Chapter 21
KAELERON
The motes of light drifting above the three-dimensional map in the centre of the war room danced lower as I reached for another carved wooden piece and assessed where to put it.
I did not look up as the heavy fortified door creaked open, allowing fresh air to roll into the windowless room, not even when my sister halted beside me.
“The people?” My gaze roamed to the miniature of Falkyr on the map.
“Everything is under control.” She watched as I placed the piece near Wraith Wood and then moved the marker for the fleet out into the strait.
Matching the orders I had issued just moments ago to the commanders of those battalions under the pretence of sending them out on manoeuvres.
Something I imagined my sister had learned about by now and that was the reason she was here, watching me like a hawk.
“You did the right thing. Fighting the dragon here would have been too dangerous to the people and the city would have suffered for it, and I do not think we need to be focused on rebuilding the main thoroughfare and warehouses right now.” She tracked my hand as I plucked another piece from the board and weighed it in my hand, debating whether I should have dispatched them to Belkarthen after all.
“A battle between the dragon and a member of this court will happen sooner rather than later, but I do not think I will be his adversary.” I carefully positioned the piece near the southern city.
As much as I despised Belkarthen now when I had once loved it, they were still my people.
They deserved protection as much as those living within the broad expanse of Wraith Wood or within Falkyr. “Neve accepted my bond.”
Jenavyr let out a breath, as if she had been holding it for all the decades we had known Neve.
All the decades the dragon had refused to leave her sanctuary and accept my bond.
I had not been strong enough to gift her with a bond that was powerful enough to conceal her when we had met, but in time my magic had grown, the power I wielded becoming strong enough to give her the protection she needed.
She had still denied me.
Was her change of heart due to the presence of the male dragon or the fact she had seen her twin in a vision?
I moved one of the carved wooden ships south to Belkarthen too.
“It has been a very long time since Neve roamed freely.” Jenavyr drifted around the table and I glanced at her as she reached for the piece I had just placed, deftly plucking it from the map and inspecting it.
Her silver eyes lifted to meet mine over it.
“I know that, but I will keep her safe.” I held my hand out to her but she did not give me the piece.
She toyed with it, her long fingers turning it back and forth as she charted the positions of every marker I had moved, as if she had put them to memory before I had come here to strategise.
“What are you doing?” The long black braids she wore before her pointed ears fell forwards as she leaned over again, her leather-clad hips and under-bust corset touching the map, and put the marker back near Falkyr.
I moved it back to Belkarthen. “Preparing the court. I must ensure its safety.”
She idly picked up one of the markers near Ereborne, that of the Nightmare Court fleet, and curled a lip at it.
Once upon a time, she and Kalyn the Clawed had been inseparable.
The fast friendship they had developed as children in Belkarthen, long before he had become Nightmare King, had withered and died just as quickly once she had been moved to Falkyr.
“Strange,” she murmured with a playful smile, “I thought the orders I saw stated the troop movements were something akin to training.”
“That is what I told the other commanders.” I assessed the pieces placed around my court, and those of the other courts, making sure all were positioned as detailed in the latest reports from my spies. “I did not wish to reveal my hand.”
She moved around the table to my right side and picked up a small carved figure of a male in a long jacket with his hand raised. “Why have you moved the warlocks to the border with the Black Pass? Are you expecting trouble?”
“I am always expecting trouble.” I took the piece and set it back into position.
“I merely tasked them with shoring up the barrier magic with an additional ward in that particular area since the Silver Court breached the borders there. I want to make sure no seelie can pass into this court without me knowing about it.”
Her gaze followed my hands as I moved the boats that marked the rest of the Shadow Court fleet out into the open water and settled some down the coast. “You are acting as if you are expecting betrayal. I hope you are not expecting it from Saphira, because she has protected you and she has helped this court, and you, and I am sure that she continues to do that.”
“No,” I snarled, flashing fangs at her. “I am not expecting betrayal from Saphira.”
She was quiet for a moment before she carefully said, “Elduin will hear of it.”
“Good. He will have his answer then.”
