Chapter 34
Chapter
Thirty-Four
KADEN
Just as the red haze floats along my homeland, our horses reach the stables of the palace and my back sparks with sharp pain.
The beasts are exhausted, having spent most of their energy running back here in mere hours, when it should have taken days.
Jumping from the saddle, I don’t check to see if Baris makes it off before I’m stalking toward the castle walls, pain rippling over my muscles are if torn.
That inky red inside my skull flickers in and out and I can only sense life from my mate. No thoughts, no emotions, just the distinct feel of agony. My worry spikes as my claws sharpen, and my beast readies to explode.
“My heir,” Zeke calls out, hustling after me. He’s as tired as the rest of us, drained from the last leg, using what we could to keep the stallions going. “You must take stock of the situation. What if it’s a trap?”
I growl as the pain intensifies. Is this what he subjugated her to? It feels as if I’ve been pulled apart, stitched together and then sliced anew. “I won’t wait while he hurts my mate.” I grit my teeth. “If it’s a trap, so be it. I’ll slaughter them all.”
I point to the High Priest, directing Zeke, “Take him, find my siblings, grab anyone loyal to us. Get them out to the safe house.” This won’t end well after I find Zelos and I won’t leave those loyal to me behind.
A building we’ve kept in the village miles from the house is our only chance of safety. My father is unaware of our connection to it because our mother bought it from her family’s inheritance.
It’s a place she’s escaped to on more than one occasion. She was never cut out for the Dark Court.
Zeke bows deeply, turning on his heel to follow my order, wrangling the men. These guards are loyal to the crown, to me, and know that what I’m about to do is important for our people.
What I’m going to do will end all semblance of submission to my father, expose our plan, but it’s needed. To keep Max safe, to stop this madness, I will become the target.
My father created a monster. Let him see what I truly am.
I don’t bother to hide when I enter the entrance, seeing the halls deserted. Just as the guards are taught, to hide into hidden alcoves, keep out of sight.
Releasing my shadows, I withdraw my sword. It’s taxing, my exhaustion causing my power to lag, but it can’t bother me. Not when I smell the guards, hear their blood in my ears.
My beast howls, a horrible sound echoing in my mind, knowing my mate is being hurt somewhere in this castle. It wants to destroy, to taste blood, to lay destruction.
He whispers a solution to my plight. My tiredness is hindering my magic, my body is weak from invisible pain, and I can feel it being drained to my mate to heal her injuries. I’ll need reinforcements if I’m to fight my way to her.
He can help me rescue Max.
The mental chains, that I spent years building in that dank dungeon, are the only things that keeps me Fae, and keeps the beast locked away. No longer. For Max, I’ll be the beast that kills everyone. For her, I’ll give up my soul so she may keep hers.
My body pops and twists. A growl vibrates from my mouth as the fangs growing longer, larger. Black claws curve over my hands, wicked and sharp.
My hair grows, long down my back as black fur sprouts along my limbs. My leathers spilt and tear, the seams breaking to accommodate my size. Everything gets smaller as I grow in height, shoulders widening.
My top half is heavy and I fall forward, long arms bracing my body. I’m bent and shaped, not quite a cat, not quite a wolf, but something else. Something bigger. Deadlier.
Saliva drips from my canines as I blink, vision changing. Color leaves me, only black and grey images remaining but various other spots of color—scents, body heat, being detected. I shake my head, feeling the long weight of my ears, flapping along my skull.
Glancing down, the same claws on my hands are mirrored on my feet, arches high. Nothing about me is Fae any longer and I can’t seem to care. The beast is fully merged with me, and I’m just a passenger as it steers me forward.
Inhaling, I smell everyone in this castle.
Their fear, their anger, grief, and worry.
And they smell sweet. At the very end, there is the unmistakable scent of Max’s perfume and her essence.
I can no longer feel her soul through our connection, so I let my nose track her down, the bright color of red against so much grey.
I rear up on my hind legs as guards move into the hall, orderly, following formation. A formation I taught them, learned alongside them. They’re here to protect a king who would rather drain his lands dry, hurt a woman I love, than do any good with his power.
“You’d rather die at my hands, than stand beside me?” I ask, voice twisted and broken. It’s hard to speak when the beast controls me, words difficult. The fangs make speech nearly impossible.
They don’t answer, choosing to remain silent but I see their eyes. Smell their terror. I howl and it shakes the walls of my home. A home I will reclaim once I find Max.
“Move,” I demand, but they don’t. Instead, they attack.
Swiping my large palms out, my nails slice them down immediately. Grinning, I enjoy watching them crumple, blackness and rage twisting along with the beast’s lust for death.
Pushing forward, I continue down the halls. My claws cut through leathers as guards fill the corridors, my fangs breaking necks when they get too close. It’s bloodshed and agony as I crush them beneath my feet.
Turning one last corner, I see the Hadeon, mauling one guard as the other two heads bite at others. They’re protecting the door behind them and as I scent the air, I know why.
Max’s smell drifts from under it. Mixed with her spicy violet scent, is the harsh sting of blood. Her blood.
Growling, I snatch one guard, slicing his neck without a second thought, claw warming with freshly spilled blood. The beast moves and I watch, as my hands tears the guard’s head off his neck, the Hadeon tossing the last guard further back.
Staring at me, they growl, heads lowered. I respond in kind.
