Page 18 of Traitor Wolf (Bonded by Fate Duet #1)

Chapter Thirteen

T he train landed in Steel Valley at the base of Steel Mountain, where the Arcane Trials were held.

The locals were all miners and magicless, and didn’t seem to care about us as we unloaded from the train cars.

The trials were held every five years. They were used to the charade for a few weeks, then everyone went back home, and they got back to their mining.

I peered up at the giant mountain in the distance, its jagged peak clawing at the heavens.

It was said to be the birthplace of the Elite, the place where the Creator invented his most stunning creation.

Magic . And every five years, it bloomed with another gift for whoever won the Arcane Trials, one lucky winner and their family.

I prayed that was me .

“A blossom for the radiant lady?” The flower seller, a wrinkled woman with silver-threaded braids and a crooked smile, sidled up beside Kaelric. She extended a single virellin bloom, its petals shimmering faintly like dew-kissed velvet, and motioned toward me.

Kaelric peered at me, reaching into his pocket as if he were about to pay for the bloom, and I scoffed.

“No, thank you,” I spat.

Kaelric glanced at me with an unreadable expression and handed the woman some coin anyway. “For you, my lady.” He bowed slightly to her, and she gave him a gap-toothed grin with several teeth missing.

What a phony . He pretended to be chivalrous, all while he was plotting to take my weapon by any means necessary.

We traveled by horse-drawn carriage to the arena, and when I stepped down onto the packed earth, I stood frozen, staring.

The stadium looming before me, massive and ancient, was carved directly into the foot of the mountain.

Arched stone walls rose in layered tiers, each rimmed with jagged spires that caught the light like teeth.

Weathered flags snapped in the wind from blackened iron poles, bearing the crests of fallen champions and long-dead houses.

The air smelled of dust and old magic, like something sacred and blood-soaked lingered here. I could almost hear echoes of screams.

The arena wasn’t warning us. Only one pair of us was walking out of here.

I stepped in through the giant arched doors and looked up.

High above the arena, carved with old runes and flanked by torches, a stone dais jutted from the mountain’s wall.

The House sponsors sat in a half-moon formation, seven figures robed in deep silver and black, each bearing the crest of their House.

Their faces were impassive and cold, like judges.

All except Cassian, who gave me a hopeful half-smile.

Magistrate Corvessa stood at the center. Her presence commanded the platform, red dress rippling in the wind like blood over stone.

There were no cheers, no chants, just silent scrutiny.

The noise from the chatty initiates and their wolfkin simmered to a hush as Magistrate Corvessa stepped to the edge of the dais. She lifted the amplifier to her lips, gaze sweeping the contestants one by one. When her eyes landed on me, her smile sharpened like a blade .

“You have each passed the Hall of Binding. Some of you have bonded with strength. Others… with desperation.”

Her gaze flicked to Kaelric at my side and then back to me.

“Your first trial begins now.”

A ripple of anticipation stirred through the initiates.

“You will enter a realm bound by ancient spell work, crafted by the founders of the Arcane Trials. For the next twenty-four hours, you will know nothing but the darkness.”

Whispers broke out around me. A few contestants shifted uncomfortably.

Corvessa raised a hand, and the murmurs died instantly.

“This is not a simple absence of light. This darkness is alive . It distorts sound. It whispers, tempts, and devours.”

The silence now was absolute.

“Only those with magic will see through the veil of darkness, and not truly. For the rest of you…” Her gaze cut into me like frost. “You will stumble forward in the blackness. Only able to trust your instincts, or your wolf, or your fear. But you must reach the exit or perish.”

I gasped, my gaze snapping to Cassian, where he stood on the dais beside the others, looking down with a guilty expression. That’s what he was trying to warn us about. A magical blackness that only affected the magicless. It only affected me .

Below the dais, a gate creaked open at the base of the arena wall, revealing a sloping tunnel carved deep into the mountainside. A heavy pulse of magic rolled out, cold and unsettling. It smelled like damp stone and the things of nightmares.

“You will be taken in one at a time. Alone.” Corvessa’s voice echoed from above, almost gleeful. “Let the first trial… begin!”

They said the mountains only gave up a new form of magic once every five years.

Just one. As if the land itself had to bleed to produce it.

That’s why these trials existed, why they were so brutal.

Because only the strongest, the most cunning, the most worthy, deserved to take that magic and pass it down through their bloodline.

I wasn’t sure I was worthy of that.

