Chapter 49
SAPHIRA
The back of Kaeleron’s hand brushed mine as those dreadful footsteps echoed down the stone staircase and my breaths seemed impossibly loud in the chilly, damp air.
I hooked one finger around his, holding on to him, and steeled myself, my heart drumming in my head.
He shifted his hand, his fingers threading between mine, and that mark he had placed on the back of my neck warmed, the connection I felt with him now giving me the courage to face my fate.
And change it.
I was done letting fate screw me around.
I readied myself.
Only it wasn’t guards come to lead us to our deaths or even Lorien come to gloat.
It was Meiryn.
“What do you want?” I snarled and took a step towards her, rage rising swiftly to darken my heart as how she had betrayed me replayed in my mind to taunt me. “I never should have trusted you.”
Kaeleron growled as he looked from me to her, the feral sound pealing from his lips making her draw up short and back away a step.
I couldn’t blame her. Kaeleron might be caged, but he was darkness incarnate as he released my hand and prowled towards the front of his cell, closing the distance between him and Meiryn.
Inky night branched from his crimson eyes, and the inch long onyx claws that tipped his obsidian-painted fingers made a sound that sent a shiver down my spine as he raked them down the bars that separated them.
She swallowed and hurried past him, stopping at the door to my cell. “I am sorry. It was the only thing I could think of to stop him from killing you. I said the only thing I knew would ensure you ended up imprisoned and not executed right there in his office.”
She reached for the door of my cell, gripping the lock, and metal grated on metal.
I stared at her in disbelief as she unlocked my cell.
My foolish heart believed her, relief beating in it as I realised she had saved me by forcing Sylvan to remember the laws of this court, even if she had exposed my relationship with Kaeleron at the same time.
“I knocked the guards out, but they won’t be down long.
” Her words were hurried, hushed, and she kept casting glances at the stairs.
“It wasn’t hard to distract them long enough that I could take them both down before they could raise the alarm.
I am rather distracting.” She waved a hand down her shapely form, and a dress that pushed her breasts up so high they were almost spilling out of it. “Here.”
She shoved a satchel at me.
The satchel I had left in Sylvan’s office.
Filled with the books I had found there.
The evidence I had forgotten to tell Kael about, so swept up in the thought we were going to die that it didn’t matter. But it mattered now, because we were going to live.
“I found some more journals in his office, other than the ones you had picked. I snatched them all for you.” She offered a bundle of tan cloth. “You might need these too.”
I looked at the cloth she offered, feeling Kael’s gaze drilling into us as I did so, and unrolled it.
It was a pair of tan pants similar to the ones Kael wore, ones that were a little too large for me, and my dagger and belt.
I pulled the pants on, fastening them and then realising that wasn’t going to be enough to keep them up. I threaded the belt around them, cinching it tightly enough that it might keep them up, and then drew the dagger and handed it to Kaeleron through the bars.
Meiryn looked at me as if I had lost my mind, or endangered her life.
“He won’t kill you,” I said as I rifled through the satchel, counting twelve books now, not bothering to look at him because I knew without seeing him that he was toying with the dagger, no doubt looking at Meiryn as if she wasn’t about to enjoy the next few minutes of her life. “Will you, Kael?”
I did glance at him when he didn’t respond, catching him watching Meiryn with murder in his eyes.
He huffed and expertly twirled the dagger. “I shall not, even when you deserve it for hurting my little wolf. Unlock this door, seelie.”
“That tone and that look and those words do not make me want to do that.” Meiryn stood her ground, a defiant tilt to her jaw as she faced him.
“He has that kind of effect on people.” I took the key from the door of my cell and went to his, unlocking it for him. “He’s all talk and no action, I promise.”
Kaeleron stepped from the cell to loom like a malevolent shadow in front of Meiryn.
I caught his arm and stepped between them, pulling him behind me. “He’s some talk, very much some action. But he’s going to behave himself because you saved me. Right?”
I looked back at him.
And found him gazing at my nape with a fascinated, soft sort of look in his crimson eyes.
He lifted his black-tipped fingers and stroked them over his marks as he purred, “Mine.”
“Ill’aeth ky’aethena,” Meiryn whispered as she looked between us and then held her hands up when Kaeleron growled low. “I will not tell a soul. I promised I would not. The only people I care about in this court are my family and Saphira. I would never do anything that might hurt her.”
