Chapter 26
SAPHIRA
“Take me with you,” Morden growled.
Kaeleron ignored him and swept me into his arms and a teleport that had us appearing on the narrow strip of open land that sheltered the bay below Falkyr, forming a barrier between it and the vast ocean.
Wind buffeted me, filling the air with the scent of the sea as waves crashed against the rocks to my left.
White spray leaped high, scattered to nothing by the breeze, and I drifted towards the edge of the cliff.
Towards that ocean that had never been so close.
I wrapped my arms around myself to keep the chill of the sea spray off me as I came to stand near the drop to the waves that thundered against the rocks at least forty feet below me.
Streaks of white foam cut across the dark water offshore, ghosts of waves that had exploded against the cliff.
Where it swirled around great dark rocks that jutted out into the sea, the water was lighter, and I could glimpse through it to the world beneath the waves.
The raw power of it entranced me as it had so many times when I had been on my balcony, or curled up on the seats and pillows that filled the tower annex of my room.
Beautiful.
I was sure I would never tire of looking at the ocean.
It was different every time, something about it changed from the day before, even the hour before.
Kaeleron came to stand beside me, his power that curled around me and his scent of wild storm making him fit so perfectly into this moment, as if he had been born of the crashing waves rather than shadows.
“The lich will not become any less lich-like no matter how long you dawdle,” he drawled, pure amusement in his tone as he slid his silver gaze down to land on me.
I scowled at him. “I’m not afraid of them.”
He chuckled drily.
I huffed as I dared a glance at the great black tower that rose like a cluster of jagged fangs beyond him, at the tip of the spit of land. “Fine. They scare me a little. Better?”
His sensual lips curled into a faint smile. “You need not fear them. Only the dead need fear them.”
“That’s comforting,” I muttered and took a step forwards, towards the edge of the cliff, wanting to peer over it to the point where the waves met the rocks.
Shadows snaked around my right leg and waist, firmly holding me in place, and I looked from them to Kaeleron.
He stood where he had been, his gaze on the horizon rather than me, but tension bracketed his mouth and shadows twined around the fingers of his left hand that had been slightly extended towards me.
The shadows around my leg curled upwards as he turned away from me and began towards the black tower, and I stumbled as they tugged me with him.
“Point taken. No getting too close to sharp drops.” I brushed at the shadows but they only multiplied, spreading to my other leg and seizing control of that one too, forcing me to march away from the cliff. “I wouldn’t have fallen.”
He turned sharp silver eyes on me. “You do not know that.”
I stilled halfway through trying to brush his shadows away, lifting my head to meet his gaze.
The flicker of fear in it hit me hard, and while I wanted to snap at him for controlling me like this, I remained mute, because if he had been the one to move closer to that steep drop to the turbulent waves, I would have been worried too.
A thousand dreadful scenarios would have unfurled in my mind in an instant and I would have felt compelled to grab hold of him and keep him safe.
“You would have caught me,” I whispered.
“You do not know that,” he echoed, but his gaze softened as he looked at me, as his shadows slowly loosened their hold on my legs, beginning to caress rather than control.
I took a step towards him of my own volition, head tilting up to keep my eyes on his as I closed the distance between us. “I do know that. You saved me at the lake, and you barely knew me. Now… I think you’d distort the very fabric of this world to save me.”
“Perhaps I would let you fall and shatter your bones to teach you a lesson.”
I smiled. “You wouldn’t.”
“You do not know that.”
“I do. Jenavyr told me what happened in the Wastes.” I held my nerve as his expression blackened in a heartbeat, inky night branching outwards from his eyes as his skin paled. “Don’t be mad at her. I’m glad she told me. I’m glad I know that… whatever this is… I mean something to you.”
His features softened, the darker side of himself dissipating as his eyes searched mine. “Whatever this is… do I mean something to you too?”
I nodded, no longer afraid to let him know that or let him see how strong my feelings for him had become.
I stepped a little closer. “If something happened to you, and I was blessed with the power to do so, I would distort the very fabric of this world to save you. I would go further than that.”
His silver eyes darkened, a tempest building in them, as if he were imagining how far he would go to save me, and the ground beneath my boots trembled as shadows fluttered from his shoulders.
