Chapter Forty-Eight #2
Kage pulled Bryn close again, reclaiming him with desperate tenderness. He guided him down onto the thick fur, hands gliding over familiar scars, lips following in slow, deliberate worship. He kissed every mark left by betrayal, as though he could smooth the past away with nothing but his mouth.
In the dark of the mountain, with wolves breathing softly around them and the night pressing close, they held on to one another—not as kings or princes, nor as cursed souls—but simply as two broken men seeking warmth in a world that had given them none.
Kage felt that impossible stirring the moment he entered Bryn and moved with him, slow and deliberate, as though memorising the shape of him. Bryn’s breath caught, his voice breaking softly in the darkness as he whispered Kage’s name like a prayer offered to a forgotten god.
And when they reached that fragile, trembling edge together; bodies entwined, breath mingling, the world reduced to heat and heartbeat, Kage could have sworn he felt it.
One single, defiant thud within his chest. A heartbeat where there should have been none.
As though Bryn’s cry of his name when they both came together had coaxed life back into something long buried.
Sleep did not claim him. The dead did not sleep.
But he lay there through the long stretch of night, Bryn curled against his chest, their limbs tangled beneath the furs. Kage listened to the steady rhythm of Bryn’s breathing, to the soft shifting of wolves nearby, and for the first time in an age, he felt something dangerously close to peace.
When the first thin ribbons of dawn began to seep through the mouth of the cave, he sensed the inevitable pull, the tether tightening. Soon he would be dragged away again.
Yet the dread did not hollow him out as it once had.
He smiled when Bryn’s blue eyes fluttered open, still heavy with sleep. Bryn leaned forward and pressed a gentle kiss to the tip of Kage’s nose.
‘I don’t want to move,’ Kage said, tightening his hold, as though strength alone might anchor him to this world.
Bryn smiled a soft, unguarded smile. ‘I don’t want to either.’
They lingered like that, unwilling to surrender the moment. Fingers traced familiar paths across skin; lips met in slow, unhurried kisses, as if they had all the time in the world.
Until the wolves rose to their feet.
A low growl rippled through the cave, sharp and warning, and the fragile stillness shattered.
Kage felt it again—that invisible hook sinking into his spine, the familiar, merciless tug of the Underworld claiming what belonged to it. The air thinned around him, the world already beginning to blur at the edges. But before the pull could wrench him away, something else shifted.
A presence.
Not wolf. Not Bryn.
Other.
Bryn had felt it too. Kage saw it in the way his body stilled, in the sharp turn of his head towards the cave’s mouth.
Too late.
Two figures stepped into the narrow entrance, silhouettes cut against the paling dawn, blades already drawn. Steel flashed in the dim light.
Kage recognised the armour before his mind caught up with the sight of it.
Valkyrians.
‘Grab them,’ one barked, surging forward towards Bryn while the other lunged for Kage.
The wolves reacted first.
A wall of fur and teeth exploded between them, snarls reverberating against the cave walls. The valkyrians stumbled back, swords raised defensively as the pack advanced, hackles lifted, fangs bared.
‘Who are you?’ one demanded, her stance firm despite the wolves circling.
‘Kage Blackburn,’ he answered quickly, lifting his hands in surrender to show he meant no threat. ‘And that is Bryn Wynter.’
The names hung in the air.
Both valkyrians exchanged wary glances—recognition flickering there, but no easing of their grip on their weapons. That alone unsettled Kage.
‘Why are valkyrians here?’ he asked, pulse tightening as the Underworld’s pull gnawed more insistently at him.
‘We arrived weeks ago,’ the taller of the two replied. She did not lower her sword. ‘We’ve come to protect Velunthar.’
Bryn’s voice was rough beside him. ‘Protect it from what?’
‘Witches.’
The word echoed like a crack of thunder.
Kage frowned. ‘And how do you know witches are coming for Velunthar?’
The second valkyrian stepped forward slightly. Her hair was red. Not merely red, but flame-bright, as though fire itself had chosen to rest upon her shoulders.
‘They destroyed the city of Floridia,’ she said, jaw tight. ‘It stands to reason they’ll march on Velunthar next. And once that falls, they’ll push into wolverian lands to continue onto the Kingdom of Darkness.’
Silence followed.
The wolves’ growls softened, but did not cease.
Kage nodded slowly.
It did make sense.
‘We’re making our way to Velunthar,’ Bryn explained, dragging his shirt back over his scarred shoulders, movements sharp with irritation.
‘Good,’ the red-haired valkyrian replied. Her hair burnt like a live flame in the thinning dawn, and before either of them could so much as inhale, she moved.
Steel flashed.
She seized Bryn from behind, hauling him back against her chest, the edge of her blade kissing the vulnerable hollow of his throat.
‘Keep your pets in control,’ she warned.
The wolves surged forward with furious snarls, teeth gleaming. Bryn stiffened but raised a hand, breath steady despite the sword poised at his skin. The pack obeyed, though their growls rolled low and dangerous through the cave.
The second valkyrian stepped to Kage’s side, his attention shifting between her and the first pale streaks of sunlight creeping over the mountain ridge.
‘We’re not warlocks,’ Bryn spat, struggling against the restraint.
‘Bryn,’ Kage said quietly, calmly. ‘Just do as they say. It will be fine.’
For a heartbeat, the fury in Bryn’s blue eyes blazed.
Then it softened.
Reluctantly, he nodded.
They were forced back onto the narrow mountain path, the wind cutting sharp against their skin. The wolves followed close behind, circling, snarling, teeth bared but they did not attack.
Kage could feel it now.
The sun climbing.
The pull deepening.
‘Bryn,’ he said, keeping his voice steady as the world began to feel thin around him. ‘I’ll be back tonight. Hold on until I return.’
Both valkyrians shot him bewildered looks.
Bryn did not question him.
He simply nodded again.
Trust, fierce and unshaken, burnt in his eyes.
Kage smiled at it.
And then he felt the Underworld claim him.
The ground beneath him split open without warning, a jagged seam tearing through stone and earth. Shadow coiled upward like smoke given hunger, wrapping around his legs, his waist.
The valkyrians stumbled back in horror.
The wolves howled.
And in the blink of an eye, Kage was dragged downward, swallowed whole by darkness, leaving nothing behind but the echo of the mountain wind and the stunned silence of those who had witnessed the impossible.