Once he was gone, Russel let the fake smile drop off his face. He grabbed Lola’s hand and hurried her back to the inn where they were staying. She didn’t try to fight him. The same sense of urgency to get the hell out of Wrexon was hitting her too.

As they walked back, she overheard so many conversations. Almost every last one of them said the same terrifying thing. King Harrison planned to go to war. It was hard to piece everything together, though. As they hurried back to the inn, she only got bits and pieces. What she did manage to gather kept pointing to the king marshaling his forces and preparing. The treaty between Oclan and Harvenk had been broken. Humans had been killed. A village wiped out. If the king let that kind of thing stand, those lives lost would never get the justice they deserved. Not to mention, all of his political rivals would decry him as weak and his position would be threatened.

That couldn’t happen either.

Lola heard all this and became very aware that the situation could potentially devolve into a devastating, worldwide problem. All-out war with the two werewolf kingdoms would mean death on a scale that hadn’t been seen since the first Werewolf Wars. She wanted Drake and all of Harvenk to pay but she couldn't allow the entire world to go to war to satiate her need for vengeance.

She decided to do something. As the sole surviving citizen of Gloucester, she could provide a witness statement that might help at least point King Harrison in the right direction. It might stop an all-out war and with any luck, maybe it would leave Oclan completely out of the fight. It might be a fool’s dream but she couldn’t sit back and do nothing. She had to at least try. The worst thing that could happen is that the letter would be ignored and the coming war was as bad as she feared.

“You okay?” Russel asked when he noticed that she hadn’t said anything in a while. “Did the knight scare you?”

There was a bitter tone to his voice when he asked that.

“No,” she replied as they weaved in out of the growing number of people on the streets. There were a lot more than there had been just yesterday. “Just thinking about…things.”

She didn’t tell him about wanting to write down her statement. Even though she didn’t come out and ask, she was positive he would tell her no. That writing down everything she saw and had been through would be a terrible idea. And it might be. She was aware of that. At the same time, she knew she would still go through with it. Better to not say anything at all and hope her decision didn’t haunt her sometime in the future.

“All right,” he said, concerned. Something was definitely bugging her but there wasn’t much he could do to help if she wasn’t willing to let him in. “We’re here. Let’s head up to the room and start packing up all the supplies we got. On the way out, we can get some provisions of food and water. Then we’ll put Wrexon behind us.”

“Ok. That sounds good to me,” she said. “Why don’t you settle things with the owner while I head up and get started? That way will be more efficient and we can leave sooner.”

“Yes. Great idea,” he said. “Go on ahead on up.” He looked around but didn’t spot the inn’s owner. “This might take me a minute. I don’t see the owner around.”

“Okay,” she leaned in and gave him a kiss on his bearded cheek. “Don’t be too long.”