Chapter 38
KAELERON
The air around us vibrated as I slowly turned Saphira away from me, revealing the scars that marred her back.
A low growl rumbled up my throat. They were worse than I had imagined, far worse than the nightmares that had tormented me since Neve had told me that when I reached her, Saphira would bear these wounds.
As gently as I could manage as rage simmered in my veins, I stroked the backs of my inch long onyx claws down the line of a particularly brutal one that cut straight down her spine.
“My love.” My voice was low and thick, my throat tight as my eyes stung at what I beheld and the thought of what she had been through.
How she had suffered.
No amount of magic could erase these marks from her skin, but I could not stop myself from summoning a healing touch as I turned my hand and lightly ran my fingers along the line of each welt.
Whoever had done this to her had embraced the full potential of the Summer Court power, searing her skin to cauterise each wound, ensuring she would bear these scars for the rest of her life.
Marking her.
The ground beneath us trembled in the face of my wrath as I continued in silence, my heart darkening and a vicious hunger rising with each mark I attended, soothing it as best I could.
“Give me his name.” My tone was measured, calm despite the anger that vibrated within me, pushing for release as I held it back, struggling to contain it so I would not affect this court and give my presence in it away.
I did not stand a chance against the crushing wave of emotion that broke over me.
The thought of her suffering like this, being punished in this way, and forced to carry those scars until death, pushed me to the limit of my control.
And the thought that I had failed her, had allowed this to happen to her, and had not been here to prevent those scars that would be my eternal torment, left me feeling useless.
Weak.
I had left her vulnerable, and she had been hurt.
Gravely wounded.
Scarred.
Marked.
“How do you know about them?” Her quiet voice tried to pull me back from the abyss, and I clung to it, finding an anchor in it, a way of halting my slip into that dark void opening within me, spreading through me like inky tendrils as I stood there, unable to tear my gaze from her back.
I growled, “Neve saw them.”
She turned her head, trying to look over her shoulder at me. “And then she saw you here, with me.”
I nodded.
How close had I come to losing her?
Shadows blanketed the glade as that question haunted me, dredging up my fears, breathing life into them as I saw her being struck, witnessed each lash of the whip in my mind, and heard her screams in my ears.
Scented her blood.
Her tears.
“Kael,” she whispered and turned to me, hands rising to frame my face as her panicked blue eyes met mine. “I’m fine. I’m really fine. I’m extra fine now you’re here.”
I lifted my hands and covered hers, holding them to my face, absorbing the bliss of her sweet touch against my cold skin.
“You are not fine.” My words came out clipped, a little harsh, but I would not stand here and let her tell me she was fine when she was not, when someone had marked her. “Give me his name.”
Her lips flattened and she shook her head.
“Give me his name,” I snarled.
“No. You need to remain hidden and I know that in your current mood, you’ll go after the one who did it.” Her hands held my cheeks more firmly, as if that could keep me with her should I discover who had done this to her.
Who had marked my little wolf.
“The one who did this must pay.” I had never sounded so dark, so very wrathful.
I bled that hunger in my voice and my shadows, in the claws that ached to rip apart the one responsible for her scars.
“You will give me their name, little wolf.”
She shook her head.
Defiant.
Shadows did not just blanket the area now.
They exploded from me, shooting into the trees to snap every branch, to rend every flower, lancing every crystalline pebble in the stream and tearing into the earth at our feet as the air shook and the sky darkened.
Or would have darkened had my shadows not met an invisible sphere that surrounded me.
Containing me.
I growled and bared jagged fangs at the dragon shifter where she now stood a short distance away, her palms facing me, her pale blue eyes sharp with her focus as she wielded magic, constantly pouring it into the barrier that surrounded me to contain my wrath.
“Kael,” Saphira murmured.
I would not listen to her. I lashed at the invisible sphere with my shadows, the air around me growing heavier as the hunger to reach the other side of it, to unleash my wrath upon this wretched court, pounded in every fierce beat of my heart. I would not be denied.
“Kael!” Saphi gripped my face, twisting it towards her. “I’m fine. You’re here now. I’m fine. You need to calm down.”
“I will not calm down,” I snapped and attacked the barrier again, grinning as the dragon grunted and her face twisted with effort. She would break soon enough and the barrier would break with her, and then this court would pay for harming my little wolf.
