Chapter 26
SAPHIRA
My wolf side went absolutely feral as that scent of wild and wintry storm swept around me and I barely leashed the growl of appreciation that rolled up my throat as I pivoted on my heel to face the other end of the grotty square.
I hadn’t picked it up through the clutter of scents in the town when we had arrived, but my instincts had, and it had made my wolf side crazy with a need to see him.
And here he was.
Glorious as he strode towards me with dark purpose, the light spilling from the open doors and windows glinting off his black metal armour and the silver accents on each piece that clad his lithe body. His long legs devoured the distance between us, and I couldn’t tear my eyes from him.
Neither could anyone else in the street.
I couldn’t blame them for staring.
He was magnificent.
He was mine.
He canted his head, the silver that capped his pointed ears flashing at me together with the hoops that followed the curve of his left one, and heat rolled through me, my wolf side snarling at the sight of him, at the wicked urge that pounded in my blood—I wanted to gently lift my hand and tease those caps from his ears, revealing their pointed tips so I could feather my fingers along them to make him groan.
To remind him that he was mine and of the power I held over him.
The twin braids that hung from behind his pointed ears shifted with each step, making me want to bury my fingers in his overlong black hair to pull the tie that held it back in a half ponytail, freeing it so I could twist it around my fingers as I kissed him.
His face was a picture of harsh wrath that almost concealed that flicker of warmth in his silver eyes as they clashed with mine.
That heat and amusement that said he knew what he was doing to me and he was loving it.
Bastard.
His sharp gaze raked over me in a leisurely perusal of my curves and that hint of hunger that laced them told me I wasn’t the only one who was affected by this chance meeting that the sensible part of me whispered was dangerous and would end in disaster.
The rest of me couldn’t bring myself to care.
Because gods, it was good to see him and to see he felt the same way.
I had all but forgotten my guards until they moved in front of me, forming a wall before me that had me close to snarling at their backs as they blocked my view of my beautiful, wrathful king.
I shifted a step to my right, so I could see him again, heart pounding and blood heating, body coming alive in a way that made me feel as if I had been dead these past few weeks without him.
All eyes were on him, not a single person looking at me beside Kaeleron, and I couldn’t stop myself from lifting my left hand and touching the spot where his brand had been, and then letting it drift lower until my fingers rested over my heart.
That spot that now warmed and filled with light that chased back the darkness that had hung over me in his absence.
“Hello, my beautiful little wolf,” he drawled as he kept his eyes on me. Only me.
As if no one here was a threat to him. As if their drawn swords meant nothing to him.
Gods, I wanted to run to him.
I wanted to throw myself into his arms and bury my face in his neck as I held him so tight, and wanted to feel his arms wrapping tightly around me in return. I needed to hear him say that my being seelie had changed nothing and that heat in his eyes wasn’t imagined.
Sylvan finally drew his blade.
“I will take you back,” Kaeleron snarled as he flexed black-tipped fingers, darkness branching from his brightening eyes.
My breath hitched in my throat as he disappeared in a swirl of shadows.
The guard to my right didn’t see him coming.
One moment he was readying his sword.
The next, his throat was spilling blood like a waterfall.
His gargled panicked sounds as he went down rang in my ears, but I couldn’t look at him, I couldn’t tear my gaze from Kaeleron as he grinned, flashing jagged teeth, and stepped into the next male, gutting him with his inch-long black claws.
The commander closed ranks with me, three men joining him to hem me in on all sides, and Sylvan launched into the fray as a fight broke out.
Panic lanced me, spreading cold through my heart as I shoved at the males blocking me in, my wolf side not just feral now, but wild and crazed as a desperate need to see Kael shot through me.
I grunted as I pressed my palms to the commander’s back and shoved with all my strength, managing to force him away from me.
Air rushed into my lungs again as my gaze sought and found Kaeleron.
He battled five guards at once, using only his bare hands and his shadows to defend and attack, and managed to take down another, but it didn’t give him the reprieve he needed to draw his sword.
Another male took his place.
Sylvan.
My breath lodged in my throat as Kaeleron dodged backwards, barely evading the swing of Sylvan’s blade as it cut through the air at chest height.
Kaeleron’s silver gaze flicked to me.
The seelie were wrong about his motives.
They believed he meant that he would take me captive again, because they believed us enemies.
The truth that blazed in his eyes was for only me to know, because I had been there on that clifftop with him in Falkyr, and I had never forgotten what he had said to me that day.
If anyone dared to take me from him, he would destroy this world to take me back.
This battle wasn’t an attempt to kill me.
It was a wild, impulsive attempt to take me back.
To protect me.
To save me.
But he was outnumbered, unable to fight so many at once, even with his shadows and the sword he had finally managed to draw.
Sylvan swung again, and Kaeleron failed to fully block the blow with his blade. He grimaced as it slammed into his pauldron with enough force to dent it.
My blood ran cold as ice.
They were going to kill him.
White fur rippled over my skin.
Like hell they were going to kill him.
I drew my dagger with one hand and sank into the light, letting it fill me, blocking out the sound of the fight and Kaeleron’s grunt as Sylvan lifted a boot and shoved it into his stomach, kicking him backwards.
Giving me the opening I needed.
The whole world shifted around me, a whirl of colour and light as warmth lapped at my skin, and my wolf side bayed for Kaeleron.
I slammed into him as I stumbled from the teleport, still not sticking the landing, and was quick to recover, bringing my blade up against his throat and forcing his head up.
