Page 11 of Bonded to the Fallen Shadow King (Of Fae and Wolf Trilogy #1)

Chapter Eleven

Briar

T he manticore’s wings ripped through the air, and my body tingled with adrenaline. I ran from Quen and Yuki, wanting to attack the beast without risking injury to them. I rushed toward Siray’s platform and its glowing purple shield.

“Briar,” Quen yelled. “What are you doing?”

Even if I wanted to answer her, I couldn't. The only way I could communicate as a wolf was via pack link, and I had no pack members here. The only comfort I had was the faint warmth of the links in my chest from my pack members back home.

The manticore was inches from my head, so I jumped onto Siray’s protective shield, my claws cracking against the glass, and twisted and launched myself toward the enemy.

Locking my attention on where I wanted to land, my jaws came close to its throat. Bone ground against my teeth as I clamped down, which meant that I’d missed. The force of the collision knocked the beast off balance, and we crashed to the ground.

A deep, pulsing vibration rolled beneath my paws.

The swarm had changed. The sound of chittering legs wasn’t light anymore—it was heavy, pounding, and impossibly loud.

Yuki appeared on one side of me, Quen on the other, both pushing forward through the haze and heat. The manticore rose, furious, its tail flicking once before it launched black quills at us.

The whizz ing noise reminded me of bullets, and I didn’t know how the hell I was going to protect the girls. This was it. Not only would I die, two others would die along with me. My heart twisted, and I threw my head back and howled. Ember, I love you.

Yuki’s magic surged fast, and warmth swarmed us as a stone burst from the floor and caught the brunt of the attack. The spikes slammed into the rock with a sickening crunch, one ricocheting off and slicing into the edge of my flank. I bit back a yelp, paws bracing as Quen hurled an arc of flame straight at the beast’s chest.

“Flames won’t work,” Kaylen shouted from behind her shield, voice trilling with glee. “Manticores don’t burn, stupid.”

Quen didn’t look at Kaylen, and fire crackled higher around her arms. “Flame-resistant doesn’t mean flameproof. Everything burns. Just takes longer.”

The heat snapped against my skin as the flames caught and the air shimmered with rising waves. The manticore screeched, rearing back as fire clung to its coat, devouring the fur and catching in the bloody crevices where I’d torn muscle.

Yuki threw her arms wide again. The stone trembled beneath the manticore’s feet, fissures opening beneath it. The creature hesitated, talons scrabbling for balance. A second shockwave echoed from deeper in the arena, and the manticore turned toward it. It took the bait and lunged, barreling toward the second tremor.

She kept feeding the illusion, guiding it with distant cracks—straight toward Deallan’s circle.

More movement surged from the edges of the hall. The next wave of creepy crawlies had arrived.

They were larger now—grotesque and glistening, legs clacking, bodies thick, and mandibles snapping. A centipede lunged, and I slammed into it, tearing into its side as ichor sprayed across the ground. A scorpion wrapped around my back leg, its tail piercing my skin as I twisted and kicked free.

There was no break, no pause.

More agony followed by more pain, tormenting us all.

Just critters, manticores, and us, fighting and trying like hell to get back to our circle.

The swarm didn’t care that I’d survived the fall or that we’d managed to drive off a manticore. They kept coming, one endless tide, and I wasn’t sure we could keep standing.

The screeching of incoming wings had my ears twitching. The whistle of quills echoed in my ears. I dove to the side, insects crawling all over me as quills struck where I'd just been.

Stings and bites ached everywhere. The cold fire of venom fought both my wolf magic and the warmth that had filled me from making eye contact with the stag. But the pounding of wings informed me that they were coming at us again.

“Get up,” Thalira shouted from inside our platform. “You need to take cover. Get in here now!”

Blood almost frozen, I howled in agony and determination. The bugs faltered, and I climbed on all four legs once again.

More manticores soared down in spirals, claws extended, tails cocked. They hammered against the shields surrounding each circle. Kaylen’s shield rippled and flickered, the force making the glow stutter. Beetles the size of dogs clawed up the glass-like barrier. The swarm had grown teeth, legs, wings—and now it had mass.

Thalira lashed a manticore out of the air with one crack of her water whip, slamming it into the stone below. The impact sent a tremor through the floor. Aelir kept her arms out, wind screaming past her in burst after burst, while Myantha drove stone wedges upward like blunt knives to carve through the approaching waves of creatures.

Shadow tendrils burst from the darkness, surging past us and strangling a manticore mid-swoop. Its body jerked and flailed, wings twitching erratically before it dropped from the air with a sickening crunch. Rhielle didn’t move from her place, her face blank, but the magic curling from her fingers was anything but calm.

