Chapter 36
SAPHIRA
When the shadows parted, we were thundering through the air above a glittering black sea, so close to it that I could smell the salt on the breeze that buffeted my face and skirts.
I pinned them down with the hand that had been on Kael’s knee, trying to keep them from flying up and hitting me in the face as he snapped the reins, urging the elkyn onwards.
I couldn’t take my eyes off the distance.
An island jutted proudly from the sea ahead of us, faint light illuminating the white arched walls intersected by towers that loomed over the pale cliffs and trees.
Within the protective embrace of those high walls, the castle city rose in rings of bone-white buildings and broad bridges that connected tall towers to each level.
Spots of darkness marked ancient trees that hugged the walls and cliff of the central castle, separating it from the city below, and brighter areas hinted at squares and grand avenues.
On top of it all, a cathedral-like castle reigned, with broad patios and elegant gardens that came into view as Kael guided the elkyn around it.
I leaned to my left, gazing down at the stunning city, eyes darting over it all as I tried to take it all in during the short time we had before we landed.
A colossal tower whizzed past my face, punctured with hundreds of windows and a bridge that arched high above the city below where a river ran through it.
People moved along the illuminated promenade, peering in the windows of the stores nestled beneath the bridge, or drinking with friends outside the taverns that spilled out onto the paved avenue in places.
“Is it all you imagined?” Kaeleron’s voice cut through the noise of the wind in my ears.
I looked over my shoulder at him, sure I had heard a hint of displeasure in his voice. I sought it in his gaze but his silver eyes had grown cold and distant, no trace of emotion touching them.
“No. It’s white for a start.”
“Ah, so because we are unseelie, all should be dark and black, yes?”
I glowered at him. “No. Not at all. Your entire garden is white wood and pale stone. It’s just… I thought the seat of the high king would be… darker. There, I admitted it. I thought it would be darker. Less… well, more… grim?”
I weakly offered that last word, feeling ashamed of it.
“In my defence, you and Vyr have made the high king sound quite terrifying,” I snapped before he could cast judgement on me.
The corners of his lips twitched. “Oh, he is quite terrifying, little wolf. Best you stay close to me, lest he devour you.”
I wasn’t sure whether to take him seriously or not.
We touched down before I could make up my mind, the elkyn’s hooves clattering across the pristine pale marble courtyard in front of the grand arched entrance of the castle, and then I was being led from the carriage towards it, my hand over Kael’s arm.
Globes of magical light bobbed in the air, making the gold accents on the carvings of the arch glint in the night.
The sound of merriment drifted from within the grand building, and voices danced around us as more carriages landed and people exited them.
The sense of power was immense, curling around me and pressing down on me, and I was thankful for Kaeleron’s support as I leaned on his arm, refusing to let my body succumb to it in front of all these strangers.
I would be fierce. A wolf, not a lamb. I would show my fangs tonight, if only to stop others from sinking theirs into me.
Kaeleron swept me along a stunning white marble entrance hall guarded by towering gold statues that stood almost as tall as the vaulted ceiling.
Gold patterns inlaid into the marble floor shone as I moved forwards, each step a little easier than the last as I adjusted to the pressure of the power of the unseelie gathered for the ball.
A group lingered on one side of the hallway ahead of us, casting open glances at us, not concealing their curiosity.
The males all wore black like Kaeleron, and each wore a mask that resembled a hawk.
The females looked beautiful in gowns that were just as fine, if not finer, than my own, their butterfly masks a riot of colour against their faces.
One of them glanced at the necklace I wore and leaned towards one of the males, whispering something to him and drawing his gaze to it too.
Another female stared at my hand on Kaeleron’s arm.
“Who is she to be on the arm of the high king’s favourite?” she whispered loudly to another in her party as I passed them and I barely leashed the urge to look at her.
High king’s favourite?
I did glance at Kaeleron where he walked beside me, his head held high, his gaze fixed straight ahead of him, on the opened doors at the far end of the entrance hall.
We passed several more groups of unseelie, each of them wearing a different animal mask, and I listened hard, straining to hear any whispered comments they might make about me—or Kaeleron.
