Chapter 27
KAELERON
The light was fading by the time I left the tower of the royal necromancers, leaving the corpse in their care. Braxton had refused to yield any more information on the location he had mentioned or the fae who wanted Saphira.
I suspected they were of the Summer Court.
Or perhaps I feared it.
What other seelie court could want a female now associated with my own kingdom?
When I thought of it like that, many sprang to mind. She was a weakness. Too close to me. Too easily breakable. Not powerful enough to fend off a fae king should one set his sights on her. And I would do anything to protect her, to keep her safe and take her back.
I had spent centuries avoiding having any weaknesses an enemy could exploit or use against me.
And now I had the greatest weakness of them all.
I was in love.
Many kings would use her as a pawn against me, exploiting that weakness to bring me to my knees or place me under a yoke, forcing me to do their bidding in order to keep her safe.
Including unseelie ones.
Braxton had not mentioned whether the fae in question were of my breed or not. Every king in Lucia crossed my mind, a hundred reasons they might want to take Saphira from me surfacing with them, but I kept coming back to the Summer Court.
The Summer Court had the most to gain by taking her from me.
My fingers curled into tight fists at my side. I would not let that happen.
No fae would take her from me.
I would do all in my power to ensure that. Starting right now.
I paused at the crest of the cliffs to breathe deep of the clean sea air, purging my lungs of the acidic tang of vile ingredients, ancient magics, and death.
Waves beat against the shore far below, the sound of them filling my ears, erasing the sounds of his screams even as I tried to hold on to them, desiring to keep them in my mind so I could savour them.
Perhaps it was best I let them flow out of me on each thunderous wave that rolled over me.
Saphira had given me leave to do as I wished, but that did not mean she wanted to know of it, or how the punishment I exacted upon him affected me.
Despite the things she had done, she was still a pure soul—a caring soul.
I did not wish to taint her in any way. I did not wish to change her.
I wanted her to remain as she was now. Forever.
So I could not let her know the things I did here.
She felt angry and hurt right now, swept up in her own wrathful desires, but in time her anger towards the male would fade enough that she might feel responsible for the things that happened to him, and had happened to him.
I did not want her to feel responsible or feel guilt over my actions, because they were mine. Not hers.
But I knew she would.
Just as she bore the weight of guilt over what had happened to her pack, feeling responsible for the deaths and pain they had suffered.
It was not her guilt nor her pain to carry.
I was not sure I could ever make her see that though.
Something she had said had stayed with me during the hours I had devoted to wrenching screams from Braxton’s soul.
She had wanted everything to feel normal again before she spoke of the things Lucas had told her.
Normal.
In that moment, I had understood with perfect clarity what she had meant by that word, and it had caught me off guard.
The normal she craved was not being with her pack.
Not being with her friends.
It was how things had been here in my court, with me, before she had departed with the wolf.
She wanted things to be as they had been before Morden had shown up in that storm.
And I would move the stars to make that happen for her.
Shadows and inky night swirled around me, swiftly embracing me before releasing me and parting to reveal the green and the sea of tents that had been set up in a rough circle around a central clearing.
A large fire pit burned there, surrounded by a mixture of benches and logs, and someone had set up a spit over it.
Two males I did not recognise were deep in discussion as they tended to a roasting pig, their voices lost amidst the chatter of the wolves as they moved around their temporary homes or relaxed near the fire.
I scanned the gathered wolves, seeking mine.
Saphira stood outside one of the smaller tents, nimbly binding her silver hair in a long braid while she spoke with a female wolf.
Her blue eyes glittered with warmth as the female said something to her, a touch of sombreness crossing her beautiful face as the wolf laid her hand on Saphira’s arm, over the sleeve of her blouse, and gently squeezed.
Not wanting to disturb her, I sought the other person I had come to see.
Chase ran his hand over his dark blond hair, pushing it back as he crossed the green with Morden, deep in discussion with the dark wolf male. Both males wore grim expressions, tension written in the tight lines on their faces. Whatever they discussed, it was not a pleasant topic.