Raising her uninjured arm, Velessa shoved wind toward them with a cry, the funnel lopsided and wild. It caught the edge of another manticore and sent it tumbling over, its claws gouging long grooves into the floor as it spun.

My chest expanded with warmth and hope. This was how we all should survive—by working together.

Yuki lured the wounded manticore she had baited, guiding it with tremors and cracking rock toward Deallan’s circle. It slammed full force into the side, sending a ripple through their shield. The fae within scattered, screams piercing the chaos as their lights flickered. The shield held, but cracks spread like frost under pressure.

“Let’s go.” Quen grabbed my foreleg and tugged me through the small clearing Aelir was making with the wind.

I drove forward with all four legs, ignoring how heavy each felt to lift. I wasn’t sure how much longer I’d be able to move, so I had to get to safety. The other two fae ran almost as fast as me, proving how slow I was now.

Just as wings flapped in our direction again, we reached our platform. I leapt forward, paws catching the edge. The shield gave way for me, and I passed through and landed hard inside. Behind me, Yuki slammed against the outside, the barrier holding her back. Quen hit next to her, both of them shouting.

Holy crap. I didn’t just do all that for them not to be able to get in here. I refused to accept that. I prepared myself to launch outside again despite the bugs closing around us again when Rhielle turned from the swarm.

“Press your crystals into the shield. That’s how it knows you!” she screamed.

Quen and Yuki didn’t hesitate. The second the pieces met the barrier, light snapped out and pulled them inside. For one brief moment, it felt like we might be safe.

A horrible crack echoed from across the arena, sharp and splintering. Velessa pointed at the circle farthest away. “It’s breaking open!”

The shield of the circle near the sea serpents and even the platform itself shuddered under the onslaught. Three manticores slammed against it in unison, and the dome fractured. A second crack followed like a snapping bone. Light vanished. The shield dissolved. The women inside screamed.

Then the swarm poured in.

Beetles, spiders, and snakes rushed the fallen shield. The women’s pleas turned to shrieks. One woman tried to run, but a scorpion tail slammed her down. Another raised her hands in defense, and snakes circled them, hissing and biting.

My rage burned through the coldness, and I prepared to go help them when Rhielle stepped in front of me and looked in my eyes. “I respect you and agree with your philosophy, but if you leave you will die before reaching them. We need you here.”

I whimpered, hating that she was right. Quen, Yuki, and I had barely gotten here.

Still, each scream fractured my heart further, and I lifted my head, howling in mourning. I’d witnessed so much death, and it only got harder.

Quen and Yuki pressed their crystals into place. The hum deepened, and the shield over us surged. The circle’s glow brightened, rich purple swallowing the dark teal. A low hum reverberated beneath my paws. A hard shimmer formed at the base, the barrier thickening and stabilizing.

Still the swarm didn’t stop.

Insects clung to the shield, their bodies pressed so thickly against it that I could barely see through. Most of the creatures were now wolf-size. Their legs scratched the glass, sounding worse than nails on a chalkboard. Pinchers and stingers scraped and tapped, and their jaws snapped at the barrier.

Acid hissed in long, weeping trails where slime struck the shield. The manticores above dove again, hammering the dome. Quills bounced off—until one didn’t.

The impact rang like a bell, sharp and metallic. A jagged line split outward from the right side of the shield. The quill stuck straight through, and the fracture spider-webbed outward.

Creepy crawlies poured through the gap.

My stomach dropped, and I snapped at them, trying to force them back.

Rhielle’s shadows surged. Aelir spun, throwing small wind blades. Myantha slammed her feet down, and jagged stone punched up from the ground outside our shield.

I lunged into the mass, teeth and claws raking whatever I could reach, and ignored the awful bites that engulfed me.

Quen’s fire licked over my side as she aimed high, burning through the breach. "Somebody block the gap!" she screamed.

Yuki crushed three beetles with a slab of rock, then threw it toward a centipede crawling over the edge and jammed the rock against the quill. The rock cracked into pieces the right size to fill the space and push the quill out.

Screams rose across all the circles. The other teams were under siege too.

A manticore struck our shield hard enough to send another crack rattling across the top. The circle shook as the shield waved like glass about to shatter.

Another swooped in, mouth wide open and creepy-ass old man eyes fixed on us. My heart skipped a beat as Thalira’s deep blue whip lashed again. She made contact—but she didn’t let go in time. The creature jerked her off her feet, and its claws snatched her through the shield opening.

She screamed, hands scrabbling to find hold.

No. Not one of our own.

I surged forward and closed my teeth around her tunic. I pulled hard, trying to drag her back against the momentum. Her legs hit the floor, but the whip yanked taut again.