“Ugh, you stubborn, reckless—” Saphira’s words cut off as she kissed me.
I stilled instantly, the feel of her mouth drifting across mine, the taste of her and the warmth of her as she pressed against me, making every shadow that had been sharp as a blade grow soft as a ribbon as they twined around her, embracing her and holding her close to me.
On a low growl, I wrapped her in my arms too, sinking into the distraction she had provided, clutching her tightly, clinging to her like the anchor I needed her to be as the storm of my rage and my dark wrath battered me. The feel of her in my arms. Back where she belonged. Back with me.
I broke the kiss and wrapped her more tightly in my arms, careful not to hurt her as I lowered my head to her shoulder and bent over her, as I held her close, needing to just feel her for a moment.
To know she was here. She was alive. She was safe now.
I told myself that on repeat as I conquered my desire to destroy this court, purging the darkness with her glorious light and warmth that filled my heart as her arms came up beneath mine and she wrapped them around me, her palms pressing into my shoulder blades.
The anger I had felt towards the dragon shifter for containing me turned to gratitude as I braved lifting my head and saw what I had done.
Ash-black earth stretched from beneath my boots, and the tree that had been caught within the sphere had been slashed to ribbons.
The barrier itself was visible now, the face of it fractured so badly that I was sure it would have given at any moment.
I looked at the dragon and dipped my head, silently thanking her, aware that if she had not cast the barrier, I would have given away my presence here in this court, and would have been forced to leave. Not because I feared the Summer Court or the accord, but because Saphira would have demanded it.
My little wolf eased her hands between us and they roamed up my arms to my shoulders, where they gently kneaded the tension from them.
She lifted her lips to mine again and kissed me softly before breathing a beautiful vow against them. “The one who gave me these scars will pay, but not yet. I am not strong enough yet… but when I am… I’m going to kill him.”
I liked that purred vow of vengeance and how bewitching she sounded as she spoke of her wrath, and that darkness I could feel in her.
“The little lamb bleeds darkness,” I murmured against her lips. “When the time comes, this male will suffer for what he did to you. His life is forfeit. If you command it, I shall be the weapon of your vengeance, my love, and this male will know my wrath.”
She trembled in my arms, her cheeks flushing and gaze growing hooded as she looked up at me, as if she liked the sound of that.
Great Mother, I ached to be that for her, to be the blade of her vengeance and watch her bathe in the glory of her victory over this male—one who I suspected was the heir who had attacked her in her sleep.
“Are you sure I cannot take you home?” I feathered my fingers across her rosy cheeks, keeping my tone light despite my burning need to get her away from this court, aware that if I commanded or demanded, she would rail against me. “I would make it worth your while.”
My grin was wicked. Teasing. Promising.
She mulishly shook her head. “I’m not leaving. You’re welcome to stay and risk your court, and be a stubborn ass, but I’m not leaving.”
“I am stubborn? You are stubborn,” I countered and refused to bend as her lips scrunched up in an adorable way and she looked as if she might strike me.
She knew I was right. She was being stubborn.
We both were. I sighed and swept a rogue strand of her silver hair from her brow.
“I do not care about my vengeance, Saphi. I only care about you.”
“I care,” she said. “My reason for staying isn’t about delivering you vengeance. I’m staying so I can find out who was behind it and maybe find out if they did anything to your brother before he ended up at the Stygian Isles. Have you seen him?”
I did not hesitate to shake my head. “Oberon says he does not wish to see his family. He says that shadows chase my brother and he is on a path of vengeance himself and will not involve us or the Shadow Court.”
“I’m sorry.” She wrapped me in her arms, pressing her cheek to mine as I stooped to hold her. “That’s awful. You’ve spent so long wondering what happened to him. He could have at least sent a letter.”
She was right. He could have. He could have slipped a letter to me through Oberon at any time, but instead he had chosen to remain dead to us.
He had chosen to let us live our lives forever wondering what had happened to him, one of us driven and tormented by a need to save him and a belief he was captive of the court who had murdered our parents, and the other believing him dead.
“Bastard. If I ever meet him, I’m going to kick his ass,” she muttered and I almost smiled.