Chapter 32
Wolfe
“The Sound Beneath the Silence.”
Isearched the air, desperate for answers.
My heart willed the Nyzith strands to return, or for some gods-damned thing to happen. Anything but the vague nothingness before us.
But all Elariya and I faced as we stood side by side on the stone balcony was an invisible wall of obscurity, our fates fraying at the edges.
The Nyzith strands were gone with no trace, no reason. Just silence and more uncertainty.
Though, something lingered in the air. A haunting whisper. A pull that throbbed in my blood like a distant hum, low and wrong, beckoning me toward the caves where my dragons lived.
Elariya felt it, too—the thrum in the air, the tension that had nothing to do with the gusting wind. The recognition pulsed in her through the bond of the shackles and the tremble of her small hand in mine.
Apart from my dragons, whom Elariya was never going to see, I couldn’t think of anything that was in the caves. Nothing that could help me find the ring or break our curses. Nevertheless, I’d learned long ago that magic never whispered without a purpose.
And silence? Silence was just the pause before fate screamed.
So, if we were being directed to the caves, something was there.
Everything was a message. Everything we’d seen so far.
Arielle spoke true. No one had seen Nyzith strands for decades. Yet I’d seen them twice.
There was also Elariya’s dream, which wasn’t exactly a dream. Mages didn’t have dreams about destiny. The same way they were able to tap into the Fray’s magic, they shared a connection with destiny that allowed them to receive messages.
When destiny wanted to intervene, it sent guidance. In her case, it probably worked through her family’s attempts to find her.
Destiny would never interfere with a curse bound by blood, but it would certainly help where it could, where it was supposed to set you back on the right path.
Since Elariya was my tracker, everything happening around her—in her dreams and reality, destiny related or not—was a sign, a guide back to the ring.
A fucking map. But I was too blind to read it.
Even with the helping hand from destiny, I didn’t know what the fuck any of it meant or how to start deciphering the clues. All I’d been left with was a botched-up spell that hadn’t worked and more questions that needed answers.
Why were Elariya and I the only ones who could see the Nyzith strands?
Why had they appeared to us?
What was I supposed to do now?
The only thing I could do was check the caves for anything new and take it from there.
Elariya was still staring at the jagged line of caves now shrouded in mist.
I watched her. She looked like she’d been marked by the strands. Touched by something holy or cursed. Maybe both.
My mage.
The words still echoed in my mind, venomous and unbidden.
Fuck. I’d lost my shit with Garrick and let too much slip.
I couldn’t stand him touching her, and his concern enraged me. I could have killed him. Garrick, one of my oldest friends, my Bloodsworn.
I'd picked him to guard Elariya because of the four of us, he was the most civil—nice. Yet I'd acted like a hellhound when he tended to her.
That said, I knew he was attracted to her. The only males in my Veythral I knew for certain who weren't were Bastian because he only had eyes for Arielle—whether he wanted to admit it or not—and Sirril, only because woodland sprites didn't tend to mix outside their species.
The look on Elariya's face upon hearing me call her my mage was permanently burned into my mind. Though she shouldn't have been surprised. I'd already told her she was mine. It didn't matter if I wasn't taking full advantage of such a claim, she was still mine.
Those things weren't important now. I needed to figure out what went wrong with the spell and find a way to fix it.
I'd never seen a spell react the way ours had, but it was still the only viable idea I had to track the ring.
I released Elariya’s hand. She gazed up at me, her face filled with determination.
“I'm going with you.” Her voice held a bold edge I hadn't heard before.
“And where am I going?” I stared back at her with raised brows.
“Obviously, the caves.”
I leaned in, breaching her personal space. She flinched but still managed to keep that firm look in her eyes. “You are not to go anywhere near those caves.”
“Why? Something important must be inside there.”
“Yes, my dragons, who will either burn you to ash or rip you apart if you go anywhere near them.” I stepped away from her, getting ready to leave. “Go and work on your magic with Arielle.”
“They were singing earlier,” she said, ignoring my order. “The dragons were singing.”
I froze, and my heart stopped dead, my breath turning to stone in my chest.
“What did you say?” The words rasped out of me like they'd been carved from stone.
“I heard the dragons singing.”
