Chapter 8
KAELERON
“Brother!” Jenavyr’s voice cut through the din, the other clashing voices suddenly falling away as the group gathered before me broke apart, my sister pushing through the males to reach me.
Her silver eyes were wild, fearful even as they raked over me, scouring me for any sign of injury.
When she found none, all her concern melted under the intense heat of anger that lit her eyes as she bore down on me.
“Where have you been? What happened? Rhyn and Oberon said you had disappeared and I did not believe them, but Malachi confirmed it. It was not a teleport. It was as if you were… snatched.”
“Summoned,” I corrected and some of the rage she directed at me faded as her eyes widened and realisation dawned in them.
“Saphi?” She reached for me, right hand gripping my arm as she studied my face, hers a picture of concern. “Is she hurt? Is she… she is not gravely wounded for you are not ripping this castle apart stone by stone.”
I arched a brow at her, because she knew I would never let my mood get the better of me like that—or at least I would not let it control me enough to destroy our home.
The look she wore told me she knew my thoughts and that I would.
She was right.
I would destroy this world if the little wolf were taken from me.
Beyond my sister, Oberon casually leaned towards Rhyn as they stood side by side, both watching me.
“Saphi is the little wolven who has charmed him so thoroughly. If you felt a small disturbance in the Wastes recently, it was because she was merely wounded in battle. That is the reason you do not see her here, among his court. Would you believe it, but he cast her away.”
I glared at Oberon. “I did not cast her away.”
He shrugged. “Released. Freed. Banished. Are those better words for what you did? Vyr told me all about it.”
I shifted my glare from him to my sister.
She tilted her chin up and stared right back at me, unflinching. “Oberon embellishes. I used none of those words. I said ‘pushed’.”
I pinched the bridge of my nose.
“I must meet this little wolven,” Rhyn said out of the corner of his mouth as his lips curled into a smile and he leaned towards Oberon. “Is she pretty?”
“Quite striking,” Oberon replied, silver eyes flashing mischievously.
“Quite mine,” I growled.
I pointed to the three-dimensional map of Lucia that stood between us.
“What have you all been doing while I have been absent? Not a piece has been put back in place.” Summoning my shadows, I picked through the markers one by one, putting them back in place by memory alone, and when I was done, I heaved a long, weary sigh that let everyone know exactly what I thought of them.
“How am I meant to fight two battles when I lack competent leaders to leave in charge while I am absent? Jenavyr, as my second in command, I expected you to step in to take control of the situation. Rhyn, I thought at least you would maintain the peace. Oberon… well… I knew exactly what you would do.”
He grinned fiendishly and casually waved his hand through the air as he gracefully bowed. “I live to serve, my king.”
“Fight two battles?” Vyr snared my attention, her gaze drilling into my face, her black eyebrows furrowing. “Is Saphi in danger? Is that why you were summoned to her?”
I denied the hint of heat that stirred in my blood as I recalled why she had summoned me, shutting out that image of her that had been seared on my mind. Her hand between her thighs. Her desperate little breaths panting in my ears. The scent of her need.
The pleasure-drenched look on her beautiful face as she had reached for release while thinking of me.
I cleared my throat. “Yes. She has requested my help. The wolf, it appears, is as I expected—inadequate.”
Oberon leaned towards a confused looking Rhyn, and muttered, “The wolf in question is Saphira’s protector. He seemed quite a capable sort of warrior when I spoke with him.”
“When did you speak with him?” I frowned at the prince.
Who casually inspected his nails and then buffed them on the breast of his black tunic before looking at me, his eyebrows raised high on his forehead.
“While you were gallivanting around the Forgotten Wastes with his ward. He had quite fascinating tales to tell of his travels through Lucia… albeit peppered with obscenities and seasoned with spite and a startling amount of aggression towards me. Apparently, I look far too much like you. His greeting when I appeared before his cell was quite… colourful. But then I educated him and corrected his mistake.”
He grinned slowly, viciously.
“I do not want to know what you did to him, and you will never speak of it to Saphira, and hope he never speaks of it to her. I swore no one would harm him.” I went to turn to my sister.
Oberon murmured, “Oh, I did not lay a finger on him. He… might have… hurt himself though.”
