Chapter 38
Wolfe
“Where Power Awakens”
Mine.
My mate.
My wife.
My boots echoed against the stone corridor as I walked away from the chamber, each footfall a steady rhythm against the storm still pounding in my chest.
I came to the mortal realm prepared for a war I was determined to win. I wasn’t going to leave without Elariya. Failure was not an option.
And yet, even now, the outcome felt somewhat unreal.
I pulled it off. I fucked Thayden over and bent even the oldest laws to my will. There wasn’t a godsdamn thing anyone—not Thayden, Prince Maelor, not even the Judges—could have done to stop me.
Now that it was over, the gravity of everything that had happened was settling in.
Three hundred years of life, countless wars and battles, and my mage felt like the only conquest that ever truly mattered.
I married Elariya. And I found a way that gave me everything I wanted while keeping her family safe too.
It’d worked. But what I never saw coming was her choosing me.
Something had shifted in her from the moment I rode through the portal and our eyes locked.
I felt it in the way she looked at me. The way she touched me. The way she asked where I was going.
After we got back from Morg?ven, I was trapped in an impossible maze with no clean exit. I was losing her. Every path I considered would have either worsened her situation or exposed secrets that could unravel everything I’d built.
I ran the calculations anyway. Discarded strategy after strategy. Until fate decided to intervene.
Her soul debt.
The solution dropped into my lap like a gift from the Gods themselves. Brutal in its elegance. And mine to wield.
When I’d given her my soul mark and made her my Velastra, I knew she could not truly be bonded to me. But now she was.
And I was the keeper of her soul.
Elariya’s attempt to escape gave me something far more powerful than I ever imagined. I knew it the moment Erethis handed the vial to me. It took me all of five seconds to decide what I was going to do next.
Soul debts were rare in the magical realm. Most Fae and magical beings understood the weight of their souls too well to bargain with them so carelessly. It was the kind of mistake only someone desperate—or ignorant—would make. My dear mage had been both.
Elariya stumbled into a demon who collected souls the way others collected rare gems. If she’d understood what Erethis was, she never would’ve agreed to play his games.
That said, I doubted the bastard gave her much of a choice.
Had I not come along, whatever she chose would’ve ended in death or some bargain with the dark forces.
Thankfully, fate had showed her mercy.
And it changed everything.
A hundred years of my life in exchange for her soul was worth the price.
Now I had her. I kept my secrets from my uncle, and I secured a claim to the mortal realm—one that would allow me see what was happening here, and see who was working with those who whispered with no lips and watched with no eyes.
Today was a single battle in the war to come.
But it was a significant win.
What I truly wanted to do now was to take Elariya and leave.
I wanted to get the hells out of this realm with its suffocating politics and petty mortal princes who thought they could claim what was mine. But there were loose ends to tie up first.
The most pressing one waited behind the heavy oak door of the chamber I was approaching. Thayden.
Alive, for now. And keeping him that way required more self-control than I cared to admit.
I’d wanted to end that motherfucker from the moment I got here.
When he first saw me at the wedding, he looked like he was ready to shit himself. But he gave a good fight. Or as best as he could without incriminating himself.
He could have said more in front of the Judges, but he was already walking on eggshells. He didn’t know what I was going to do. The fucker probably thought I was going to drag him into the light and let the realm tear him apart.
He must be so confused now.
I knew he would have agreed to the meeting. If only to see what wicked things I had in store for him.
Thayden said yes because he couldn’t afford to say no.
I reached the door.
I could sense him before I even touched the handle. Thayden's presence leaked through the wood like a stain. And I could smell his fear.
Good.
I pushed the door open and stepped inside, letting it close behind me with a decisive click. Although it was still bright outside, a handful of lit candles were dotted around the room.
Thayden stood near the far wall, his back rigid and turned to me. His hands were clasped behind him in what might have been an attempt at dignity.
A single table dominated the center of the space, flanked by chairs that looked like they were waiting for us to sit.
I stopped in the center of the room, and he turned to face me.
His jaw was set in grim determination, but the look in his eyes was brittle. Like glass under pressure, waiting for the right moment to shatter.