I needed to know if he was the high king’s favourite, but the thought of asking him had a tight knot forming in my stomach for some reason and my wolf side shrank back into the depths of my soul, as if it too didn’t want to know if he was.
Or what that might mean.
He had been required to visit this place, and he had said something about duty afterwards. And when the invitation had arrived, he had mentioned something about an alliance.
The words whispering and hissing through my mind and my heart grew silent as we entered a room like none I had ever seen before.
The grandeur of it hit me so hard I halted in the arched entrance to it, forcing Kaeleron to stop with me.
His gaze seared my face as I took in the room that stretched below me, but I was barely aware of him or the fae who drifted up and down the sweeping staircases to my left and right.
If I had held any doubt about the difference in status between Kaeleron and this high king, it would have been banished by the sight of this room that was both beautiful and dreadful, breathtaking and imposing.
It was all gleaming gold and onyx black, a stark contrast to the white stone and marble corridor behind me.
The floor to ceiling mirrors between the columns set into the walls reflected the crowd who filled the expansive room, their black clothing making them blend into the ornate tiles that created a pattern of gold and obsidian I caught snippets of as they moved, a design I felt sure would be the crest of Ereborne.
The air above the dancefloor was a sea of colourful glowing orbs of light that shimmered and swirled, as if someone had pulled the stars down into the room through the great glass domes that formed the roof.
Kaeleron tugged me to my right, towards him, shattering the bewitching spell of the ballroom in time to stop a tall black-haired male wearing a raven mask from pushing me aside.
The two of them stared at each other as the male swept past me, and the vicious tilt of his thinned lips as he looked from Kaeleron to me set my nerves alight again.
Silver eyes as pale and bright as moonlight ringed with night and flecked with onyx met and held mine.
His power pushed against me, dark and malevolent, a writhing and cold thing that had my thoughts twisting, growing jagged fangs and razor-sharp claws.
This was not my world.
These were not my people.
I didn’t belong here.
I belonged nowhere.
Even my own fated one hadn’t wanted me. He had turned on me. Betrayed me. Rejected me. Sold me. I was worthless. A worm. Too wretched for anyone to love.
I drifted towards the black marble banister, gaze on the drop to the hard floor below.
I was worthless.
I reached for the balustrade.
I would be better off dead.
“Saphira.” Kaeleron yanked back on my arm, pulling me so fiercely in his direction that my brain rattled in my skull and I snapped back to him.
I blinked at him, unsure what I had been doing, my hands trembling at my sides as I breathed fast and my heart laboured, adrenaline pouring through my veins to leave my legs shaking beneath me.
He growled at something to his right, baring jagged fangs, and then his look softened as his crimson-stained silver gaze leaped back to me and he exhaled. “Perhaps I should not have brought you here. Hold my gaze. Do not look away.”
That barked order only made me want to look away, in the direction he had snarled like a wild beast hungry with a need to savage something.
But I somehow found the strength to hold his gaze, denying that part of me that wanted to see what had upset him.
His gaze softened further as he murmured words laced with power that hummed deep in my bones, warming them, chasing the cold from my marrow and the fear from my heart.
I felt something unfurling within me, like tendrils loosening their hold on me, and then that hold snapped as if his words had stretched those tendrils to their limit.
And it came rushing back.
“Oh my gods.” I turned to look at the balustrade I had been ready to throw myself over, intending to kill myself or at least gravely wound myself.
“What did he put in your mind?” Kaeleron growled.
“Who? What?” Cold slithered down my spine as I looked to my left, to a male who seemed familiar as he paused halfway down the sweeping staircase to sneer back at me.
My heart grew so cold I was sure it would stop as I stared into his mesmerising eyes and soft claws raked over my mind, tapping in places, as if seeking something.
Kaeleron seized hold of my face, his fingers and thumb pressing into my cheeks so hard it hurt, and forced my gaze back to him. “Do not look at him.”
I was sure that barked order wasn’t because he was jealous of the male gazing at me and I at him. He feared this male. Or at least, he feared what the male could do to me.