I approached them, snaring their attention.
Chase dipped his head in greeting, some of the shadows in his eyes lifting as he forced a pleasant smile.
Morden glowered at me, folding thickly muscled arms across his broad chest, making the sleeves of his black shirt pull tight over them.
He remained a step behind Chase at all times as the male approached me, coming to meet me near the middle of the green.
“King Kaeleron.” Chase looked from me to Morden as I glowered right back at him, shadows shifting restlessly beneath my boots as I stared him down, unwilling to let the wolf believe he had any kind of power here. “When Saphi said there was bad blood between you two, she wasn’t kidding.”
“The wolf is to blame, of course.” I smirked at Morden. “He should know his place.”
“My place?” Morden scoffed, his grey eyes stormy as they narrowed on me.
“My place is protecting Saphira, and I was well within my rights to want her away from you. Whatever this is you think is happening between you, I seriously doubt it’s going to end well for her.
You’ll prove me right at some point, and hopefully it will be sooner rather than later.
She’s been through enough without you breaking her heart. ”
“You speak of protecting her, of me breaking her heart, but I was not the one who took her away from my court with the intention of betraying her and handing her over to her enemy,” I snarled and tendrils of shadows snaked across the grass, slithering through the blades towards Morden.
“You wanted to hand her over to a wretched male who intended to sell her again to another fae… one who would have done unimaginable things to her, whether to break her or break me.”
Morden inched back a step and then rallied, and the lingering darkness from torturing Braxton purred at the sight of this male foolishly facing off against me in a battle he would never win.
The wolf knew it as he glowered at me, that glare neither powerful nor dark enough to cover the guilt he carried in his heart. “If fae are after her, it’s your fault. You’re the reason she’s in danger. She’d be better off away from you.”
“Morden,” Chase admonished and slowly shook his head as he cast a worried glance at his companion.
“I don’t get you. When you’re with her, you’re calling them lovebirds and you’re fine with things…
and then when it’s only King Kaeleron within earshot, you’re baring your fangs and threatening someone who has graciously given us sanctuary.
This is not the behaviour I expect from a beta. ”
“A beta?” I arched a brow at Morden and then Chase.
“You chose him as your second in command? He betrayed Saphira. He betrayed someone he constantly declares he cares about. What sort of male is that to help lead your people and protect them? She might be willing to forgive him, but I am afraid I cannot be so kind. I have met my share of people like him, and life has taught me they do not change, no matter how much mercy you show them. Best watch your back in case you find a dagger in it, too.”
Rather than snapping fangs at me, Morden eased back a step, his gaze lowering to his boots, and the sight of him so thoroughly admonished should have pleased me, but it did not.
The part of me that could not forgive him would never be pleased, not even if he was broken and bleeding at my feet.
I drew down a subtle breath to calm that wrathful part of me that still wanted his blood, because the one he had betrayed had chosen to forgive him, and I knew she so desperately wanted us to get along.
It was important to her. He was important to her. And that was the only reason he was not dead.
“Regardless of what you think of him, Morden is a good male, with a strong sense of justice, and he cares about everyone in the pack. He wouldn’t have gone through with it.
It isn’t in his nature to hurt Saphira. If it had been Saphira in his sister’s position, the gods only know what I would have done to keep my cousin safe.
Morden is devoted to the March Pack. No other male is worthy of the position.
” Chase’s pale blue eyes drifted towards Saphira where she still talked with the female.
“March Pack?” I looked at Saphira too, wondering how my little wolf felt about the change in the name of her pack that had caught me off guard.
I had expected it to continue as the Harper Pack. The fact it would not and Chase was already calling it the March Pack had to be painful for her. All her parents’ legacy, wiped out by a simple change of alpha.
Everything she had known, changed in a heartbeat.
Chase sighed. “It could have stayed the Harper Pack.”
I dragged my gaze from her, settling it back on the new alpha.
He rubbed the back of his neck as he continued to watch her, a heavy sombreness about him.