Impossible. I'd never met another being who wasn't a Nightblade who could hear the dragons' song. Let alone a mage.
Dragons sang when they wanted to be heard. There were other Fae and beings who could hear them, but that was rare.
Memories and emotions were woven into the fabric of each song.
The songs acted like bridges between the world of the living and the realm of the dead, allowing them to seek counsel from ancient wisdom or find peace with those they'd lost. When dragons sang, they were either storing precious memories or calling them back from the threads of time.
The more beautiful or tragic the memory, the more haunting the song.
Dragons also needed to sing to release the intensity of their feelings, or their fire would become unstable and dangerous. The songs purged toxic emotions, keeping their flame pure and controlled. A dragon who stopped singing became a creature of pure rage and destruction.
“What exactly did you hear?” I demanded, moving close to her again.
“It was an enchanting melody. It came straight from the caves. I felt this pull in my soul, and in my heart, I knew I was supposed to go there. Then... it stopped.”
I gazed at her, and for the first time since I was a boy, I didn't feel like the most dangerous thing in the room.
I didn't know what to make of this. That knowing feeling she described was exactly how you knew you were hearing a dragon's song. But she shouldn't have been able to hear them.
This woman had done several things that mystified me since I'd brought her into my life.
I'd been able to figure out some explanation that accounted for things like portaling, but this.
.. it was different. It even went beyond that uncertainty of power you often faced with mixed beings like her.
Hearing dragons sing didn't resonate from innate power. It was something more.
“Wolfe, please say something.” She stared at me, her eyes pleading.
I didn't know what to tell her that wouldn't either make things worse or freak us both out, so I thought of the best answer for now. “I think you may have been mistaken.”
Her breath hitched and her hazel eyes snapped wide. “No. I don't think so.”
“You must have been. Mages can't hear the dragons' song.”
“I know what I heard. I definitely heard a song from the caves.”
“I'm not disputing that. I'm just telling you it's not what you think.”
She shook her head and intensified her gaze like she was the one who saw through me now. And I couldn't breathe under it. “Don't lie to me.”
“Elariya—”
“Don't, Wolfe. Don't you lie to me.”
Me. Me specifically. She didn’t want me to lie to her.
She stood taller, spine straight, eyes blazing like she was daring me to see her more clearly than I ever had. I did.
I saw her. Saw her desire, her fight, her inner strength, her desperation to survive. And I was still going to protect her. Even if it meant protecting her from myself and the creatures who were a part of me.
I grabbed her arm and pulled her flush against my chest. “Stay away from the caves, Ziyka.”
“That makes no sense. This involves me, too. I'm the one who's cursed here. Not you.”
I almost smiled. If only she knew I was cursed with death. I wondered if she'd still be fascinated with me, or still look at me as if I were something worth saving.
“Stay away from the caves.” I sharpened my tone so she'd understand how serious I was.
“Wolfe?” Arielle's voice came from behind me.
She and Garrick rushed up to us, looking worried.
“Take her,” I ordered Arielle, releasing Elariya. Then I phased, disappearing into the air before anyone could ask me any more questions I didn't have answers for.
Through the Void, I felt Elariya's gaze burning into me, begging me to come back. But returning to her, or any of them, when I had no idea what to do would be foolish. They would all have to wait. Especially her.
I arrived at the cave's entrance, where ragged limestone teeth framed a mouth that swallowed the daylight. Twisted vines hung like shrouds across the opening, their leaves blackened by perpetual shadow. The stone was slick with moisture that wept, creating rivulets that glimmered in the sunlight.
Like always, the air that breathed from the cave's depths carried the scent of earth and the whisper of wind moving through its passages, whirring with dead voices from the past.
I scanned over the entrance, checking if there was anything here to see. Not that I knew what I was looking for, but magic worked by sensation. Sometimes you'd know what you sought by how you felt when you saw it, touched it, or smelled it.
There was nothing out here, so I ventured inside.
Darkness pressed against me like tar, thick and suffocating, as I walked down the narrow passage where the walls wept continuously, their surface smooth in places where centuries of water had carved them into something unique.
The passage opened into the biggest chamber, where Pyrion, my bonded wyvern, stretched her massive frame across the cavern floor, her deep crimson scales the color of dying embers.