Page 10 of Wolf Caged (Bound to the Shadow King #1)
KAELERON
T he moment I entered my study on the second floor of the castle, Jenavyr was barging through the ornate black wooden doors, her anger a living thing as she stormed towards me. Perhaps the moniker of ‘the wrathful’ fitted my sister better than myself.
Now I had two forthright and fierce females to contend with, a headache I did not need.
The little wolf had shown far too much spirit for a female locked in a cage in a world she did not know. Her courage had made me recklessly reveal myself in some spiteful attempt to rattle her, to shake her and make her fear.
It had only made her bolder.
Her gaze had been scalding as she had raked it over me, taking me in from head to toe, lingering on my face for far too long.
So I had shaken her harder.
And it had worked.
Better she remembered her position. I did not need her getting too comfortable. She was here for a purpose.
Perhaps it was better I remembered that too.
I stopped by the grand arched window on the right of the room that filled the space between two arched bookcases set into the black stone wall, my gaze on the formal gardens that lined the lake on the left side and the cliffs on the right.
The waterfall that separated them, plunging into the bay below the cliffs, threw mist into the air that sparkled with hues of the aurora.
I normally found this view calming. But not today.
My sister glared at my shoulders, silently ordering me to look at her.
I refused.
This vengeance was something we both needed, even if she would not admit it.
“Do not push me, Vyr.” I remained with my back to her and clasped my hands behind me, my gaze drifting to the horizon, to the wide expanse of ocean beyond the jagged black mountains that edged the high lake.
If she did, my council would hear of it, and they would push me too, demanding I strip her of her rank for her insubordination.
Something they were prone to do whenever she spoke out of turn.
It was the last thing I wanted for her. I had trained her for a purpose, had fought for her to join my commanders so she would know how to fight and how to protect herself. I had wanted her to be strong.
What I had not wanted was this female who challenged me at every turn and had found her passion in life as a warrior.
It was not meant to be.
Another life awaited her.
She had forgotten that.
Perhaps we both had.
“You need to let her go, brother. Return her to her world. This is not right. This is not you.” Jenavyr slammed the doors closed behind her with such force I was surprised the gold metal inlaid into the black wood in the form of trees and elkyn did not fall out.
“This is me.” I turned on her, shadows swirling outwards with the motion to blot out the natural light.
The candles and lamps guttered out, leaving only the motes of golden magic that danced and gathered near the vaulted wooden ceiling to illuminate us.
I stared her down as anger rose within me, the pain of what had happened as raw within me as the night we had lost our parents.
I growled, “Would you have me do nothing? Would you have me give up on our brother? Our blood?”
Vyr held her ground, almost masking her flinch but failing to mask the pain that glittered in her silver eyes a moment before she concealed it. She tilted her chin up and flicked her sleek black hair over her shoulder, defiance shining in her fierce gaze.
“Leave me, Vyr.” I went to turn away from her, in no mood for arguing with her when I needed to figure out why Neve believed the little wolf was vital to my vengeance and what her role might be.
My sister proved just how stubborn she was as she stepped further into the room instead of marching her backside out of the door, the click of the heels of her black leather riding boots loud on the onyx marble floor.
“You tried to infiltrate the Summer Court many times, starting battles that always ended with you having to pull your forces back. Battles that almost got you killed. The high king had to intervene to stop you and I thought you were done with this… but here we are… with you doing something I truly thought you would never be capable of.” She stalked towards me, passing the large black desk, not stopping until she was only inches from me and her anger buffeted me.
She folded her arms across her chest, pulling the navy material of her long-sleeved blouse tight across her arms as she stared me down.
“You bought another living creature. You paid for an innocent female who now believes you intend to use her body as you please. This is not you, Kael.”
I shot her a warning look; one she did not heed.
Darkness writhed around me, my shadows reaching for her as my anger rose, as my blood pounded and her words echoed in my mind, the reproach in them cleaving great grooves into my calm veneer and provoking a response.
I bared jagged teeth at her, something which would have made most in my court back down.