I jolted as his palms suddenly framed my face, his head lowering towards mine, and shivered at the wrath in his eyes and his savagely snarled words.
“If anyone dared take you from me, I might just destroy this world to take you back.”
Any doubts about his feelings and the depth of them fractured, freeing me of their oppressive weight.
I rose on my tiptoes and slipped my arms around his neck as I kissed him, and when he kissed me back, my wolf instincts howled that he was mine.
No matter what happened in the next few minutes, or the next few months, this male was mine and nothing could change that.
Fate hadn’t made me for Lucas. It had made me for Kaeleron.
Someone cleared their throat.
Kaeleron snarled again, shadows swiftly blanketing me as I pulled away to see who it was, obscuring my view of them.
And concealing us.
He kissed me again, deeper this time, a meeting of lips that felt like a merging of souls as he held me to him with both strong arms and tender shadows.
I sank into that kiss, savouring the warmth and love of it, and the promise.
A promise to keep me safe. A promise that I wasn’t alone.
A promise that he was mine, as I was his.
I relished it.
Even when I knew it had to end.
“You are mine,” he whispered against my lips between sweeps of his mouth over them. “Mine. And I am yours. You know I am yours.”
I nodded. “I know. You’re mine.”
My soul screamed it as I clung to him, my wolf side howling it into the void within me, making me want to unleash that howl to let every wolf in Lucia know that this beautiful, dark fae king was mine.
And no one would take him from me.
His kiss lightened, the firmness of it giving way to tender brushes of his mouth on mine, and then he drew back, setting me back on my feet but not completely releasing me even as his shadows fell to reveal Malachi.
The burly demon leaned with his back against the curved wall of the tower and his arms folded over his chest, his furled wings and black hair and light leather armour making him blend into the stone.
“Hi, Mal.” I gave him an awkward little wave as I stepped away from Kaeleron, heart still pounding and spilling warmth through my veins as his confession rang in my soul.
Malachi dipped his head, the twilight light glinting off the gold tips of his black horns. “You are well?”
I nodded, not wanting this conversation, but appreciating his concern nonetheless. “As can be expected. I’ll be okay. No need to worry about me.”
“Easier said than done.” Mal pushed away from the wall, coming to tower over Kaeleron and me. He stretched his leathery wings and then tucked them against his back as he looked from the wooden arched door of the tower to me, and then Kaeleron. “Are we sure this is wise?”
Kaeleron strode towards that ancient wooden door. “I am. The little wolf can handle it.”
I wished I had his confidence. Just the thought of seeing Braxton again had my stomach churning, and the fact he would be dead this time, reanimated through the power of the lich, but apparently aware of what was happening, made me want to turn tail and run.
It was all a little too macabre for me. Shadows nudged my backside, coaxing me forwards.
Mal shot me a worried glance.
I shook my hands at my sides, drew down a deep breath and blew it out, and then plastered a smile on my face. “I’ll be fine.”
His pitch-dark eyes that held a faint red-purple glow around his pupils called me on that lie, but he didn’t say anything.
I could get through this.
Kaeleron pushed the door open, the creak of the rusty hinges scraping down my spine, and my wolf instincts snarled at the faint but familiar scent that swept past me on a chilling gust of air heavily ladened with the smell of herbs and heavy acidic notes.
Lucas.
Not Lucas. I shook off that feeling. It was Braxton inside that tower. Braxton. Not Lucas. But his scent was close enough to that of his cousin to rattle my courage.
I swallowed and forced my feet to move, each step a labour that stole a fragment of my strength and increased that urge building within me even as I kept telling myself it was only Braxton.
It wasn’t Lucas. Their shared scent was just confusing me.
Run. My wolf side demanded it. Nothing good waited inside that tower.
Only bad things. He hated me. Despised me.
Run. He waited there. He waited to hurt me.
He couldn’t hurt me anymore.
He couldn’t.
Because he was dead. Killed by my own hand. He was dead and all that was in this tower was a hollow husk of a body and a soul chained to it through magic that the lich could sever with a simple command from Kaeleron.
But still my boots felt as if someone had poured lead into their soles.
And my wolf instincts were going crazy, twisting my mind in knots as I kept picturing Lucas waiting inside that tower rather than his cousin. It was Braxton. Bastard Braxton.
But one day it would be Lucas.