Page 14 of Traitor Wolf (Bonded by Fate Duet #1)

Chapter Ten

I found Kaelric staring longingly at my sword at times, and I found myself wishing he’d look at me like that.

Over the past several days, we’d woken up at sunrise, eaten a huge breakfast, then trained until sundown, breaking for a midday meal, of course, and finishing with a dinner so large I had chest burn when I lay awake at night.

My pants were getting tight! Which Kaelric seemed to like. I’d never met a man so obsessed with my eating habits. He wouldn’t even touch his plate until I started, and when I finished, he always offered me seconds before taking any for himself.

I knew it was because he didn’t want a skinny, frail partner in the trials, but it also felt chivalrous in a way. Now it was the night before the first trial, and I was a ball of nerves .

Cassian had left yesterday with the other sponsors to help design and set up the first trial, which, frustratingly, we still knew nothing about. Valkaryn hadn’t spoken to me since that day in the training room, and I was having a hard time “connecting” with her.

Kaelric had me sit for an hour and try to connect with her by quieting my mind, but it was impossible!

“I feel stupid trying to talk to a piece of metal,” I told him.

He raised one eyebrow at me from across the room, then peered at Valkaryn by my side. “Surprised she didn’t do anything to you for calling her a piece of metal.”

Do anything to me?

“Do the other initiates’ weapons speak to them?”

His jaw tightened. “Do you even know the story of Valkaryn? Do you know the power that has chosen you?”

I squirmed a little. “I know we call it… her… the King Killer. Capable of… I don’t know… killing kings and taking thrones of power?”

He looked offended. “That’s all? That’s all your people know of her?”

He crossed the room and kneeled beside the sword as if in reverence. “Our stories say that when the Creator made the world, he also forged a weapon. A weapon so powerful it would protect his people from evil, his beloved creations. He made the King Killer.”

I peered down at the blade as he continued.

“For millennia, the blade was just that, a sword with untold power. Until one day, there was born a ruthless warrior, a magicless human with a pure heart…”

Surprise rippled through me. A magicless human warrior? I’d never heard of such a thing. All the great warriors had magic.

“This warrior commanded the wolfkin alpha’s army for thirty years, until one day she died protecting the alpha she’d loved and served for decades.”

I leaned in, not wanting to miss this story. “That’s sad,” I told him.

He nodded. “When this warrior reached the heavenly realms, the legend says that she begged the Creator to forge a new body for her so that she could go back and avenge her king. Her love.”

Oh, it was a romance story, I loved those. I didn’t dare speak, not wanting to miss the end.

“And the Creator told her that she could have a new body, one of steel, one that could never be broken, one that would be a warrior forever, one that already existed on earth. And because her heart was pure and she despised evil and only wanted to protect the innocent, he placed her soul into the King Killer and gave her untold power.”

I gasped, looking down at the blade with newfound respect.

It was a beautiful story, but was it true?

‘Every word,’ she whispered into my head.

I gasped, and Kaelric nodded. “My people call her the Alpha Killer , Creator Blessed , Guardian of Good , Protector of the Innocent . Now you see why she chose you. A magicless warrior.”

I swallowed hard, shifting uncomfortably in my seat. It was fascinating.

I was a magicless warrior?

I guess… I was now.

“You said she used to be your father’s blade?” I was curious about his story now, why he wanted her so badly.

“I never said she was my father’s blade ,” he told me. “That’s enough story time. Let’s get some dinner. You’re still too small.”

I was grateful he called me small and not skinny. But… I racked my brain. He hadn’t said she was once his father’s blade? I thought he had. Yes, he did . Why was he lying now?

‘Leave it be,’ Valkaryn told me, and I peered down at her .

‘Did you choose me because I am magicless?’ I asked her.

‘No. I chose you because of your heart. The power I carry breaks the greedy, and it drives the cruel mad. You’re the first in generations whose heart was strong enough to hold me.’

What? That stunned me into silence. Her power drove the greedy mad? The very thought terrified me.

“You look like you’ve seen a veil walker. What did she just say to you?” Kaelric asked.

“Nothing,” I said too quickly.

After Kaelric forced me to eat two huge servings of honey ham with sweet potatoes and buttered bread, I felt physically sick.

“I can’t keep eating like this. I’m ready to sleep,” I told him, as heaviness weighed down my limbs and sleepiness washed over me.

“You eat like this and continue training with me, and you’ll become stronger, build muscle, have more powerful hits during fighting,” he said.

