Chapter 45
KAELERON
My little wolf’s face lit up as I issued that question with a rakish sort of smile, asking her whether she wanted to go on an adventure with me. I knew what the answer would be before she gave it up to me.
“Yes.” She picked up her holster of knives and slipped into it, so the short blades sat against her ribs. “What sort of adventure?”
I smiled at how she agreed first and clarified second, revealing her eagerness to do something different—something with me.
“I wish to go to the Great Library, a place near High Vellswater where I once visited and borrowed—”
“Stole,” she corrected.
“Many books,” I finished without missing a beat. “Some of which yielded interesting information about the steward and the running of this court. I wish to see if there are more books there, ones I might have missed. I wish to find more information on your first cousin once removed.”
“Is that what he is?” She pulled a face at me, her lips twisting in a way that spoke of her displeasure.
“He wants the heirs to call him uncle because Sylas was like a brother to him. It’s all very diabolical and I don’t want to hear him spoken of as my uncle or my first cousin.
I don’t want to think of him as family.”
She stomped away from me, heading for the place Arianell called home.
“Is that not what he is?” I caught up with her in a handful of strides, falling into step beside her, acting innocent when she glared at me, that delightfully mulish twist to her lips making me want to kiss it away.
“It’s bad enough when Lorien calls himself my brother.” She shuddered. “Or when he calls me sister.”
“That is a problem you shall not have to live with for much longer.” I grinned down at her, showing my emerging fangs as I thought about the punishment that male was due.
“He will soon be one among many stored in the tower by the bay, waiting for me to take him out to toy with him and teach him on repeat that he should never have laid a hand on you.”
She had been looking as if she wanted to chastise me for something but that flicker of darkness awakened inside her, alluring and beautiful, and I knew the path of her thoughts.
“When you return home, you may have some time with the prick.” I pulled my tunic jacket on and buttoned it. “I can school you in that too. I shall call the lesson ‘how to make your asshole mate suffer’. Did I say that correctly?”
“Yes, and I really don’t think you should be picking up mortal curse words. I’m a bad influence,” she muttered more to herself than to me.
We reached the spot by the stream where Arianell waited, her bare feet dangling in the clear water as she sat with her head tilted back, her arms braced behind her to keep her upright as she gazed at the sky.
“We’re going to the Great Library.” Saphira sounded as if she was going to ask the dragon shifter if she wanted to come.
Arianell waved her away, drawling, “Do have fun. There is nothing more boring in my mind than books.”
She was such a contrast to Neve, who devoured every book given to her and collected shiny things.
Saphira muttered something beneath her breath and checked her weapons again before she looked at me.
“So what’s the problem? Why am I included on this little adventure?
Because last time you were off somewhere dangerous you were quite adamant about not taking me anywhere near it.
So you must have a problem. Is it because you can’t teleport far? ”
“Do not speak of my inability to counteract the wards on this land as if it is a failing, or that I have fallen short or not up to some standard.” I picked up my satchel and emptied it, giving us two bags to fill with books.
My gaze roamed to the dragon as I pointed to the letters and scrolls, tucked neatly beneath the shelter of my tent.
“That is my hoard. My treasure. If you touch it, I shall remove every tooth from your head one by one, while you are in your dragon form, with my sword. Do you understand?”
Arianell curled her lip at my hoard. “I would not touch it if my life depended upon it. It looks rather dreary to me.”
“Says the female who collects sticks.” I passed one satchel to Saphira, who did not hesitate to take it.
“And as for you, my little wolf, yes, I require your ability to teleport vast distances, but it is not a failing on my part, merely an inconvenience, and I would have taken you regardless… because I fear my beautiful wolf needs to run a little wild for a time.”
“If you’re trying to cheer me up, it’s working.” She took hold of my hand, and then grabbed the other, as if she did not trust she was strong enough to keep hold of me during the teleport and feared losing me.
She gazed up at me, that happy glint to her blue eyes making me feel the risk was worth it.
I would take her with me into the deepest, darkest pit in Lucia, where foul things lurked, if it would make her smile like that.
