Chapter 48
SAPHIRA
Kaeleron’s shadows snared Morden’s legs the moment he appeared with Malachi, rising out of a hole in the ground in the woods close to the mansion the demon had taken both him and Jenavyr to first, allowing them to then teleport between it and Falkyr.
Morden growled, baring fangs at Kael, rage flashing in his eyes as dark fur swept over his bare chest and every muscle on his torso flexed.
“I know,” I whispered. “It’s hard for me too, but we can’t go rushing in there. We can’t.”
His brightening eyes flashed to me and narrowed. “Dani might be in there.”
“I know.” I went to him and took hold of his arms, feeling how tense his muscles were beneath my palms and fingers, sensing how on edge he was, how close to shifting to escape the bonds of Kael’s shadows.
“I know, Morden. Everlee might be there too. But we can’t save them if we’re dead. We have to be strategic.”
Which wasn’t something wolf shifters were particularly known for, but I was learning how to tame my instincts that were howling like a storm within me, demanding I take back the person I loved from the hands of those bastards and kill my fated mate.
Morden could too.
Chase came to stand beside him, wearing as little as Morden did, both of them looking as if they were going to freeze in their loose shorts and bare feet.
They had chosen to fight as wolves, in their stronger forms. I wasn’t sure how I was going to fight.
My instincts howled as a wolf. My gut said with a blade.
I felt as if I was being torn between two very different sides of myself as I stood there looking at them, as if I should have been dressed as they were, ready to shed what little clothing stood between them and their naturally more powerful forms.
Maybe I hesitated and was unsure because I was female.
I hadn’t been raised to fight as they had been.
Malachi and Kaeleron disappeared, leaving us alone for only a heartbeat before Jenavyr appeared with two soldiers, who then disappeared and appeared with two more each, and now those six disappeared, together with Jenavyr.
She returned with Riordan, and I noticed how her hand lingered on his arm, gripping it through his light black leather armour.
He noticed it too, his crimson gaze falling to it, lingering on it.
Softening.
And then Vyr withdrew her hand and muttered in a biting tone, “Do try not to die. I have enough new recruits to train without needing to look for your replacement.”
“I’ll try not to die.” The vampire preened his blond hair, his broad smile as charming as ever as he chucked her under the chin as he passed her and added, “But only because you’d miss the hell out of me if I did.”
She snorted. “Insufferable male.”
“I believe the word you were looking for was incredible.” He waved his hand without looking back at her, his squad falling in behind him as he moved to the western flank of the building as planned. “Or irreplaceable. Either works for me.”
Vyr stood there with her back to him, a vision of stoicism and calm.
And just as he moved beyond the sphere of my senses, that calm broke and she looked over her shoulder in the direction he had gone, worry glittering in her silver eyes.
“He’ll be fine. He’s too irritating to die so easily. Irritating. Another ‘I’ word that works for him.” I smiled for her when her gaze shifted to me, trying to lighten the weight in her heart.
Her answering smile was faint and forced, her voice sober as she said, “Do not underestimate the seelie, Saphi. There are many among them as powerful as I am… as powerful as my brother.”
My smile fell and I nodded.
Kaeleron returned, a shadow in his black leather armour, his handsome face as grave as I had ever seen it.
I almost lunged for him, barely stopping myself from seizing hold of him as I said, “Well?”
He huffed. “Seventeen fae guards in the grounds. Five wolves. No trace of any fae above the grade of guard. No trace of the prick of an alpha, or female wolves. If they are here, they are beyond the barrier. That barrier magic is strong… ancient. I will need time to break it.”
I stared at him, seeing what he wasn’t saying in his eyes.
“You don’t think you can.”
He looked as if he wanted to shrug that off, to remind me who he was, but then he slowly shook his head. “I cannot promise that I can. If I can, I will need all the time I can get.”
“We can give you that.” I was sure of it as Morden and Chase came to flank me, as I looked at Vyr and the contingent of men Riordan had left with her and thought about the vampire and the unseelie guards he had taken with him. “Just focus on the barrier.”
“I will need Vyr.” He glanced at his sister.
