Chapter 2 #2
“Well,” she muttered to herself, voice shaking only a little, “that can’t possibly be a good sign.”
The Troll King moved first. Not quickly, not with surprise, but with resolve in his eyes.
Each shift of his massive body rippled through the ground, the weight of him settling like thunder held on a leash.
He took a single step back from her cage and lifted one enormous hand.
The cavern answered at once: chains rattled, iron groaned, and something deeper in the shadows scraped bone-slow against stone.
Kara’s stomach tightened. Well, this was about to go downhill fast.
“Bring her,” the king said.
She blinked, fighting for nonchalance. “Oh, that’s a hard no—”
The door to her cage obeyed nobody’s rules but his. Metal didn’t squeal or hinge; it simply parted, flowing open as though solidity had been a temporary suggestion.
Kara went still. That was new, and profoundly unsettling.
Nick hit his bars with a roar that shook the cavern’s bones.
Dust rained from the ceiling and rolled down her shoulders like ash.
“Don’t!” he growled. “I swear on everything holy, I will destroy your entire kingdom if one hair on her head is harmed.” His voice tore from somewhere primal, half-wolf already, nothing human left in the sound.
Wadim stepped forward, his tone suddenly sharp rather than scholarly. “You take one of us, you deal with all of us.”
Zara’s silence said even more. Her fingers whitened around the bars, her stance angled in the way Kara knew meant violence was only waiting for breath.
Aphid’s voice slid through the growls, cold and measured. His fae power seemed to radiate around him. “This would be an unwise decision.”
Kara nearly rolled her eyes as she muttered, “Understatement.”
The Troll King didn’t spare them even a glance. His attention never left Kara. “Only her.”
Kara exhaled through her nose and let her hand drift, almost without thought, to her stomach. The gesture steadied her, a small, defiant anchor against fear. It wasn’t weakness; it was awareness. And it reminded her what she carried wasn't hers alone.
“Fantastic,” she muttered under her breath.
“Love that for me.” She stayed where she was.
But turned to look at Nick. “I’m going to be fine,” she told him through their bond.
“Don’t do anything that would get you maimed or killed.
” He didn’t respond, but she could see the love for her and their baby deep in his eyes.
Kara knew it was killing him not to be able to protect her.
Especially after everything that had already happened in her past. Nick never left her side unless she demanded it, and even then, she was pretty sure he was always following her, showing not an attempt to control her, but just how scared he was of her going through any more torture.
All she could give him was a smile and reassure him that she would be okay.
The Troll King’s gaze hardened. “Do not mistake my patience for permission.”
Kara whipped her head around with a raised brow. “Do not mistake my hesitation for stupidity.”
Behind her, Nick’s low rumble rose again, the sound more felt than heard, an unfinished snarl of approval and warning combined. The air itself vibrated with it.
The king’s upper lip curved just slightly, and then the earth shifted beneath them. A deep crack split the stone floor, echoing through the cavern. The jolt forced Kara forward; one hand shot to the cage door while the other clutched her middle on pure instinct.
The hum she’d felt earlier surged back, no longer subtle but pulsing like a heartbeat under her feet. It climbed through her body and hit with the force of something alive. Her breath stuttered. This time it didn’t just surround her, it struck.
And it struck both of them. A flash of protective instinct ignited so fiercely it stole the air from her lungs. Every sense she owned sharpened. Nothing, nothing, was touching what was hers.
Her magic reacted before she could shape the thought. The witch blood tore open inside her, sudden and cold and violent, racing through her veins like winter wildfire. It recognized a threat and responded in kind.
The Troll King’s eyes lit with eerie interest. “There,” he said softly. “Again.”
Of course he’d notice. Wonderful.
Kara straightened, forcing composure she didn’t feel. Her heartbeat thundered for two. “Again what? My sparkling personality? Because I feel like you’re really fixating.”
“Step forward.” It wasn’t a request.
She glanced toward Nick, and instantly wished she hadn’t.
His face had gone beyond fury. What burned in his eyes now was fear: raw, undisguised terror that carved through every layer of composure.
Protective instinct reigned supreme in wolves, and when she saw it aimed wholly at her, at them, it nearly broke her resolve.
