together.

My hand shot out, landing on his arm and gripping him hard, which he tolerated for just a second before throwing it off. He released his hair from where it was tucked away, and it fell like a curtain, hiding away the source of his shame.

“Who did that to you?” I asked in a low growl, my voice taking on an echoey sound, something that had the horses snorting warily.

“The queen,” he said. “My father’s wife. My brothers’ mother. Fucking Aurora. Now, your curiosity has been satisfied, so you can go back to your place in the line.”

“Gael—”

“Don’t.” That’s all he would say, but when I didn’t move Arden, he let out a small hiss before jerking his horse’s head sideways, kicking the animal into a canter as soon as he was out of line and went riding up to the head of the riders.

For a moment all I could see was that eye, those scratches, and I realised why Gael didn’t want me to see them. I wasn’t seeing him, I was seeing what had been done to him, and he couldn’t bear that.

“So he showed you.” Axe moved Poll into the space Gael had vacated, but there was none of the man’s usual roguish charm in his expression now. He watched me closely, scanning my body, my face, trying to work out exactly what I was thinking. So I told him.

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