Page 15 of Claimed By Shadow and Blood (Of Fae and Wolf Trilogy #2)

I caught the tang of blood. No sounds stirred, but most likely, Thalen had taken special care for that and created a circle of silence.

The faint thrum of Sylvan magic pushed against my ears.

My own shadows could mute sounds as well, especially if I focused them, but Sylvan silencing magic was especially powerful because it commanded the very air itself.

Around the next bend of the narrow passage, I reached the entry to another staircase and glimpsed pale light beneath the reinforced metal door. It yielded to my touch as the magic of the guard sigils recognized me.

The onyx cellar was a large, low-ceilinged room of rough-hewn stone and diagonal stone cubicles for storage.

In the center of the room, in a chair, sat a prisoner with his hands bound behind his back by spindles of thick wire, head lolling as if he’d just been struck.

The prisoner’s ankles were lashed to the chair’s legs with the same material, and livid bruising around his extremities made it clear that he was far from comfortable.

Thick bolts screwed the feet of the chair into the stone floor to prevent him from toppling it and escaping.

Blood trickled from the corners of the prisoner’s lips, and a pile of armor lay by the western wall, stacked haphazardly next to cubicles that previous royals had used for storing special vintages.

Across the room, Thalen leaned against the wall, his amber eyes bright and sharp. His gaze slid to mine, and he gave a small nod as if to confirm it was one of the guards who had taken Briar.

I smirked. Now I could release some of the anger I’d been trying to hide.

When the guard saw me, he started to speak, but not a peep reached my ears.

Smart Thalen.

I couldn’t spot the markings of the circle of silence, but Thalen used to love to brag about his skills until he learned hard lessons in discretion.

The last time I'd seen him utilize this kind of magic was years ago, during a wilderness conflict against cursed beasts that had stalked us by our heartbeats, and he'd left traces of the circle in the packed earth. Apparently, he'd been practicing.

The Sylvan magic prickled and chaffed my own as I neared the guard. Two steps closer, and his pained moans became audible.

“What have I done to displease you, Your Highness?” The guard’s shoulders twitched. “I have done nothing to harm you or your father.”

I circled him slowly, not looking at him as I took in the onyx cellar. Thalen would have prepared everything, but I wanted to ensure all was well myself. Dark metal brackets fastened to the stone walls held low torches, creating enough pools of amber light to brighten most of the floor.

My shadows slid along the walls like a second consciousness, drinking in every sensation and detail. I held my wings out but relaxed, my spine straight, though I almost stumbled as I reached Thalen.

He quirked an eyebrow, not missing that I wasn’t well. He remained quiet, but I knew he’d address the matter with me later.

“No one is aware you took him?” I leaned back on my feet, trying to hide my near fall.

Thalen’s mouth flicked upward in a crooked smile that didn’t show his teeth.

“It’s hard to scream for help when you don’t have breath.

” His posture remained loose, and his wings hung lazily, his white feathers nearly brushing the floor.

But anyone who believed he was relaxed was a fool.

“The circle is reinforced. No one will hear anything now that he has his breath back.”

“I have done nothing wrong,” the man cut in, voice shaking and pitching higher.

Crossing to the bound man, I rested my hands on my belt and spread my wings wide. “What is your name?”

“I am Deln of Ilnon, a faithful servant of the Shadow Kingdom and to you, Your Highness. I have never done anything to harm the kingdom or the royal family, I swear,” he rasped. Blood dribbled from his mouth.

I chuckled darkly. “A faithful servant who failed to listen or even acknowledge his prince when he was told to bring the Earth woman back?” It felt wrong to speak of Briar in such cold terms, but it would feel even more wrong to speak of my feelings for her to this cringing failure of a man. “Why did you not heed my orders?”

“I— It wasn’t me!” Deln started, but his gaze snapped to Thalen, and he cringed.

Thalen fluttered his fingertips, and small wind blades formed in the air near Deln’s face, hanging in the air as they waited for his instruction. “We’ve already talked about lying.” One of the tiny wind blades darted just up to his lips as if ready to dive in and carve the lie off his tongue.

I kept my own expression neutral as I stared Deln down, unblinking. “Why did you not heed my order? It was clearly stated multiple times.”

