Chapter 44 #2
After a prolonged sigh, she slipped the chainmail vest over her cream tunic and fastened the bronze buttons of her coffee-colored leather pants.
According to West, the late queen’s armory had enough supplies to equip a decent-sized force.
Some would say it was a miracle she’d preferred sex over battle.
Her power could’ve poisoned the entire realm had she deployed it.
Destroying her was the best decision for all of mankind, not just Caldwell Archives.
Winter missed the archives so much. She planned to go immediately after visiting the farm.
First, the pack deserved to know West was okay.
More than okay. He’d taken over this entire palace, freed those who desired it, adopted their wolves, and liquified anyone who objected.
The remaining court had been given the option to stay, but almost everyone had begun making plans to leave.
West had said the only part of the palace that mattered now was the prison. He intended to make good use of it, and have the packs guard any inmates in shifts.
Currently, there was one prisoner.
“Are you sure you want to do this?” West asked, seated on the edge of the bed with fatigue shadowing his face.
“I have to talk to him before we go.”
“They said he’s not interested in talking. Please, Winter, just let me go down there, remind him how pathetic he is, and kill him.”
“No.”
“Why?” he growled.
Memories with Kaden dared to cross her mind: drinking milkshakes under the stars, laughing at mortal movies, fucking until the sun came up. “Because I don’t want him to die. I hate him, but I just—I can’t explain it.”
“Do you still …”
Winter shook her head. “No, I promise I don’t love him anymore. But you can’t kill him, West. Can’t we just leave him down there?”
“Fine.”
She hated when he used that word.
Winter stepped along the thin, stone-walled corridor. It was dimly lit and felt much cooler than the rest of the palace. How far underground were they? The winding staircase had taken about five minutes to descend, leaving her dizzy. It was like she’d entered Tartarus—minus all the heat and flames.
The hall was lined in cells, small chambers hollowed out of jagged gray rock. There was barred access with chains, shackles, and hooks piled up in each one.
Her heart began to race.
As Winter made it to the far end, West on her tail, wheezing sounds reached her.
She held back the urge to curse when she saw Kaden.
He’d not been given the privilege of entering his cell.
Instead, he was swathed in chains and secured to the bars, facing outward.
His feet dangled, his fingers were blanched, and his chin jutted upward as he desperately siphoned the stale air.
Winter assembled one of her tried-and-true masks. Shoulders back, head up, lips puffed, eyes soft. She elongated her strides and swung her hips as she approached. The sound of her hammering heart was simply an entrance song. There was no aching or pain to its drumming, not with West behind her.
“Look what the cat dragged in,” she cooed.
He hissed.
“Oh, what’s wrong? You’ve always looked nice in silver, babe.”
West’s growl rumbled beneath her boots.
Sweat beaded along Kaden’s porcelain forehead, lining his onyx brows and dripping into the creases around his sea-blue eyes. Winter couldn’t help but notice that the queen’s favorite colors were stamped all over his precious face.
“You killed my sister.”
“She was abhorrent. And she killed your father! Why are you still protecting her, or were you fucking her, too?”
He thrashed, rattling his chains.
“Well?” she asked. “Because that’s only my first question.” West stepped behind her, hooking a forearm around her chest. She relaxed into him. Kaden noted their exchange with venom in his eyes.
“Answer me.”
“No. Mara is the only one that understands.”
“Understands what, your strange obsessions?”
“My strange obsessions? You memorize body parts and lick blood.”
Winter slapped her ex across the face, the sound clean and crisp. “Answer. Me.”
“Me, Winter. Mara understood me. We’re twins.”
“O-kay then. Question number two: what the fuck are you? Other than a time traveling freak. Your sister once mentioned something about shifting. What in the realms did that mean?”
He glared with evil intensity. “My sister might’ve played with serpents, Winter, but I am one.” The hiss that escaped him was otherworldly.
“A basilisk?” Winter never understood the queen’s tapered teeth. Or why her shadows shifted shape. Or how they lived, breathed, and multiplied. None of it had ever made sense. “Those don’t exist outside of folk tales.”
“They do when you force them to. My father was the product of an experiment—a sick one. My sister received his serpent-wielding powers, canines, and overall tenacity. I got his shifting ability.”
Bullshit.
She spread her arms wide, absentmindedly shoving West off of her. “Then shift, Kaden.”
“I can’t.”
“Why not? We’ll remove the chains. Your sister had no trouble using her magic, why won’t you?”
He lengthened his neck, reaching for air. “Because,” he exhaled. “I won’t be able to shift back. It’s harder than you might think. Werewolves have it much easier.”
“So you’d rather stay bound to these bars?
” She eyed him up and down. “Or is it the same, either way? Because I can’t imagine what turning into a slippery piece of shit feels like.
