Page 20 of Traitor Wolf (Bonded by Fate Duet #1)

Chapter Fourteen

W e moved at dawn, though I had no way of knowing the time.

The darkness remained unchanged. Something had shifted within me after feeling Kaelric’s wolf curled protectively around me all night to keep me safe from the darkness, from wind, from foe.

I trusted him, but that trust was at war with what I’d heard that night in the train car.

‘I overheard you that night in the train car. Your fellow wolfkin said they would take a traitor mark. That they would do anything to get Valkaryn for you,’ I suddenly said. If Kaelric wanted my full trust, he needed to explain what I heard.

Kaelric didn’t bristle or show any sign that he was bothered by my admission .

‘I figured you followed me. I smelled you in the hallway, and then your heart rate was high. ’

That’s it? I admit to finding some secret meeting where his wolfkin are talking about taking traitor marks, and he wasn’t bothered?

I stopped walking, and his wolf stopped too, leaning into my side.

‘Are you going to betray me? I know you will do whatever it takes to make Valkaryn yours,’ I declared boldly.

Of course he will , the darkness whispered to me, and I spun in a circle.

‘If my goal is to win Valkaryn, how would betraying you help me?’ he asked. ‘ The only way I can rightfully win her is to make sure you win the Arcane Trials. Which I plan to do.’

He was making a lot of sense, but I still felt uneasy. Not everything added up.

I was going to say as much when Kaelric was alert again, tense and pushing into my side.

‘I see the exit.’ His voice wasn’t hopeful, though. It was filled with dread.

That’s when the attack came.

A gust of air warned me too late. Kaelric snarled and slammed into me, nearly knocking me to the ground as a blast of heat shot past my head.

A voice rang out, cool and sharp .

“She’s not meant to make it, Morvain. Step aside,” a male snapped.

Morvain? I’d forgotten Kaelric’s last name until now.

Kaelric growled, low and feral.

“Your trial ends here, magicless,” someone breathed behind my neck.

Then the battle erupted.

I felt Kaelric leap away from me, the clash of bodies echoing in the dark as I scrambled backward, clutching Valkaryn.

Something pulsed on my chest.

The sponsor mark.

It burned.

I cried out, my hand going to the searing pain, then sight returned to me in a burst of silver. The darkness peeled back, and for a heartbeat I saw.

Kaelric was in wolf form, bleeding from the shoulder, but unyielding. A tall Elite from the House of Liraeth with red fire in his palms sneered as he sent another bolt toward me.

Kaelric leapt in front of it, taking the hit, and went down with a yelp.

I screamed, rushing forward with Valkaryn outstretched.

Then the Elite’s wolfkin, a rust-colored female wolf with scarred fur, turned on him. She lunged and ripped into his throat with a savage cry.

He dropped into the grass, the glow in his hands fading, and darkness slammed back into me.

I gasped.

'You saw that?' Kaelric asked, his voice tight, breathing ragged.

'Yes. Just for a second,’ I admitted.

What had I just seen? A wolfkin murder her own bonded? Much like Kaelric had years ago.

‘Why would she do that?’ I blinked, praying for my vision to return, even if for a second.

'Because you carry something that matters. Valkaryn. A different future.'

A different future? It didn’t make sense.

‘We have to go. Now,’ he commanded.

‘You’re hurt.’

‘I’m fine.’

I reached out and found his fur again. He nudged my hand, and we moved north, toward the end of the trial and whatever came next.

‘What about the wolfkin? She saved our lives.’

‘She is prepared to sacrifice everything. Just move.’

We walked as one.

Traitor wolf and magicless girl.

Blade and bonded .

Into whatever waited beyond the dark.

We climbed an incline in silence, my boots dragging over uneven stone and gravel. The slope felt steeper now, or maybe I was just that exhausted. My legs burned and my hands ached. My body had given up, stopped bothering to tell me it was tired.

A final gust of air brushed against my cheeks, cooler, clearer. Real.

Then there was light, not magic. Not fire. Just sunlight.

I blinked, my vision flickering back as if the trial’s spell had been tied to the location. I gasped, squinting against the sudden glare.

The exit was a stone archway carved directly into the mountainside.

Vines curled around its pillars like fingers.

Just beyond it, a platform of smooth stone opened into a narrow terrace that overlooked the training grounds far below.

We were somehow high up the mountain, on the dais the house sponsors had been at before.

Kaelric brushed against my hip, still in his wolf form, and nudged me forward with his snout.

The cool air hit my face like a slap. I stumbled onto the terrace just as the first rays of morning sun crested over the far ridge. Below us, the city of Steel Mountain was beginning to stir. The sound of distant bells chimed, and voices drifted upward.

A small council of robed figures stood at the far edge of the platform, cloaked in layered garments of various colors. They stood motionless, observing. All except one.

Cassian was grinning from ear to ear as he watched us approach.

Magistrate Corvessa stood at their center, her hands folded, expression unreadable.

Kaelric shifted beside me, his body shuddering as fur withdrew and limbs reshaped. He suddenly stood beside me now as a man, shirtless and bloodstained, with a bleeding gash in his shoulder, his expression hard.

Corvessa took one step forward, scowling at us like we were the scum of the earth.

“You emerged from the arena alive. The first trial is complete.” Her voice held so much anger I thought she might start screaming. It carried effortlessly across the space to us.

I peered at a drying bloodstain to my right, and wondered if another pair had made it out before us.

I stared at her, breathing hard. My knees buckled, but Kaelric caught me .

The assembled council didn’t speak, didn’t cheer. They simply watched.

Like predators studying prey.

But I was still standing.

And that would have to be enough. For now.