Chapter 65 – Dain
DAIN
After Azaria was settled, I went to her office and asked Kalias for details. He told me Myrin had explained her condition to him, so he understood what was happening. Myrin had handled most of the healing, he said, and he had assisted where he could.
I knew instantly he wasn’t telling me everything, but Kalias was always careful with his words. When he spoke, it was because he meant to, so I let it go for now.
I asked him to stay with her while I went to the barracks to tell Quin.
The corridors were quiet; most of the palace had already settled for the night.
I schooled my features into something calm.
If Quin’s blood magic read emotions the way Kalias had confirmed, he’d sense a lie if I slipped.
Thankfully, he took what I told him without question.
He promised to stay with her until she woke.
I hesitated at the door, some instinct screaming at me to stay, to keep watch, but Quin would take care of her. He always did.
So Kalias and I left the wing together, heading toward the palace doors. “Are you going to shift back now?” I asked. He’d burned through plenty of magic in the last few hours.
“No. My wolf is too restless. He wants to go back to her.”
“Is it difficult to defy him?” I asked, genuinely curious. Fighting with the other half of your soul sounded like a miserable existence.
He considered it, then nodded. “Sometimes. It is much harder in highly stressful or emotional situations like this one. His instincts are very strong.”
“Is there anything that helps? To regain control?”
“Exercise.”
“What kind of exercise?”
“Fight. Have sex.”
I stopped short, then huffed a laugh. “Can’t help with either. No offence.”
“None taken.” His mouth curved slightly—the closest thing to amusement I’d seen on him all day. “I can handle it.”
I had no doubt. None of us were strong enough to take on Kalias in his human form. Maybe Thorne, maybe Quin if he tapped into that unnatural strength of his, but the rest of us wouldn’t last a round.
As for the other option—I’d been with men before.
Enjoyed it when the opportunity arose and the person was right.
But Kalias was something else entirely. He’d shifted in front of us often enough, and the man was built like the mountains he came from: massive and overwhelming, every inch of him raw power—intimidating clothed, and without clothes, frankly absurd.
I could appreciate it objectively and still know with absolute certainty that I was not volunteering.
I needed to steer this conversation elsewhere—now. “So. Your wolf.” I cleared my throat. “It looks like he and Azaria actually talk to each other. I’m not imagining it, right?”
“No, you are not. My wolf is projecting to her.”
“Projecting?”
“When an animal pushes persistently enough, it can force its way into someone else’s mind. It does not normally happen, but with Azaria, he is relentless.”
I paused, processing. “So she can hear your wolf, but you can’t?”
“Correct. I have not yet mastered that connection.” He glanced ahead. “My father has it. Some older shifters do. It takes time and mutual understanding.”
“So when he’s out, you’re—what? In the background?”
“I hear Azaria’s responses, but his words are muffled. I hear them as blurred sounds in my mind.”
That explained a lot. Every time Azaria argued with the wolf like he was a person, she wasn’t imagining it—he was pushing words into her head, and Kalias, the man who observed everything, was locked out of the conversation entirely.
“There’s more to his obsession with her than belly rubs, isn’t there?”
Kalias didn’t deny it. “There is. And I am trying to understand it myself.”
His magic was different from ours—older, rawer, drawn from the bones of the world itself. If anyone could see through the mystery of Azaria Sylvenhart, it was him.
“When you used your magic on her, what did you find?”
Kalias stopped walking and turned his silver gaze on me. I could see him weighing it—his honor against his instinct. Finally, he shook his head. “I cannot say. Myrin bound me to an oath. I am sorry.”
Of course. The healer’s oath. And Myrin was stubborn enough to make even Kalias swear it. He was too honorable to break it. Still, I had to try.
“I understand. It’s just—” I drew in a breath.
“She’s suffered these attacks for so long.
They came out of nowhere. At first, it was just headaches, little spikes in temperature, then her limbs.
Her hands and fingers went stiff, like fire coursing through her joints.
Each time it was worse. Last time it hit, we were in the middle of a mission.
Quin managed to stabilize her and nearly burned himself out doing it. ”
Kalias listened without interrupting, then inclined his head. “Blood magic has many uses. Living within abyssal ideology twisted it the wrong way, but he has the means to use it for greater purposes.”
I swallowed hard. “Can you at least tell me this: there is more to Azaria than we can see, isn’t there?”
“Yes,” he replied. “Yes, there is. Perhaps that is why my wolf loves her so much.”
“Thank you, Kalias. Truly.” I met his gaze. “You know how much she means to me.”
“I understand,” he said simply. “And no need to thank me. I will do it again without hesitation.”
There was no bravado in his words, only a vow from a man who didn’t waste words.
I nodded once, something easing in my chest. Having him at her side—gods, it mattered more than I could admit out loud.