“Am I going to be fighting hand-to-hand?” I asked, unsure how this whole thing would play out.

“If you want to stay alive,” was all he answered, throwing his plate in the sink.

We had an agreement between us. I didn’t know how to cook much, and he’d fired the maids because he didn’t trust them. So I had to clean up after dinner.

“ I cook, you clean. Deal? ” was pretty much how he’d proposed it to me, but I didn’t mind. He made good food, almost as good as Mama's, and cleaning was my chore at home anyway.

As I scrubbed away at the dishes, I found my mind spinning with the story of Valkaryn. She was a soul trapped in steel. The Creator’s most treasured warrior. It was heartwarming and unbelievable at the same time.

I also thought of Kaelric telling me Valkaryn used to be his father’s, but then I wondered if I’d heard that right.

It was all the way back in the Hall of Binding, which felt like ages ago.

When I was done with the dishes, I went in search of Kaelric.

I found him in his bedroom, sharpening his dagger while his legs dangled out the open window, and he perched on its ledge.

“Aren’t you afraid of falling?”

He must have heard me coming, because he didn’t startle.

“I’m more afraid of being stuck inside all day,” he responded dryly.

I frowned. I heard the wolfkin slept outside under the stars even in their human form, but I didn’t know how true it was.

“Why don’t you go outside?” I asked.

He peered at me as if I were slow.

“I don’t need a babysitter,” I snapped .

He rolled his eyes. “Yes, you do. I wouldn’t be much of a protector if I were sleeping outside where I’m more comfortable. Especially with Cassian gone tonight.”

I’d forgotten our nighttime arrangements and that Cassian was gone.

“I can take half the night shift tonight. That way you get some sleep,” I told him.

He looked at me like I’d suggested he swallow a poisonous frog.

“I will take the entire night shift,” he stated. “I’ll sleep on the train tomorrow en route to the Steel Mountains. No one will dare try anything there with so many officials on board.”

I pointed to Valkaryn at my hip. “Do you think I’m a baby? I can stay up for four hours and keep a lookout! Especially with the King Killer at my disposal.” I tapped Valkaryn. Or Alpha Killer. Whatever she was called.

His eyes narrowed as if deep in thought.

I added, “You will be useless at the trial tomorrow if you haven’t slept at all. We both know you won’t sleep on the train.”

A low growl rumbled in his chest as he finally relented. “Fine. Four hours, from two to six a.m.”

“Okay. Just wake me up at two.” I yawned. It was barely eight at night, but the heavy dinner sat in my stomach like a stone, causing fatigue to pull at my limbs.

“I’m going to head to bed, then. See you at two,” I told him.

He saluted me, going back to sharpening his dagger on the stone in his lap and looking out over the lit-up city of gold and glass. Beyond the pretty gates sat the uneven rooftops of the Dregs. I wondered if the Elites hated us so much because we ruined their view.

The more I learned about Kaelric, the more I wanted to know and realized I didn’t know anything. Did he spend more time in his human half or wolf half? Did he long to go outside and sleep under the stars? Did he have a girlfriend back home?

That last thought entered my mind unbidden, and I blushed.

After bathing and changing into nightclothes, I drifted off to sleep easily.

I didn’t trust Kaelric to wake me, and I didn’t have a magic time orb like the Elite did, magically set at the hour they wanted it to flare brightly and wake them.

So I did what we did in the Dregs. I lit a time candle, sliding in a metal nail at the two a.m. mark.

When the wax burned past it, the nail would hit the metal stand below and wake me up.

They worked well, assuming you could afford the candle, which wasn’t always possible growing up.

We just woke up with the sun and went to sleep with the moon .

The second my head hit the pillow, I was out.

The sound of metal on metal had my eyes snapping open.

I shrieked at the sight of Kaelric looming over my bed.

He scowled at the candle. “You didn’t trust me to wake you?”

My heart beat so frantically, I was worried it would jump out of my chest.

“I… didn’t want to forget,” I lied, sitting up and rubbing my face in an effort to wake.

He looked too tired to care. “There are four entries to this apartment. Front door and three windows. Listen for any noise from any of the directions of those openings and wake me even if you aren’t sure.”

I got out of bed and nodded, standing as I grabbed Valkaryn and attached the sheath to my hip.

I stepped out into the main living room and watched as Kaelric shuffled into his room, leaving the door ajar and falling onto the bed without removing his boots.