Chapter 49
KAELERON
Every bone in my body felt as if it might shatter as I dug my claws into the barrier keeping me from the building where the portal magic was building.
Every drop of blood in my veins vibrated with the magic I summoned from deep within me, drawing it to the surface with a handful of desperate, whispered words I hoped would reach the ancients of this land as it did the Great Mother Lucia.
“By the slumbering gods of these lands. With your claws, breach earth and sky. With your flames, sear stone and sand. With your fangs, cleave all between you and the stars.”
Tremendous pain rolled through me, from the soles of my feet to the tips of my talons, and I threw my head back and roared as it consumed me, screamed as it tore me apart, but I did not let go.
I channelled all that fury that threatened to destroy me into the barrier before me.
And when I could no longer bear it.
When I was about to break.
I let go.
The ground came up fast to meet my knees, the impact jarring my trembling limbs.
“Brother,” Vyr breathed and was on her knees beside me, catching me as I pitched sideways.
I landed with my shoulder against hers, my breathing ragged as my heart threatened to give out, as my vision swam and distorted, and everything began to tumble through fingers too weak to grasp and hold on.
She tightly gripped my hands, squeezing them into fists for me, warming my chilled skin beneath her fierce hold that gave me the strength to not let go, to seize the ribbons of shadow that slipped from my fingers and cling to them, and then she tilted my head up and pressed her forehead to mine, our noses touching.
And whispered ancient words.
Powerful words.
Ones I never wished to hear falling from her lips.
“No,” I growled weakly and tried to break contact with her.
“Only a little,” she bit back at me and then softened, her hand cupping my cheek. “Take a little, Kael. For me.”
I flashed back in time, through centuries of darkness, watching her ageing in reverse until she was that little girl she had been before that dreadful night, her eyes overflowing with love and adoration as she had pulled me onto my feet, dusted down my dirty tunic, and last said these words to me.
A temporary bond between our magic, forged through our blood, as unbreakable as fae iron.
One that allowed her own strength to flow into me, to replenish what I had expended, sacrificing a sliver of herself for my sake.
I drew back and looked at her as my trembling subsided, as her warmth and love spilled into me, strengthening muscle and bone, restoring my magic, awed by what she was doing for me and by her power. The depths of it were beyond what I had imagined.
She was closer to me in power than I had believed.
“Enough.” I severed the connection between us, twisting my hands free of hers when she paled. “I will not let you hurt yourself for my sake.”
“But you hurt yourself for mine,” she whispered, still back in that day long ago. “It is only a fair exchange for the life I owe you, brother.”
The fenryr would not have killed her.
I told myself that to ward off the chill of that day I had heard her screaming, calling for help in the woods, and had found the power in me to teleport for the first time.
I had come upon her flailing on the ground beneath the great, black-skinned beast, desperately clawing at the grass, trying to drag herself away from its jaws as it had played with her.
She had been too young, her magic unpredictable, her strength no match for the creature who had been far from its natural range.
I had lost it.
I had launched at the fenryr, tearing it off her, gaining its attention so it would attack me instead.
I had flayed the fiend with my shadows, ripping it apart until it had been nothing more than scattered fragments of skin and bone.
It had almost killed me, and expending so much of my power would have if Vyr had not given me some of hers, enough to get me on my feet again.
Just as I lumbered to them now.
I placed my hand on her shoulder, my gaze fixed on the crumbling barrier around the mansion and senses locked on the magic I could feel still building within it.
“Thank you,” I murmured. “Protect Saphira for me.”
I did not wait to hear her response. I knew she would do as I had asked.
I ran for the building, legs weak beneath me but growing stronger with each long stride I took in its direction, and Malachi fell in beside me, his sword drawn and dark eyes fixed on the double doors ahead of us. I was not sure what we would find beyond them.
Whoever had cast the barrier was strong.
Stronger than I was in my current condition.
But I would not fail Saphira.
Malachi barrelled into the doors ahead of me, sending both panels of wood flying across the vestibule.
Several of the seelie who had been guarding it recovered from the shock of our entrance and ran at him, and I did not give them a chance to touch him.
Shadows swarmed from the marble floor, burrowing through flesh and muscle to bone, tearing their strength from them to feed it into me.
Their screams pulled a smile onto my lips as they collapsed to the ground, writhing like the snakes they were as my shadows spread through their marrow, as I poured them into their organs, choking the life from them while Malachi dealt with the guards who had been struck by the flying doors, snapping necks and severing arteries.
“Which way?” he grunted as he released the head of one of the seelie, letting the male drop to the ground with the others.
I scanned the building, seeking the source of the magic I had sensed.
It suddenly dispersed.
“No,” I growled and ran in the direction I had sensed it before it had disappeared, unwilling to believe they were gone until I saw it with my own eyes.
I leaped to the next floor, senses reaching for a sign of life. Not seelie, but wolf. For the first time in forever, I did not care if a seelie escaped my grasp. I only cared that one might take something precious from the one I loved.
More guards poured into my path and I drew my blade, cutting them down with sword and shadow as I carved a clearing along the corridor, heading at speed for a room at the far end of it as I sensed both fae and male wolves behind me, their signatures growing distant as they fled the building.
There would be no escape there. Saphira, my sister, and the others would see to that.
Malachi dealt with the seelie I shoved out of my way, ending them for me, allowing me to reach my destination unhindered.
My step stuttered.
A heartbeat.
My gaze snapped to the door on my left, one that had been sealed with several bolts and padlocks.
Those bolts drew back and the padlocks clicked open as I looked at them, no match for my magic as I managed to rein in the urge to kick the door in and discover what was on the other side.
Because that heartbeat was fast.
Fearful.
Beckoning all that was dark in me.
I held my hand up when Malachi neared me, halting him.
And then I reached for the handle and eased it open, as slowly as I could manage, listening hard to that heartbeat as it picked up, as her scent of fear grew stronger, and reminded me of another—of Saphira.
I had found one of her wolven.