” Winter actually liked snakes—the natural kind.
They weren’t all that slimy and had cute little fangs.
But Kaden was the type of serpent that went door-to-door selling his mystery oil and pilfering hearts.
He was nothing but a deceiving, conniving, thief.
“I’m serious,” he wheezed. “Without my father, I won’t be able to return to my mage form. He was the only one who could help me—and he’s gone, Winter. You know that.”
Was this a sympathy card? They’d bonded over the loss of their fathers, cried over it. But he’d lied to her about everything.
Kaden was from the other world.
The child of a supreme and an experiment.
A time traveler.
A basilisk.
She didn’t even recognize him, and yet images of his charming smile wishing her a happy anniversary and proudly holding up a bag of Crispy Cauldron’s, crashed into view.
She swallowed the memory and lifted her chin. “Next question: why was your sister looking for you? She thought you were dead.”
“I’ve been traveling. I just came back to say goodbye for good, not get chained to this cell. Please, just let me go, Winter. Did I mean anything to you?”
“You’re still alive, aren’t you?”
He went silent.
She glared. “Wait, what do you mean goodbye for good?”
“I’m starting a new life; one you’d be proud of. You have to release me, Winter. I need to get back.”
“What? No. You deserve to rot down here for all the pain you’ve caused me and the world.”
“No,” he cried. “You would want me to go back. You would, I swear.”
West shook the bars, making Kaden’s head roll. “You don’t know a thing about what she wants.”
Winter put a hand on West—a silent command to get out of her way. He obliged, grumbling. She looked up at Kaden. “I’ll consider it, but only if you tell me why.”
Something sparkled in his deep blue eyes. “I’m going to be a father. We’re having a baby, Winn.”
Winter eyed her bicep, her stomach, then Kaden. “Are you that delusional?”
“No, not you,” he clarified. “I traveled farther this time. I found you again. And if you keep me here, then what? No husband, no father. You’ll hate me.”
Her face fell flat. “What do you mean you found me again? Why would you ever make such a fuss over a broom, and then go and do that? You’re not just changing the future, you’re ruining my life. How is it even possible? I’m right here.”
His silence spoke volumes. He’d only been thinking about his needs, the same way he always had. The small rules he’d made for himself, like not mentioning new inventions, had probably been self-imposed to make himself feel better about these cowardly sins.
West snarled in Kaden’s face. “Answer her.”
“It’s a new dimension,” he rasped, avoiding West’s eyes. “They all overlap, one on top of the other.” A grin escaped his lips. “Third time’s the charm, Winn.”
“What!” she screamed. Did that mean she was the second try? “You gave me a silver ring on purpose, didn’t you? You knew I was a werewolf the whole time … That’s why you didn’t flinch when I told you, isn’t it?”
West punched him in the face.
He spat blood as more gushed from his very broken nose. “And you two keep finding each other.” His words came out etched with defeat. “I don’t get it, Winn. He’s a dick.”
West’s growl shook the corridor. She stepped between them, needing Kaden conscious for the remainder of this conversation.
“Because he’s my mate, Kaden. Not you.”
“Yeah, yeah. So, I tried something different this time, knowing how much you love—”
“Stop.” She didn’t want to hear another word. She was going to dissect him one organ at a time.
“Fairytales,” he finished, a glimmer in his tone.
Flames erupted inside her. What? “You promised me a happily ever after, didn’t you? You’re a fucking psychopath. If you think for one second that you’ll ever be allowed to leave this prison or that I’d ever be better off with you in my life—in whatever dimension—know that you are wrong.”
Perhaps she was always doomed to have a broken, lost, and lonely heart. But one that would find its way to West. Her true mate. She backed into his warm arms, yearning for his strength.
“No,” Kaden pleaded. “You have to let me go. I can prove to you how much I love you, Winn. Please. I finally have another chance—a good one.”
“I. I. I. Do you ever stop to think about anyone else?” He’d traversed worlds, timelines, and dimensions to be with her. That wasn’t romantic, it was tragic.
He fell silent.
“You can stay in these chains, barely breathing, or you can shift and stay in this nice little cell your sister built. Think about it.” She squeezed West’s hand …
the one she’d managed to keep finding across space and time.
“I sincerely hope you think about what you’ve done and actually understand how wrong it is. You’re not entitled to me.”
West slammed the bars, baring his teeth. “And you never will be.”
She tugged on his chainmail. “Let’s go. I don’t have any more questions.” West glared back at Kaden their entire way out, anger billowing off his armor.
When they cleared the stairs, he spun her to face him. “Are you okay?”
“No. What the fuck?” She crashed her head into his chest—her safe place. “He’s so crazy.”
West caged her in with his arms and held her close.