“You already hurt her.” His low spoken words sent a chill down my spine.
I turned and took hold of his hand. “She saved me. You always want to kill anyone who hurts me, but what about people who save me? What treatment do they get?”
He curled a lip, flashing a hint of fang. “I suppose they get to keep their life.”
“He’s delightful,” Meiryn muttered. “It’s fortunate he’s good with his cock, because his personality could use some work.”
He growled at her again.
Sensing I might really have to stop him from killing her if we didn’t move soon, I tugged him towards the exit.
“Wait.” Meiryn lunged towards us. “The army Sylvan amassed… a third of it is now stationed in the castle grounds, and the rest were moved. One of the soldiers I spoke to said something about Highborn Grove.”
“The map.” I looked at Kaeleron.
The darkness that shadowed his expression said it all.
“Sylvan intends to move against the Shadow Court.” I looked from him to her, the urgency I had felt doubling to a near overwhelming level as I thought about my home being attacked by that army, one that would still be several thousand men strong even with a third of it being stationed here now.
To trap us. To keep us from escaping. I reached for Meiryn.
“Come with us. Sylvan wants to kill us all. He’s been bringing all the heirs here just to kill us so he can take the throne for himself. You’re not safe here.”
She shook her head and placed her hand behind her back, beyond my reach.
“I can’t go with you. I finally realised my place is here, that it takes someone as kind and good as you to rule a court—no offence.
” She glanced at Kaeleron. “I want to restore it to what it once was—a place for all the people, not just the highborn. You made me see that is possible.”
He huffed and echoed my earlier words. “She has that kind of effect on people.”
“I will buy you time. Go to the garden near where we first trained. Someone is waiting for you there.” Meiryn ushered us towards the exit.
“No. Don’t risk yourself. You go and hide until this is over and do not let anyone see you.
I don’t want them knowing you were involved or suspecting you in any way.
” I took hold of her hand and squeezed it as I smiled, sure this wouldn’t be the last time we saw each other, and tried to lighten the mood by adding, “If you could just goad Lorien into doing something stupid and getting himself killed, that would be great… because you deserve the throne, and I’m sure you could make this place so much better.
You’re right… and you’ll make a good queen. ”
“I will take care of Lorien,” Kaeleron gruffly said, his eyes already on the exit, sharp and focused. “We must move. The guards are waking. If we do not deal with them, this female’s cover will be blown.”
I nodded, squeezed Meiryn’s hand one last time and forced myself to move, running up the stone steps behind Kaeleron. He made swift work of the guards Meiryn had hauled inside the doors, dragging my dagger across their throats, and then shoved the doors open.
A wall of men stood before us, their backs to us, someone barking instructions at them.
Kaeleron went very still as his gaze darted over everything, assessing our situation. My instincts said to run, to break right and head for the garden to meet whoever was waiting there. Gods, I hoped it wasn’t Lorien and this wasn’t another set up, another betrayal by Meiryn.
I quietly stepped in that direction, pulling on Kaeleron’s hand.
He refused to move and I didn’t like that look in his eyes.
I shook my head at him, silently telling him we couldn’t take on so many, not even when he had a blade.
That dampening field I had felt in Sylvan’s office was still active, holding my magic beyond my reach.
If we were to stand any chance of surviving and changing the ending of our love story from tragic to beautiful, then we had to move. We had to run. Now.
He snapped out of it and raced past me, heading in the direction I had been going.
We had made it halfway across the long courtyard when a group of guards stepped out from an archway that led to another part of the castle, deep in conversation that died as I skidded to a halt with Kaeleron.
There was a breath.
A beat in which no-one moved.
And then all hell broke loose.
One of the guards bellowed for reinforcements, drawing the attention of the force of close to one hundred men that had been receiving orders near the dungeon, his words ending in a garbled scream as Kaeleron swiftly ran the dagger across the male’s throat.
He dealt with the others in the small group in the same fashion, relinquishing my hand to fight them, creating a pile of bodies and a stark puddle of crimson that crept outwards across the pale flagstones.
Kael seized my hand and sprinted towards the smaller wall at the far end of the courtyard.