The middle head lifts, eyes narrowed, inhaling. But I don’t have time for the beast to understand who I am. Instead, I grab the doorhandle.
A blast of hellfire singes my hair but doesn’t burn me.
Whipping my head, I growl at the thing, irritation and worry bleeding from my lips. I don’t have time for this.
Now it stops, one head tilted, the others smelling me. He sits, steel-tipped tail lazily gliding along the tile as if waiting for me.
I nod, just once, in understanding. One beast seeing another, I can sense he knows it’s me under this monster. Knows I won’t hurt his master.
Yanking the door from the hinges, I stalk into the room, the Hadeon on my heels. The three guards there freeze, but I don’t focus on them.
Max is suspended from the ceiling, long black chains capturing his frail wrists. Her legs are pinned to the floor, more chains wrapped around her. She looks so vulnerable, tiny in this room, that my heart breaks.
Weapons behind her are covered in her blood, all in various stages of drying. They’ve been doing this for hours.
Blood drips down her throat, soaking the ripped nightgown that hangs in tatters along her shoulders. The back is open, her flesh shredded into ribbons of flesh and muscle.
They whipped my mate.
My growl shakes the floor, the two guards scrambling back from me. I don’t think as my shadows react. They slam into their chest, hurling them back until their bodies smack into the stone wall. Watching them crumple into a heap, I exhale as a lightness fills my chest.
They deserved worse.
Using my hands, I break her confinement, letting her body sink into my arms, lowering us to the floor. One claw pushes a lock of purple-black hair behind her ear as her blue eyes flutter. Her body is broken but she still smells like home and I mourn for my failure.
I was supposed to protect her. I did this.
The beast howls, feeding off my rage. The Hadeon comes close, nose pushing at her cheeks. She moans softly and we both exhale, relieved. She’s alive—barely.
As gently as I can, I use my large arms to cradle her small form and exit. I have to use a delicate touch, knowing my beast could easily snap her in half if I don’t.
He’s upset, tempered by my resistance. It’s weak, and I mentally grip his leash, praying to Nylxa for strength.
He’s a wounded animal, allowed out of his cage in decades and is fighting me as I try to become me again.
It’s my fault. I let him loose to get this far, to feed my magic and save Max.
I have no guilt over it—I would gladly do it again. But now, he’s a liability.
I have to regain control if I’m to get us out of here—alive.
We move down the halls, my magic dwindling. It was bolstered by his fury but now, it’s almost spent. And he’s angry, raging as I try to close the lid on his control, force him back into his prison.
Wincing, I feel the Hadeon at my side like a comforting friend, securing Max to my chest. Blood soaks my fur and I howl in pain. Rage pounds in my head, exhaustion tires my bones and the beast growls as he battle for dominance.
I stop short of the garden exit, as my father blocks my escape. Two guards are at his side and he doesn’t carry a sword.
The bastard smirks.
A furious growl releases from my lips and I stand taller, protective arms around Max.
“Oh, my heir,” he coos, shaking his head. “Look at what this woman has turned you into. You have such impeccable control and yet, she’s reduced you to this.” His lips curl. “Pathetic.”
I growl again, unable to fully speak. There’s too much energy being spent holding the beast back from fully taking me away. In my head, my fingers grip the edge of a door to the beast’s connection.
If I let go, he’ll have complete control. I’ll be lost.
And where will that leave Max?
“Put the woman down. Look at yourself. She’s not good for you.” He takes a step forward. “Give her to me. I’ll make her into the perfect weapon we need. And I’ll make sure she learns her place, just like Sose.”
My body shudders, a wounded hiss escaping through clenched fangs. The Hadeon growls low in warning.
“You. Killed. Her.” Bel above, it’s so hard to speak!
“You were going to let her go to that fool, Fenrir.” He sneers.
“She was meant to be your queen and when she left, you just let her go. I couldn’t let the kingdom see such weakness, such drivel from my eldest. So, I taught her a lesson.
” He shrugs, pulling on his tunic. “Did she die after my punishment? Yes. Did you get the blame for her death? Perhaps. But it made you into this fearsome creature. None of the kingdoms dared to touch us with you here. This woman, though? She’s been in that room for a full day, and hasn’t broken.
She’s someone who can be powerful with the right tutor. ”
A full day, being whipped, tortured by him. He thinks his tactics are helpful, building her up. When will he realize he only destroys everything he touches?
The blood still falls, coating us both. She doesn’t have much time. Our connection is trying to heal her, but it’s too little. It won’t save her.
Digging deep for the dregs of my magic, I shove them into the guards, crushing their bodies with inky black fingers. Their bodies are nothing but broken bone, torn ligaments as I sneer at my father.
He doesn’t blink.
Stepping up to him, my claws curve around my mate. “Move.”
“If you leave this palace, you will have a war on your hands.” It’s so matter-of-fact. As if I didn’t already know this—choose this the moment I came to this castle.
The world can go to ruin if it meant protecting Max.
My beast pulls against the leash and I slip, will spent as fangs chomp at air and my father falls back, eyes wide. I grab that mental chain, hold firm and pull. A pet master restraining a wayward lion.
“So be it.”
I would fight a thousand wars for Max. She’s worth it.
He falls to the side as I pass, seeing the beast he thought he could control. Little did he know the only person who could command me is the tiny Witch in my hands, who holds my heart in hers.