“Discord? You dared to sow discord upon one of my prisoners? For what purpose?” Shadows burst from beneath my boots, sprinting across the black marble floor to snare Oberon’s legs. They twined tightly around them as I stared him down, demanding he answer me.
Discord.
It was a power few unseelie possessed, one born of the Nightmare Court.
The most powerful among them could influence the minds of others, infiltrating them with a handful of words or a taste of their blood, bending their minds and their wills until they were little more than puppets, prone to the suggestions of the one in control of them.
It was such power that had made the humans fear us millennia ago.
“Amusement.” Oberon stared right back at me as he bent slightly, enough that he could twine one of my shadows around his fingers. “A warning. Call it whatever you wish. The wolf is a threat, and you were treating him as a guest.”
“With good reason.” My shadows snapped at his fingers, drawing blood, and he flinched, his gaze growing darker by the second as he watched crimson bead on his paling skin. “Never—never—sow discord in my court again without my permission.”
By the Great Mother, if Saphira ever discovered what Oberon had done, she would never forgive me. As much as I despised the wolf, as much as I felt he was a threat to me and that future I was beginning to desire with Saphira, he was no threat at all compared to what Oberon had done.
Oberon looked as if he might retaliate, but then he glanced at my sister and whatever he saw there was enough to have him backing down.
I knew he wanted to protect me, and this was simply his way of doing that, but turning the wolf against himself, manipulating his mind with magic, was a step too far.
Goddess, how soft my little wolf had made me.
Before I had met her, I would have slaughtered the wolf the moment he had dared to enter my court.
Now, I was contemplating letting him live.
“I need to return to Saphira.” That need had never felt more pressing than it did now that I knew I had to be on guard against Morden, watching him for any sign he might speak to Saphira of what had happened to turn her against me and destroy what was growing between us.
“Jenavyr, you are in command in my absence. I will return as soon as I can.”
But I hesitated.
The thought of leaving my court without its king, this battle without its leader, freezing my boots to the floor.
Vyr placed her hand on my arm, understanding shining in her eyes as she said, “Go. We will monitor the Wastes in your absence and pick our battles wisely. Rhyn is capable of leading in your stead, and I will keep a tight leash on Oberon.”
“Is that a promise?” Oberon drawled.
Riordan glowered at him from his position at the back of the room, near the stacks of reports.
“Behave,” I snarled at Oberon.
And teleported.
Landing within earshot of another argument.
“Well, I think we should head there as soon as we get our bearings,” Saphira snapped, her voice echoing through the darkening woods.
“Listen to me. It’s better we scout the pack. Lucas might not even—”
“You know he has, Morden. You know what he’s like now.
Just as I do. You humiliated him and he’ll want revenge.
The longer we delay, the more danger our families are in.
” Her light footfalls drew closer to me and I stealthily moved towards her, slipping through the growing shadows, waiting for the wolf to respond.
“We’ll talk about it when we make camp. Right now, we need to focus on moving,” he barked.
Moving?
I eased close to the thick trunk of a pine and the anger that spiked in my blood faded a touch as Saphira’s scent of sunshine and nature swirled around me, the closeness of her calming my urge to strike the male down because I knew his intent.
He wanted to leave before I returned, seeking to separate me from Saphira again.
Never.
How would my little wolf respond to his order though?
She moved into my line of sight, her steps agitated as she continued towards me, and then she pivoted and planted her hands on her hips, her messy silver braid swinging against her back as she turned on her comrade.
“We’ve been through this. I’m not leaving him behind. He wants to help us.” Her tone was firm, quite commanding.
But the wolf acted as if he was the one with all the power.
As if he made all the decisions.
Despite his position within the pack.
An alpha’s daughter outranked a warrior.
But the bastard wolf behaved as if he outranked her.
“Help us?” he scoffed. “You honestly believe he gives a damn about anyone other than himself? That he gives a damn about you?”
Her spine stiffened.
And I growled low at the male, my shadows creeping outwards through the leaf litter that covered the ground between us, heading directly for him.
Because he would pay for preying on her fears.
Manipulating her.
I took it back. The wretched fiend deserved whatever Oberon had done to him and I could no longer be angry with my old friend.
Because I wanted to do far worse.