Pain struck my heart as the woman recoiled from me. I quickly turned the scarred side of my face away.

“It’s all right,” Haakon told her. “It’s only Ulf, my warrior brother. He will not harm you.”

“The Corpse King’s forces are coming up the road,” I reported.

“How did they get here so quickly?”

“I don’t know. I can’t reach the Alphas, or the pack.” My head ached from trying. “There’s magic in the air. I do not have a good feeling about this.”

“We must get our mate to safety.”

I grunted in reply, and started picking a path through the forest. Haakon followed, arms full of the woman he’d chosen.

We’ve both chosen her, he corrected.

I picked up my pace. The farther we are from the abbey, the safer we’ll be. If we can avoid the Corpse King’s notice, then we can head towards the mountain the pack calls home.

There we will tell the Alpha’s we have found our mate.

There are many Berserkers who need mates.

They found their own women at the abbey. This one is ours, Haakon said.

Again, the pain in my heart. I had resigned myself to never taking a mate. To have the chance to claim one—the small hope hurt worse than none.

Unless you don’t like her?

I like her well enough. I guarded my own thoughts, lest my warrior brother know my reluctance. Better to never take a mate than have her cringe from me for the rest of my days.

She is round and warm and will be pleasing in the long winter.

If she does not try to bathe us in cabbage broth.

We can punish her if she does. Haakon’s eager tone would’ve made me laugh, if the world around us wasn’t turning darker, as if the Corpse King’s magic leached away all the light of the moon. You scented her from the first. You want her. Admit it.

Very well. I sighed. This one is ours. I would keep my distance, and let Haakon claim her. Perhaps it would be enough to satisfy the curse.

Good, Haakon said smugly before adding with more seriousness, Let us fly to safety.

As one, we put on a burst of speed. Few things can outrun a Berserker, and we put several leagues between us and the abbey, even weaving around bushes and trees. Gusts of wind tore at the treetops above us violently, raining down leaves and branches.

Our mate cried out. Immediately we both slowed.

“We can’t go on,” Haakon shouted over the blustering storm. We cannot outrun the wind.

We need to find shelter, I agreed.

Who is this mage, that he can control the weather?

We have taken something from him, someone he prizes above all. The young woman clung to Haakon, dark hair plastered against her pale skin. Her curves under the rain-soaked shift were luminous, lovely as the goddess herself.

Reading my thoughts, Haakon hugged our mate closer. He will never take her from us.

This way. I bounded down the path. Branches and leaves rained down, missiles flung by the wind. Haakon and I ran faster, dodging limbs and leaping over fallen trees. Trunks of great oaks creaked, the trees groaning and swaying as if they might come down.

The wind ripped one up and sent it into our path with a great rustling crash. Haakon barely dodged it.

Ulf, get us out of here!

Stones shone ahead. This way—a road.

I took one step out of the shelter of the woods, and the wind died immediately. Haakon, wait. The road was eerily quiet, as if we’d reached the eye of the storm. Something is wrong.

A steady trudging sound reached my ears and I threw myself down.

Grey Men. Hide—quick!

Haakon flung himself to the ground, holding the woman close as a huge horde of the Corpse King’s stinking servants marched by.

“Keep quiet,” Haakon told the woman, his hand over her mouth to reinforce his order. Her eyes were wide with fear. “Those are the Corpse King’s forces, Grey Men raised from the dead and filled with magic to do the mage’s bidding. If they find us, they may take you. There are too many to fight.”

They marched by the place where we lay, rank upon rank of them, newly raised from the grave. With their pale skin and empty eyes, there was no mistaking them for evil creatures.

The woman hid her face against Haakon’s chest.

The Corpse King raised a force quickly.

He uses great magic to fight us. He is desperate.

As soon as the Grey Men passed, the wind picked up.

Quickly. I crawled backwards and Haakon did the same, until we could safely rise and run back the way we came.

Head for the hills. The Grey Men move more easily on the road.

The further away we got from the place we’d seen the Grey Men, the more the storm raged. We fought to climb the wooded hills, crouching in the shelter of great boulders when the winds grew overpowering.

Press on, over the ridge. We can find shelter in a ravine.

When we broke from the forest, the trees no longer protected us from the raging wind. A dark muttering echoed around us, as though the sorcerer spoke through the storm. The wind sliced my skin, my limbs grew heavy. My legs moved slower, as if the fog surrounding us was mud. I put my hands over my ears, and some of my energy returned.

Another spell! I warned Haakon.

Behind me, he bent double, bowed against the oncoming gusts that pushed him like a giant’s hand. I grabbed him before he tumbled among the rocks.

Take her, he gasped.

Are you sure? But she was already in my arms, trembling. The howling around us increased as I staggered on, my feet finding rising ground. Boulders loomed around us, a giant’s graveyard. We’d come to a hilly place, exposed to the sky. No wonder the Corpse King could reach us.

Haakon? I couldn’t hear him over the wind. Not even the brother bond held against the Corpse King’s spell. I reached for Haakon, and the pack. Nothing. I was alone.

A thousand bees buzzed in my head, like the witch’s magic that made me a Berserker.

I shook my head to clear it.

“What is happening?” the woman in my arms cried.

“Hush,” I told her, and gripped her tighter. Lightning lit up the sky, and she screamed. Soft hands pushed at me. Did she see my scarred face, and panic?

Stumbling, I set her down. She scrambled away from me, her shift tearing on the rocks as she ran. Did she not see the cliff’s edge?

“No,” I bellowed. For a moment, she hesitated, swaying on the rocks. “Come to me.” I reached for her. Too late I remembered to clap my hands over my ears to find my Berserker strength. My body moved through air like water.

Laurel backed away, terror on her face. Did the sorcerer’s voice torment her, too?

“No—” Haakon dashed forward, blurring past me.

He was too late.

Laurel slipped off the edge of the rock, and fell screaming backwards into the mist.