But not my sister.
It only made her bolder.
She stood her ground and bared fangs right back at me.
“Our own high king went as far as creating new laws and forming an accord with the seelie high king to prevent you from going to war. You cannot cross into the Summer Court. If you do, the full force of Ereborne will come down on your head… and this court.”
I growled at her for that one. She dared suggest I was placing my court in danger when all I had ever done was try to protect them?
“When you were young… I thought things would be different.” Disappointment rang in her soft voice as she gazed at me, as if she was seeing that boy I had been when our parents had been wrenched from us and I had been thrust onto a throne, too young to keep hold of it and too na?ve to know how to run a court.
“But then you began plotting the demise of those who had ordered our parents’ deaths, and then it was the destruction of the entire Summer Court you wanted, and it took both myself and Oberon to talk sense into you when you wanted to march over the border and invade that land on a crusade that would have ended in your death. ”
I bared my fangs again, despising her for reminding me of that day. “I should not have listened to either of you.”
She scowled at me. “You do not believe that.”
I did not.
She and Oberon had been right to stop me.
Anyone who had come with me would have been either slaughtered by the Summer Court or executed by their own high king for treason.
That day I had realised I needed to find a subtler way to carry out my revenge, and I had gone to the Forgotten Wastes to clear my head with a little slaughter.
And I had found a weakened, starving dragon.
And when I had touched her, she had seen the death of the seelie king of the Summer Court—not at my hands—and that there was an heir as wretched as him now vying for the throne.
Infighting in the Summer Court had stolen my vengeance from me, but there was still my brother to save, and a court to make pay.
“And let me remind you of the time you crossed the border through the tunnels in the Black Pass and broke into the Great Library of the Summer Court, seeking information on their strongholds. You were lucky you were not seen!” Jenavyr wisely stormed away from me across the gold-veined black marble floor, my shadows snatching at her heels.
If it had been anyone else speaking to me with such disrespect, I would have allowed my shadows to rip them to shreds, but I held them at bay, despite the dark urge to silence her and put her in her place.
“I was seeking a location where they might be holding our brother. I was careful. The ancient tunnels are not warded to the unseelie, so none of their breed would see me, and I expended great magic to shield myself and slip through the shadows. Any who might have sensed me were put to sleep.”
A feat that had taken great restraint.
I should have killed them all.
Death was what they deserved.
“And how did that work out for you?” Jenavyr planted her hands on her black-leather-clad hips.
“I retrieved valuable books, records of their kings and bloodlines, and maps of their strongholds.”
“And almost got yourself killed when you made the rash decision to check one of those fortresses without support!” she bit out, her eyes brightening as her skin paled, her darker side coming to the fore as anger got the better of her.
“This obsession is unhealthy and dangerous, Kael. You no longer risk the Shadow Court, but the entire unseelie courts. If you break the accord?—”
My shadows struck at the desk between us, cleaving long grooves in the wooden surface as they lashed at her but I pulled them back in time to stop them from reaching her.
She snapped her mouth shut, her shoulders going rigid.
For a moment, I feared she might continue the argument and risk my wrath, but then she pivoted and stormed away from me, heading for the door.
She yanked it open with enough force that the hinges creaked and barked over her shoulder, “I am not speaking with you until you do the right thing!”
“I am trying to do the right thing!” I barked right back at her, patience wearing thin and close to snapping as memories tore at me, as that night roared up on me and I could hear their screams of pain, could smell their fear, and their blood.
“Can you imagine the torment our brother might have suffered in the decades we have been apart? What the wretched seelie might be doing to him right this moment?”
Jenavyr turned on me, hurt flaring in her damp silver eyes, and bit out, “Our brother is dead. He is dead , Kael. You are trying to save a ghost and hurting everyone in the process, including yourself. Can you not see that?”
I curled my fingers into tight fists at my side, my emerging claws cutting into my palms as I reined in my shadows, and quietly, as calmly as I could manage, ground out, “He is alive. I can feel it.”