My shadows flicked out around me, agitated from the sight of him. They poured from my form, dark tendrils stretching across the stone floor and climbing up the walls.
Thayden watched them, unable to look away.
I let them expand to the walls, feeding them with the darkness that lived beneath my skin. They filled the space between us, a visible manifestation of the power that ran through my veins.
Thayden's shoulders tensed as the shadows reached toward him, though he tried to hide his reaction.
The motherfucker knew he was out of his depth here and he’d seriously fucked with the wrong person.
Finally, his gaze returned to me and his expression hardened.
"Quite a show you put on today, Lord Nightblade," Thayden said, his voice carrying a forced lightness that didn't match the tension radiating from his frame.
Lord Nightblade. He’d been the only person today who hadn’t acknowledged me as Your Highness. No surprise there.
"That was no show." My voice cut through the shadows and they rippled. "I came here for war."
His jaw tightened at that, some of his practiced composure slipping.
"The last time we saw each other, you were ramming a sword through my heart," I continued. Getting to the point.
The memory seemed to flicker between us.
I'd survived.
That was never part of whatever deal he’d struck when he decided to test fate.
"Could you blame me?" Thayden's voice took on an edge of wounded pride. "You stole my girl."
I let the silence stretch, let my shadows pulse with dark amusement before I answered. "Did I?"
Pride swelled within for my ingenious plan. The bastard had no proof of what I did.
He was stuck and he was showing his hand.
“Didn’t you?”
Really? That was his best come back.
“How I met my wife is none of your business.”
My wife.
The words rolled around in my mind feeling more and more like they belonged the longer they stayed. And I couldn’t help the pleasure I felt from watching Thayden fume.
“You fucking bastard, Elariya was supposed to marry me today.” He pointed to himself and seethed. “Me. Not you. But you chose today on purpose didn’t you?”
Of course I did. Crashing his wedding and stealing his bride is exactly the kind of thing a devil like me would do. But I didn’t need to admit that to him. He knew.
Had I truly wanted to be an asshole I could have had him at our wedding. I could have had him deliver our rings, witness the marriage, or serve our drinks.
But my ceremony wasn’t about that. It was about her—Elariya.
I wanted her to have something beautiful. A wedding with those we loved watching us take our eternal vows. It was something good to remember about me. About us.
I walked over to the table and lowered into the chair behind. “I didn’t come here to talk about weddings. The matter is done and dusted. Elariya no longer belongs to you.”
He balled his hands into fists at his sides. “I don’t know how you did it. How you survived. But I’ll find a way to fix this.”
I smiled and the temperature dropped several degrees. The flames flickered atop the candles as if struggling against an unseen wind.
“I hope you do find that way Thayden Fairstrom. It means I get to kill you quicker. Until then, lets really talk.”
I knew I’d probably get nothing from him, but this was my first attempt to see who he’d been working with.
Aside from my Bloodsworn, Kaem was the only member of the wedding party that remained here. He was to stay as a scout. To watch Thayden and see what he could find out from this side.
Kaem had already done a substantial amount of work from the magical realm. He would have pursued his usual methods of getting past the Veil, but this was better. If questions were asked about how he got into the mortal realm the wedding posed as the perfect excuse.
“What do you want to talk about?” Thayden challenged, his voice still stern.
“You can’t be serious.” I smirked, shaking my head at him. “You think I’m going to let what you did to me slide?”
His jaw set, but he lifted his chin in open defiance. “I was rescuing Elariya from the enemy who kidnapped her. What I did was necessary to get her back.”
I cocked my head and tapped my temple with the tip of my index finger. “See now that’s where we both know you have a problem. Or you wouldn’t be here.”
“Do not speak to me in riddles.” He hissed.
“Oh but these are no riddles, Sir Thayden.” I straightened and put my feet up on the table, crossed at the ankle.
Mud flaked off my heavy boots, an insult to whomever was going to take their place here after me.
“You see, the way I figure it is this: you have no idea how I met my wife, so your actions are based on assumptions.”
The best thing about this little meeting was that I didn’t need to incriminate myself to get answers. Whereas he didn’t have such a luxury.