Her eyes widened, surprise colouring them together with a hint of pride as she looked at him.
“You are almost as strong in magic as I am. Together we stand a better chance of shattering that barrier.” Kaeleron held his hand out to her.
She shook herself out of her stupor and nodded. “Whatever you need, brother.”
Her gaze darted to me.
“We’ll be fine, if your men don’t mind following us instead.” I lifted my hand to grip the hilt of the dagger that hung from my waist against my dark leathers, the twin of the sword sheathed against Kael’s back.
“Then we move.” Kaeleron nodded and everyone set off.
Everyone except us.
I stood there staring up at him, captivated by his tender gaze, afraid I would never see him again.
“Saphi,” he murmured and came to me, wrapped me in his arms and gripped the back of my head as he pressed his lips to my brow.
My eyes slipped shut and I savoured that kiss, putting it to memory, clinging to it.
“Call if you need me.” He drew back and tapped the point on my blouse that concealed his brand. “I will not allow anything to happen to you… my little wolf.”
I nodded. “I won’t allow anything to happen to you either.”
He smiled. “Spoken like a true warrior.”
Spoken like a woman in love.
I clutched his shoulders, tiptoed and kissed him, pouring all that love into it, desperate and wild, and so afraid. He returned it just as fiercely, his fingers pressing into my flesh, digging into my bones as he clung to me.
I broke the kiss and held him tightly, bringing my mouth close to his pointed ear, and whispered, “May Lucia light your path to guide you through the coming shadows and be there for you in the times I cannot.”
I felt his smile against my cheek.
He echoed the words back to me in ancient fae, a language I grew more determined to study, and I would do just that.
When we were home.
He took hold of my hand, lifted it between us, and slid something onto my finger.
My ring, I realised as I looked down at our joined hands.
It felt good to see it back in place. I looked from it to its twin that encircled Kaeleron’s finger.
Matching bands that made me feel as if we had already exchanged a promise, had already settled on our future and declared our devotion to one another.
“Be on your guard against the seelie wretches,” he growled, his gaze sharp and intense as it met mine.
Because he was afraid they would take me from him.
He feared these were the fae who were looking for me.
“I can handle myself. Whatever happens. You trained me well.” I framed his face with my palms and gazed up at him, needing to just look at him for a moment—just a moment longer. “If they manage to capture me—”
“Do not speak like that,” he croaked, his handsome face crumpling as he shook his head, moving my hands. “Do not.”
I couldn’t follow that order, even when I didn’t want to pain him with the thought my friends might not be the only ones taken to the Summer Court—beyond his reach.
“If they take me… I can handle it. I will survive. I will not let them break me. I’ll find my way back to you. Just… don’t do anything reckless.”
He scowled at me and bit out, “Says the wolf speaking of doing reckless things. They will not take you. I will not allow it. No seelie is a match for me. I will carve my name on their bones with my claws.”
There was the brash, bold, and slightly homicidal male I loved.
I kissed him again, unable to stop myself, needing just one more to see me through the coming fight.
Shadows swept me up with him, embracing me as surely as his arms did, and when they faded a cacophony of sounds and smells hit me, and he was running, sprinting across the gravel driveway of the elegant floodlit mansion, towards his sister and Malachi.
I allowed myself a second to watch him, to send a prayer to my ancestors and to Lucia to keep him safe, and then I turned on my heel and ran towards the fray, unsheathing my dagger as I went, narrowing my focus to the fight and my training.
It didn’t prepare me for the mayhem that engulfed me as I hurled myself into a slide across the gravel that had the bolt of blazing amber magic whizzing over my head so close I could feel the heat of it.
I came up onto my feet and slashed at one of the golden-haired guards, my dagger grazing across the gold plate that shielded his chest, barely making a scratch in it.
He turned on me and swept his arm out, and I ducked beneath his arm and brought my leg around, sweeping his out from under him.
He barely touched the ground before he disappeared, reappearing behind me to seize hold of the rope of my silver hair and pull it, tugging me backwards and off balance.
But not for long.