Deln’s jaw worked. The small wind blades remained still in the air before him.

I circled him once more, my boots scraping on the coarse stone. “Only one order was given. Mine. And you defied it. Blatantly. Neither you nor your fellow guard even flinched, and you worked as one.”

“Your Highness, I?—”

“Vow the truth.” I stopped in front of him, and my shadows spiraled closer. They crept up the legs of the chairs. “Vow on your life and on the lives of those whom you cherish that you will speak only the truth.”

His face paled. His tongue flicked at his lips.

It wasn’t considered good conduct to demand a vow for something like this.

The magic always took its toll, and if the vow was not given willingly, my magic would compel it at a cost to me.

How much strength that would require depended on the will of the person being interrogated, but I could already tell I’d be able to rip through this man’s like wet paper, even in my current state.

Still, the price of it would make me physically weaker.

If this got me closer to freeing Briar, I’d take the cost. I would get to her, even if I couldn’t stand or walk and had to crawl. She was worth it all.

I lowered my face to his, staring him down as my blood boiled. “Vow now that only the truth will cross your lips, or I’ll let Thalen hook those wind blades back in your mouth and cut out every lie, spoken and thought.”

His blue eyes widened, and sweat rolled down his bruised brow. “Your Highness?—”

The nearest of the tiny blades shot forward and cut a line just inside his cheek. He jolted back, blood blossoming from the wound and spilling over his lip.

“Oops,” Thalen said. “Were you about to make the vow or protest?”

Deln’s throat bobbed, his gaze darting frantically between Thalen and me. He licked his cracked lips before focusing on me. He cleared his throat. “I-I vow upon my own life that I will speak only the truth.”

“Vow it on your life and on something that would cause you pain. Otherwise, your words mean nothing to me,” I growled.

My shadows lifted as they spread and darkened like streams of ink pouring into once-clear red waters, and the air chilled around us.

My breath frosted in his face, yet within me, an inferno raged, coiling tighter and tighter.

“I vow it on my life and on my children’s lives,” he murmured.

I raised an eyebrow and dropped my hand hard against his shoulder.

My shadow claws pressed against the nailbeds, itching to emerge and puncture his flesh.

“Your children aren’t here. I don’t even know if you have any children, and you wouldn’t be the first who was willing to pass pain to his children to save his own skin.

I reject that vow. Vow to speak the truth on your life and to your great, agonizing suffering.

That seems like it would be the most impactful to you. ”

His throat bobbed again, and his mouth moved wordlessly.

I squeezed his shoulders and let my claws emerge.

They cut into the ecru fabric of his tunic, the points pressing deeper with each breath I took.

“Arguing would be a very bad choice. Anything other than the vow I require will result in even more pain and suffering. Is that what you want?” My eyebrow twitched upward as I dared him to defy me again.

Thalen watched with his fingers tensed, ready to send more of the wind blades shooting forward.

Deln whimpered and stiffened, his breath shuddering in his chest. Sweat had darkened the collar of his shirt. “I vow it,” he gasped. “I vow it on my life, and to my great…agonizing…suffering, if I do not speak the truth.”

There. It was done. Reluctantly, but binding nonetheless.

His suffering didn’t concern me. My anger and hatred would push me through until Briar was free, and this bastard was as guilty as he was a dead man walking.

He had dragged my beloved away and put her in the hands of my enemy, who would no doubt use torture to force her to admit to something she hadn’t done.

But first, I would make him acknowledge every scrap of truth.

“You are one of the two guards who seized my beloved, are you not?”

He nodded slowly. My shadows curled back closer to me while remaining within his line of sight, a reminder that, beyond the vow, I would inflict great pain upon him if he crossed me. “Y-yes. I was, but we—” He stopped short.

I gripped his shoulder tighter. “You what? Were you going to tell me you didn’t mean to hurt her? That you didn’t mean any harm? Then you realized it was a lie. You can’t say you didn’t mean her any harm because that isn’t true.”

“He doesn’t give a damn about Briar.” Thalen made the tiny blades dance.

Two of the blades became hooks as his magic transformed them.

“When I asked him, he called her a scaffing bitch and a copper-haired whore. I overheard him saying that no one would mourn her. Very strong opinions on the future queen. Treasonous opinions.”