He raised his hands at his sides and stared down his nose at me, a grin curling his lips.
“The little wolf has new tricks,” he drawled.
A trick I had wanted to show him. Proof that I was what Sylvan had said I was, that fae blood ran in my veins, that I was seelie.
His silver eyes remained warm, filled with unmistakable love as his shadows snaked around my ankles and up my calves in a tender touch. A touch that told me how badly he needed to feel me, to hold on to me.
As badly as I needed to feel and hold on to him.
I put on a show for Sylvan and the guards, shoving the sharp edge of my blade closer to Kaeleron’s throat, making him tip his head up further to avoid being cut. “You shouldn’t have come here.”
He grinned down at me. “Going to put me to the blade, little wolf?”
“Maybe,” I snapped. “I haven’t decided yet.”
His smile grew feline. “I did not think you were into this sort of thing, but if you like a little knife play…”
I shoved him in the chest, and might have lingered a moment, enjoying the connection between us. “You’re disgusting.”
He chuckled low. “It surprises me to find your tastes run so dark, yet I must admit this is rather… arousing. I find I like having your blade at my throat almost as much as I enjoyed your fangs.”
My cheeks heated and I prayed to my ancestors none of the seelie saw it as I glowered at him. “Stop talking.”
His grin widened. “Or what? You will cut me?”
I pressed my blade to his throat and grimaced when I did accidentally cut him. He was a grown male. He could handle it and it probably made this whole thing look a lot more convincing.
That flash of darkness in his eyes had nothing to do with anger and everything to do with the other ‘A’ word he had used.
“We’re leaving and you had better not try to stop me. You understand?” I stepped back but kept my dagger close to his throat.
The wild look in his eyes cut me to my soul.
I stared at him, hoping he could read my eyes as easily as I could read his. I would be fine. He had to let me go. I knew he wanted to keep me with him, and gods, I wanted to be back with him, but I wasn’t done yet. I couldn’t come home yet.
I forced myself to take another step back. “I’m with my people now.”
Darkness shrouded his handsome features as Sylvan came to me, as he caught my arm and pulled me away from Kaeleron.
“I’m with my people now,” I repeated, making sure he had gotten the veiled message and cursing Sylvan for interrupting, drawing Kael’s focus to him instead.
Kaeleron’s silver gaze inched back to me, the fury that blazed in it abating just enough to let me know he understood what I was really telling him.
I had Dani. Dani was safe. I would always be a wolf and he knew that.
Movement at the exit of the alleyway had my gaze snapping there. Jenavyr strode from the darkness, black leather armour hugging her curves, her silver eyes bright as they landed on me and then darkening as they drifted to her brother, snaring on the small cut on his throat.
Riordan followed her.
They were both fine.
My knees weakened a little at the sight of them both well, unharmed, after what Sylvan had said about them. I was so glad they were fine. I had feared the worst, had feared Sylvan’s men had killed one or both of them, but here they were.
Sylvan supported me and muttered in my ear. “They will not harm you, Saphira. We are leaving.”
He thought my reaction had been born of fear, not relief, and I wasn’t about to correct him. Let him think I was weak and needed protecting, that what I had done in confronting Kaeleron alone had suddenly caught up with me and now I was shaken.
I would suffer him thinking I was some weak female if it meant he would leave without fighting Kaeleron again and he and my friends would be safe.
“You lied about them.” Kaeleron’s tone seethed with darkness and his shadows pooled around his feet, tendrils of them slithering towards me, reaching for me. “You tricked me into surrendering her.”
Sylvan hadn’t hurt them. The steward had only pretended that was the case to force Kaeleron to back down and let me go.
“She is mine,” Kaeleron growled.
And my heart warmed, all that fear that had darkened it in our time apart banished by the light his words poured into it.
I was his, and he was mine.
Nothing and no one would change that.
Kaeleron’s gaze narrowed on me, the black slashes of his eyebrows lowering as the corners of his lips turned downwards.
“If I had my way, I would drag you to the tower in the bay… or perhaps just chain you and wait for high water at night… or better yet, let my spymaster deal with you. The demon is itching to get his hands on you again, my little wolf.”
“He’ll be waiting a long time,” I snapped and then added, “You’ll be waiting a long time.”
His lips curled into a slow smile that heated my blood. “I am patient. I will wait for eternity if it means I get my hands on you again.”
Vyr and Riordan came to flank him, both seizing one of his arms as he lunged for me, all glorious fangs and claws.
“Why must you be so cruel to me?” I burst into tears, probably my best performance yet as I dredged up all my horrible memories and my grief and pretended to break down, turning towards Sylvan as I heaved great shuddering sobs that shook my shoulders.
Sylvan was quick to growl at Kaeleron and curl a protective arm around me as he ushered me away. The seelie fell into place around me, a wall of muscle with Sylvan in front of me and the commander at my back, and escorted me down an alleyway near the witch’s house.
My wolf side howled and raged at the surface of my soul in response to my need to go back to Kaeleron and that distance I felt growing between us.
I focused on what he had told me, running it through my mind, picking out the pieces of the veiled message hidden within it.
Tower. High. Water. Night.
A location where Malachi would be waiting for me each night.
My lips flattened and I growled, hoping Kael heard it and knew it was aimed at him because he deserved it for bringing it up again, teasing me with how I hadn’t been able to remember the name of that stupid place on the map in the war room when he had been drilling me on the courts.
One I was going to need to really hone my ability to teleport and go invisible if I was going to reach it with Danica.
High Vellswater.