Her throat tightened. She gave a small shake of her head. “I’ve got this.”
Nick’s hands curved white-knuckled around the bars, iron groaning under his grip.
Kara could feel the wolf in him and he wanted blood, wanted escape, but he held.
The effort it cost him was visible everywhere, from the rigid line of his back to the tremor that ran through his jaw. Trust. Dangerous, sacred trust.
Kara drew a breath and stepped out of the cage.
The instant her foot touched the cavern floor, the magic erupted. The hum became a roar that filled her skull. Power surged out of the rock and struck like lightning, crawling up her legs, wrapping her spine, then spearing inward.
Her gasp echoed. One hand flew again to her stomach. No. No, no, no—
The force wasn’t content to touch; it pressed. Probing. Testing. Searching for something it had no right to find. Pain and panic braided together, stealing vision, warping sound until the world narrowed to heartbeat and heat and the unmistakable knowledge that something had recognized her.
Recognized them.
Her knees buckled, but she refused to fall.
Not here. Not now.
The witch blood stormed to the surface, dark as midnight, furious as a warrior running into battle. It lashed outward, instinct meeting instinct, shielding rather than attacking. Every particle of magic she held drew a barrier between what was hers and what was not.
The reaction was instantaneous.
The cavern shuddered. Flame from the torches snapped sideways, turning the chamber into a flickering storm of shadows. Trolls shifted uneasily, claws scraping stone, as invisible pressure rolled outward in a pulse strong enough to bend breath.
Even the Troll King halted.
Kara locked her jaw, struggling to keep her balance and her control. “Back off,” she ground out, not to the trolls, but to the thing that pulsed below this place.
And for a terrible second, it did more than listen. It was like it looked back.
She felt it touch the edge of her consciousness, something vast and ancient, consuming the space around her. It wasn’t curious. It wasn’t wary. It was hungry. And now it was aware of her and the life she carried.
Kara’s heart slammed. It didn’t like her. But at the same time it wanted to understand her.
Every survival instinct she owned roared awake. She shoved back, healer and witch, all colliding into one unyielding command: protect.
The pressure snapped like a cable giving way. Magic rushed outward and died, collapsing into silence so abrupt it rang. The hum vanished. The weight lifted.
Kara staggered but stayed upright, dragging oxygen into lungs that refused to work naturally. Her palm still clutched her abdomen; she could feel the life beneath her fingers, safe. For now.
The cavern held its breath. Every troll watched her like a mountain waiting to fall.
The king approached with deliberate care, his expression no longer speculative. Now it was certain. “I don’t believe you are what you claim,” he said. “You are more.”
“She is,” the fae male said, his voice held no inflection. “You should bring up the young one for her. That is the test that she needs. If she is what I believe she is, then she will pass it.”
Kara’s laugh came, thin but functional. “I’m not sure whether I should be flattered or offended.” She eased her hand down to her side, pretending calm she did not have.
The trolls murmured among themselves, low, confused, cautious. Not overtly aggressive anymore, but far from surrendering their suspicion.
The king tilted his head, eyes narrowing. “You carry corruption,” he said, his tone almost reverent. “And balance.”
Her stomach dropped. The description fit with horrible accuracy.
“And whatever lives beneath this realm,” his voice turned low enough that the cavern walls seemed to absorb it, “has taken notice of you.”
Kara huffed, the sound halfway between disbelief and exhaustion. “Yeah. I really wish it hadn’t.”
His attention sharpened to a point. “You will not leave,” he said. “Not yet.”
That broke whatever fragile restraint kept Nick still. He slammed into the bars a final time. “Like hell she won’t—”
The Troll King raised a hand.
Power rolled through the room like a silent concussion, and everyone froze, not out of compliance, but because the air itself had changed. The tone of the chamber shifted; no longer prisoner and captor, but something older, a circle closing around secrets too ancient to name.
The king turned to the fae, “You will go to the human realm and confirm what they claim, and what you believe her to be.” The fae male nodded and then vanished.
Kara swallowed hard.
This had gotten far more complicated than she’d feared. And for the first time since entering the Troll Realm, her terror was for a whole lot more than just the Troll King figuring out exactly what she was.