I summoned all my agility, using it to propel my legs upwards as I twisted, and wrapped my thighs around his head. I twisted again, throwing my weight downwards, and slammed him into the ground beneath me, landing on top of him.
I didn’t hesitate. Not this time. I couldn’t be weak. I couldn’t think about the life I was taking. It was his or mine, and I would survive this battle. I could feel guilty all I wanted later, when those I loved were safe and my mate was dead.
I plunged my dagger through the narrow space between the seelie’s chest plate and the ones that protected his hips. He howled beneath me as I yanked the blade out and blood spurted, splattering across the white leather and gold metal he wore, and he slammed his palm into my back.
Sending me flying forwards.
I soared over Morden in his dark wolf form and his head lifted, bright grey gaze tracking my trajectory, and then he was moving as I twisted like a cat, trying to right myself. He shifted as he ran, transforming from wolf to human, and kicked off, leaping into the air, catching me.
And getting a face full of my breasts.
He was quick to set me away from him as we landed, and even quicker to shift back into a wolf, casting me an admonishing look before he was gone, like a shadow as he sprinted through the clashing black-clad unseelie and the lighter seelie guards.
Heading at speed towards another wolf.
Not Lucas.
I flicked a glance at the building, sure the bastard was in there. My wolf side knew it—could feel him despite his rejection. I would cut that connection between us out of me today.
Chase came to a stop next to me, his tan wolf breathing hard, his muzzle bloodied, and maybe they were both right. I was faster, more agile, and stronger as a wolf.
“Riordan,” I hollered as the vampire drained a seelie near us, his crimson eyes blazing as he practically drank the male dry while he struggled, weakly trying to push the Shadow Court commander off him.
Riordan casually pushed him away, letting his body drop to the gravel as he sauntered towards me. “I wasn’t snacking.”
I presumed that was something that had happened before on the battlefield and he confirmed it as he cast a wary glance towards the trio we guarded.
“Don’t tell her I was snacking. I have to keep my strength up, you know? It’s not easy fighting seelie.”
“I don’t care who you eat. Eat the whole damned lot of them. I need you to look after this. Guard it with your life.” I took hold of his hand and shoved my dagger and belt into it.
“Why? Giving up already—oh my gods…” He reared away from me, covering his eyes. “Warn a male first, would you?”
I shrugged and kept stripping off, tossing my clothes into a pile on the ground.
He muttered, “Wolves really do have no shame. You know it’s my balls if he finds out I saw all that.”
I grinned as I let the shift come over me, and then kicked off, running back into the fray with Chase at my side. Morden joined us, flanking me, and we worked as one, leaping on a guard and savaging him, ripping at his armour and his flesh, ending him before he could think to hit us with magic.
Riordan cut down another seelie who tried to do just that, using my dagger to slice across his throat, spilling a waterfall of blood down his chest. He looked at the dagger and grinned, flashing his fangs. “I need to get me one of these.”
He was gone a second later, little more than a blur as he cut a path through the seelie and wolves, injuring them with my dagger and weakening them, allowing me, Chase and Morden to finish them off.
The ground trembled.
Power vibrated in the air.
Rattling my bones.
Shaking my fur.
I skidded to a halt on the gravel and twisted back the way we had come, looking beyond the line of fallen fae and wolves to Kaeleron.
He paled as he pressed his hands to an invisible wall, his face twisting and arms trembling. His lips peeled back off his teeth and beside him Vyr grunted, her eyes squeezing shut. They could do this. I believed in them. Together, they would break this barrier.
I looked at the mansion.
Sure my friends were in there.
Sure he was in there.
I could feel it in my blood.
I clamped my teeth hard as the ground quaked again, toppling several of the warriors battling around me, and power pressed against me, one that was unfamiliar to me, but strangely familiar at the same time.
“Saphira!” Kaeleron hollered and I looked in his direction. “Magic builds from somewhere within. Waygate magic.”
I shivered, chills sweeping over my skin.
No.
I needed him to go. Now. To get inside and save them. I needed him to drive my bastard mate outside so I could gut him with my fangs.
I needed to tell Kaeleron that, and I only had one way of doing that right now.
I threw my head back and howled.