Of course, I would wrap her in shadows the whole time, protecting and shielding her, but I would do it.
I would do anything to make her happy.
To lift her mood.
“I am glad.” I curled my fingers around her hands, firmly holding them. “Are you ready?”
“No,” she bit out. “I’m not sure I can teleport that far. I’ve never tried. The furthest I’ve teleported is from High Vellswater to the tower on the island. This… it might be too far. Can’t we just take the waygate? I can work it.”
I slowly shook my head. “The waygate is not an option. It is likely warded against unseelie and might alert someone to my presence in this court.”
Her mouth flattened. “Teleporting it is then.”
“You can do this, Saphira. Just focus on where you want to be and keep your focus on that point. Long teleports require more concentration, but they are easily managed once you have practiced them. Think of this as another lesson.”
She nodded and drew down a deep breath, and then another, and then she closed her eyes, a little crease forming between her dark silver eyebrows as she steadied her breathing.
Heat and light shimmered around her and then me, and then it engulfed us both, the brightness of it so blinding that I closed my eyes too, shutting out the glittering gold that swirled around us.
Then the ground became solid beneath my boots again.
“I did it!” Saphira’s soft voice rang in my ears, her delight caressing my heart with warm fingers, and I opened my eyes to smile down at her.
She had never looked so proud, or so tired.
That pride echoed in my chest too.
“I will take it from here. Rest, my love.” I scooped her up with one arm, sitting her upon it, and she wrapped her arms around my neck as I pulled her into a teleport of my own, darkness whirling around us as I held her to me and transported us across the court in a series of short hops that exhausted me.
We landed on a pale stony bluff overlooking the Great Library, close enough that I would be able to see any guards who might patrol the grounds or any movement within it, but far away enough that they would not sense us.
Saphira remained holding on to me, her breaths coming too fast for my liking, the exertion from teleporting so far taking a greater toll on her than I had expected.
“I should have factored in the training we undertook and waited for you to recover your strength before making you bring me here. I am sorry, my love.” I wrapped her in my arms and guided her down to sit on the stone that was still warm from the day. “Rest here while I scout.”
She nodded and when I went to move, she caught my shoulder. “I’m fine. I’ll be fine. I can teleport us back when you need me to. I can do it.”
I crouched before her, holding her shoulders. “I know. I am not questioning your ability to do so. I will rest myself while I scout. I do not intend to leave you. I am merely going to watch the comings and goings below. You could watch with me.”
She brightened. “Another lesson. I think we’ll call this one ‘how to infiltrate a library’ which seems to be a specialty of yours, given what you said and what I’ve read about you.”
We moved to the edge of the bluff together, sitting in stillness as we observed the world below us.
“I have only ever infiltrated one library and that is the one below.” My lips pursed as I tasted that lie and another time unfurled in my mind.
“No… two. I once infiltrated the library of Everspire Castle in a visit there, but in my defence, I was rather drunk and it was Rhyn’s idea.
He had heard from Beleron that Valenyr had a rather…
interesting collection of books of a more erotic nature.
I was young, and a little reckless, and we did not think Valenyr would notice his guests had wandered off from the feast given how freely the mead was flowing and how caught up he was in admiring the daughters of Varan who were vying for his attention. ”
“Everspire Castle. The Night Court?” Her gaze scalded the side of my face as I nodded, glad she had remembered the information I had drilled into her during her lessons in the war room. “Beleron… Valenyr. Valenyr must be the Night King. Varan. Which court are they? Varan and Beleron?”
“Varan is king of the Forsaken Court, and Beleron is king of the Twilight Court. Varan does not like me, since I have strong ties to Beleron, and Beleron was the one who took his daughters to bed that night, deflowering them both.”
“Remind me never to attend any of the parties in this realm. Remind me to never let you attend them either. Every party in this land is debauched in one way or another.” She squinted at something and then shrugged it off, clearly having decided she had not spotted anything of interest. Her gaze burned the side of my face again.
“How many daughters have you deflowered? You know what, I don’t want to know. ”
“One,” I said.
She darkened. “Who?”
I grinned. “You.”
She let out a long sigh. “Besides me.”