That wasn’t going to work. I had to think of something else. Ears ringing, I released her and locked on the thick, water-woven strand. My teeth sank into the water, and I bit down hard. The water actually had resistance. Thalira yanked forward and so did I... and then my teeth cut through the stream, and it snapped and vanished in a splash.

We landed hard together.

Thalira gasped, chest heaving, arms curled tight to her ribs. She didn’t speak. She didn’t need to. We were still alive—for now. But how much longer could we make it? We were all flagging.

A thunderous thud struck the shield’s left side. The platform groaned, and another spiderweb fracture bloomed outward from a thick black quill. The shard had punched through, and hope vanished, making me feel hollow. My ears pinned flat as an unnatural clicking echoed in my skull.

Then came the hiss. Not from a single creature, but from hundreds. The shield split wider, and a flood of centipedes, spiders, and things I didn’t recognize poured through the opening. Limbs flailed. Screams tore through the air as the swarm invaded, biting and stinging with frenzied glee. Magic lit the space in bursts—wind gusts, water lashes, and fire arcs—but there were too many.

From the other platforms, more cries rang out, blending with ours. A chorus of pain and terror. I backed toward the center, snapping at a wolf-sized beetle trying to climb the ledge. Quen crushed one with a column of fire, and Yuki raised slabs of stone to block another, only for it to crawl up and over. The shield’s protection meant nothing now.

Thalira shouted something as another manticore swooped low and caught the end of her water whip. She tried to pull back, but it yanked her forward, her feet skidding once again, sliding into the mass of insects. This time I couldn’t reach her in all the chaos.

The gong rang.

The sound cut through everything—scraping claws, shouts, magic bursts—and all at once, the creatures stopped.

The silence was deafening, and several women began crying.

Still, I didn’t trust these assholes and crouched, preparing for yet another surprise.

The swarm scattered, vanishing into cracks and slithering back into shadows. The manticores beat their wings, ascending as one, and disappeared into the dark ceiling. When I looked up, they were there, hanging like monstrous bats, relaxed and silent.

Stillness clung to the air. The shields dissolved into shimmering light. The golden glow of the arena returned, casting the whole place in a sickly kind of calm. The bodies, the blood, even the piles of corpses—gone. Just vanished, like none of it had happened… like none of it mattered.

Once again, bile inched up my throat. None of the fae appreciated life, and they didn’t seem to mourn the dead. How barbaric.

The elderly council member in a dark gray robe stepped forward. "Survivors," he called, his voice amplified. “Step forward. Come stand before the Council.”

Breathing ragged, I padded forward to where the others were gathering, the sharp tang of blood still clinging to my tongue. I throbbed with fatigue, fur matted and heavy. The observers platform hovered above us.

Kaylen was among the last to join the survivors. Her once-flawless braid was half undone, and her leathers torn. She lifted her chin and glared up at the observation platform, ichor streaked across her face.

“Who won?” Her voice cracked.

The old man peered down, tilting his hooded head. "Is your heart still beating?"

Kaylen blinked. “Yes.”

"Then you won. If your heart is still beating, you live to continue fighting for the prince’s hand."

A few of the contestants laughed, but not all.

Kaylen scowled and glared, threatening us all.

He was right, except for the last part. I didn’t want to even pretend to want to marry someone who supported games like these. It was sick.

Aelir turned to me, swaying on her feet. “My heart’s still beating,” she whispered. Her smile built slowly until it was as bright as the sun.

Her happiness made me forget about all the bad stuff, and I nodded, trying to communicate back to her while in wolf form.

The air dropped in temperature, reminding me of Elara’s warning. I glanced back just in time to see Kaylen drive a wind blade into Aelir's back.

No! My wolf snarled as unfiltered rage soared through me.

Aelir gasped, and her eyes widened in shock as the weapon punched through her. I charged at Kaylen, sinking my teeth into her right forearm till they hit bone. Then I released her and head-butted her back.

Stumbling, Kaylen screamed as she clutched her forearm. Blood poured from her wound and slipped through her fingers onto the floor.

Then Aelir collapsed, and her pulse weakened.

I had to help her and stop the bleeding, which meant I had to be in human form.

Ignoring the way my body screamed in protest, I yanked my wolf back. The venom seemed to explode through my body, but I didn’t give a damn. I wouldn’t allow Aelir to die alone.

Pain ripped through my joints, and soon I stood naked once more. I dropped to my knees and gathered Aelir into my arms.

Her breaths came shallow. Blood spilled down her back and from the corners of her mouth. She tried to speak but no words formed.

“I’m here,” I murmured, my voice cracking. “Stay with me. Just hold on. We’re still alive. Remember, we won.”

Life began to fade from her emerald eyes.

Tears filled mine, but I blinked them back. I had to get the dagger out of her back so I could stop the bleeding.