“Answer?” She looked at the troops positioned in the west and then the fleet along the eastern coast, and asked, “What message are you sending with this display of power and preparedness?”
I told her what the high king had said to Saphira at the ball, and the things he had called her, and the rage I had felt then brewed within me now, as violent and seething as it had been that night.
My claws were out by the time I said, “Elduin threatened war with the Shadow Court if I choose to call her anything but whore, and since I am going to choose to call her queen, I am preparing for his wrath.”
Anger simmered in my sister’s eyes as she glared at the small citadel of Ereborne on the map.
“If he wishes for war, then he shall have one. I shall not let him speak of Saphira like that.” The fires of her rage softened to warmth as she lifted her gaze to me. “But I am glad to hear you wish for her to be your queen, brother.”
I had thought she would be furious with me for endangering the court rather than furious with Elduin and accepting there would be a war between our courts before long. I would not waste a moment. As soon as Saphira was home, I would make her my queen.
“I will help in whatever way I can, Kael.” She placed her hand over mine. “Just tell me what you need me to do.”
I nodded and placed my other hand over hers, completing the tangle, grateful for her support. “I have tasks for everyone, because I will need you all to help me if I am to be successful.”
She smiled that smile at me, that one that was branded on my mind—the smile she had given me the first time she had seen what Saphira was doing to me, how the little wolf was softening my sharp edges and bringing light back into the darkness of my soul.
Drawing out the male I had once been.
“Do not give me that look. You will not like your task.” I took hold of her hand and placed it over my arm as I led her to the door, and ignored her expectant and demanding gaze as it drilled into the side of my face while we walked along the corridor, heading for the courtyard.
The light was at its brightest, dimming the aurora that streaked the star-flecked sky, as we stepped out into the three-sided courtyard and crossed it in the direction Saphira’s pack had made their encampment, and the garrison.
Malachi strode out from behind the other side of the building, dressed head to toe in his black leather armour, his onyx wings furled against his back and the golden tips of his curved horns gleaming in the low light.
I was glad he was back, and was sure his report was waiting on my desk, but I was curious too as I noticed the bundle of books he held tucked against his broad muscular chest, and his destination.
The wolf pack.
I charted his course, and was not surprised to find Everlee standing at the end of it, speaking with two females from her pack, closely watched by Chase and Morden as the alpha and beta discussed something.
The redheaded female noticed the demon approaching and did not shy away from him as she did with others.
As she withdrew into herself when she noticed myself and Jenavyr.
“She seems comfortable with Mal,” Vyr said, a softness in her voice that told me she was already fond of the female.
“I hope she will be comfortable with us all given time. Her caution around us is understandable.” Even if it did provoke that darker side of me that wanted to frighten her, that wanted to see her fear and feast on it.
I clamped iron shackles on that part of me, pulling it down deep, refusing to let centuries of allowing the darker side of me to run rampant get the better of me and undo all our hard work.
Well, all of Chase and Morden’s hard work. And perhaps Malachi’s too.
The demon was the bridge between us, one that might soften her view of us as she came to know us through him and allow her to trust us. Not all fae were as barbaric as the seelie who had abused her, not even me.
The petite wolf female’s green eyes brightened as they returned to Malachi, and she did not seem to notice how her companions made excuses and left her alone with him.
She did not seem afraid. She seemed as comfortable with him as Jenavyr had observed, as comfortable as she had been the night Malachi had carried her out of that mansion to safety.
I signalled to Chase, catching his attention with my shadows as they tugged at his right leg. The blond alpha wolf frowned down at them and then at me, his pale blue eyes narrowed in a way that told me exactly what he thought about my summoning him in this manner. I did not care.
The shadows snared Morden too, tugging them both towards the expanse of sand where Riordan’s squad were training.
When the wolves began moving of their own volition, I released them, and noticed Jenavyr had moved ahead of me and now stood at the edge of the training ring with some of the soldiers, watching the pairs of males on the sand as they sparred with each other.
Or perhaps it was one male in particular she watched with unabashed interest.