The stone beneath my boots rumbled.

I stood in a holding cell carved into the side of the mountain. Most of the others had already been taken into the dark tunnel. One by one, names had been called. Footsteps faded. And then… silence.

Now it was just me and Kaelric.

My fingers tightened on Valkaryn’s hilt. She didn’t speak, but the blade vibrated gently, sensing the shift in the air. Kaelric was silent beside me, still and watchful. Suddenly, he turned to me, grasping my shoulders so that I was forced to look up at him. His eyes were blazing yellow.

“I would never hurt you,” he declared.

Confusion washed over me. “Okay…”

That was random.

“The things I’ve said about biting off your fingers if you didn’t let go of my jaw, or not allowing me to eat and seeing what my wolf would do… I was messing with you. I would never hurt you. We would never hurt you. You can trust me. I need you to know that.”

I shifted uncomfortably on the balls of my feet, wanting so badly to believe him. But my old broken arm thought better. I rubbed the spot as if thinking of the moment that his wolf had clamped down on my bone in the Binding Hall.

Pain flashed across his face as if he knew what I was thinking about.

“You don’t understand. It had to be like that. I restrained my wolf as much as I could, but binding someone like me… it had to be like that,” he said, peering down at my arm with regret in his eyes.

Jimas said the same thing to Salinas every night when he hit her for back-talking him. I wouldn’t be one of those women.

“Someone like you?” I asked. A traitor wolf? Or something else? I wouldn’t forget what he’d said in the train car last night. He wanted Valkaryn by any means possible.

“Brynn…” He breathed my name like a prayer, but before he could say whatever it was, the Watcher was back in the opening and called my name.

I stepped forward as instructed, away from Kaelric. My boots scraped against the stone as I approached the dark tunnel. One of the Watchers held out a hand. “Weapon only. No light stones. No cloaks enchanted against sensory distortion.”

I chuckled. I didn’t have any enchanted gear. I barely had boots that fit.

I peered over my shoulder once, and Kaelric’s yellow eyes met mine briefly. He nudged his head forward once, like a promise.

Then I was escorted inside.

The stone hallway sloped downward, and after a dozen steps, all light vanished.

I froze.

The light didn’t dim. It disappeared all at once .

It was like falling into an endless void. I blinked, waved a hand in front of my face. Nothing. Not even the faint outline of fingers. Not a shadow. Not a sliver, just the Watcher breathing next to me and then the sound of his boots retreating.

“Good luck, Dreg rat,” he spat on his way out.

His insult barely fazed me. I was too focused on this void. This was wrong. It wasn’t natural darkness. It was… something else.

A low hum prickled at the edge of my hearing, soft and rhythmic like breathing.

Or whispering.

The floor beneath me felt slanted, my steps awkward as I tried to move forward, my balance skewed like I was walking sideways. Every sound echoed strangely, too sharp, too close, or impossibly far.

I can’t do this . My heart hammered like a war drum as panic gripped my mind and took hold.

I took a shaky breath and stepped forward again. The moment my boot lifted, the hum shifted. Like something moved with me.

I spun, heart pounding, blade drawn, but saw nothing.

Of course I didn’t. I was in an abyss of blackness!

I blinked rapidly, praying for shadows, a sliver of light, anything .

Don’t panic.

Valkaryn gave the faintest pulse in my palm. No words, but I felt her… presence, quiet and steady.

I pressed on, unsure if I was actually going anywhere.

My fingers dragged along the wall to guide me, but halfway down what felt like a corridor, the stone ended. My hand met air.

No. The panic inside of me opened into full-blown madness. I staggered forward drunkenly with my arms out, one hand clutching my weapon, hoping that if danger came for me, Valkaryn would see when I could not.

‘My power works through you. I am blind as well,’ she said almost sadly.

No.

A scream ripped through the air, and I froze, craning to the right. No, the left. No, was it above me? Sound was a lie, and I was completely lost. The thought of me not being able to see, but others seeing me, hunting me, caused dizziness to wash over me.

“Kill the magicless,” a faint voice said, and I spun in a circle, Valkaryn raised. My heartbeat was amplified, so loud that it began to play throughout the arena like a drum.

Something moved to my right, and I put out my free hand and felt the rough bark of a tree trunk. Then I moved it lower and felt fur.

I jerked back.

Something moved behind me, and I screamed.

A body brushed against my hip. Large. Warm. Familiar.