Page 14 of Wolf Caged (Bound to the Shadow King #1)

KAELERON

F our days had passed since I had brought the wolf to the Shadow Court and I was still no closer to deciphering her role in my vengeance.

The day after the wolf’s arrival, I had summoned my sister to speak with her about it, and rather than answer my call, Jenavyr had immediately left to take her legion to the west to prepare for the Beltane celebrations in that region.

Each day, servants had delivered meals to the wolf, and each day she ate barely a mouthful before calling the servant back and telling them to take it away.

I was not sure whether she was starving herself, or striving to make a point about refusing to eat any significant quantity of it in case it was drugged.

My boots were loud on the pale flagstones as I crossed the garden, heading for the edge of the patio where it met the cliff rather than my usual route towards the lake.

Stretching my legs had turned to mulling over what use the wolf might be to me, and that had slowly devolved into facing a truth I had been avoiding.

I could not keep the wolf caged.

Jenavyr was right about that, even when the shifter female was safest down in the dungeon, close to Neve and the wards that protected her.

Neve had inspected every inch of my castle when I had brought her here from the Forgotten Wastes, and had made her nest in the dungeon, declaring the ancient stone of the mountain that formed the foundations of the castle and walls of my dungeon was the safest place for her, a conduit for magic powerful enough to keep her hidden.

Releasing the wolf would be dangerous, but if it were to happen, I would put restrictions in place and guards at her back to watch her and report back to me.

It might be worth the irritation of her presence if spending time with her outside the confines of the dungeon would help me discover her purpose.

While also silencing Jenavyr.

I needed my sister as my ally, not my enemy.

Vyr’s stubborn streak and disobedience had opened her to comments from my council once again.

There were already murmurings, whispers circulating about removing her from her post. I could not afford to let her carry on like this. If she did, I would have to punish her.

Or slaughter those in the council who had spoken out against her.

To avoid that, I would consider what she had asked of me.

But first I would consult with the one who had spent the most time with the wolf—the female responsible for her presence in my court.

I teleported to the dungeons, wrapping myself in shadows and stepping out of them closest to Neve’s cell.

My gaze instantly darted to the cell beside hers, to the prone form of the silver-haired female, tucked beneath a dark silver blanket that had once belonged to Neve. She slumbered, her face peaceful and soft. No feigned sleep this time. She was deep asleep.

An unnatural sleep.

Neve’s presence pressed against mine through the wards that protected her home, a bare whisper of her power as she came to a halt beside me on the other side of the bars.

“Is this your doing?” I tried to pull my gaze from the slumbering wolf, but she was stronger than my will, keeping my eyes rooted to her.

“Saphira is exhausted, and so I used a little magic to give her a push.”

My gaze snapped to Neve, the spell shattered, and I frowned at her. “Saphira?”

The little wolf was called Saphira.

Neve caught my look, her amber eyes bright and clear today rather than clouded from fatigue born of her visions, and nodded. “Yes. Saphira. A pretty name, is it not?”

I hiked my shoulders. “No prettier than yours.”

She chuckled, but then sobered, her gaze challenging as she came to face me, Saphira forgotten. “I must side with Jenavyr on this one. Keeping the wolf caged will not help you with your vengeance.”

Vengeance. That word had cast a spell upon the little wolf.

Lust for violence had shone inside her, so dazzling that it had been irresistible, had drawn me to her and bewitched me.

It had spoken to something deep within me, just as I felt it had spoken to something deep within her, forming a strange bond between us for a heartbeat of time.

I stared at the wolf. “Have you seen that in a vision?”

Neve shook her head, her fall of golden hair caressing her slight shoulders in tumbling waves today. “No. It is simply common sense. You need this female to help you, and to trust you. She will do neither of those things while she is a prisoner.”

“I take it you are also responsible for her new luxuries?” I eyed the blanket, and then the one that lay discarded in the corner, almost pushed into the empty cell next door.

“She despises it, and when I learned of the reason, I offered her one of my own blankets. I have enough to spare… and really, my king, you thought it adequate to leave her with that trinket of her past?”

“A blanket is a blanket. It was better than leaving her naked. I am sure she did not mind it that much.”

The look on Neve’s face as she glanced at the wolf told me the female had minded it, had possibly even been upset by its presence.

I was not sure I would ever understand the wolf if that was the case.

It was better to have some modest form of covering and warmth rather than freeze to death, was it not?

The blanket had been adequate, whether the wolf or Neve believed it or not.

“I will take your advice about her containment under consideration.” I went to leave now that I had a clearer bearing and decisions to make about releasing the wolf, but Neve caught hold of my arm.

“Kaeleron. She is in pain.” Neve looked from me to Saphira as the wolf twitched and moaned, her sleep not as settled or deep as I had believed.

“How do you know that? Did the wolf tell you?” I studied that wolf now, watching her more closely, reaching out with my power to wrap her in tendrils of shadows that would allow me to sense more from her.

I felt no pain, but her sleep was troubled, darkness clouding her mind that seeped from her and tangled with my shadows.

Neve slowly shook her head again. “No. But her soul does… Like calls to like. I know a soul in pain when I see it.”

Pain.

I sought it, pressing deeper into my shadows, using magic to heighten my senses enough that I caught a glimmer of it, the barest whisper of her feelings.

It was deep and dark, as cold and jagged as a blade as it twined with my power, but it was hot and violent too, as if two kinds of pain were tearing her in different directions.

Strong despite the fragile connection between us.

If I could feel the full wrath of it, it would be devastating, a storm of emotion that would batter and break even the strongest soul.

“She has lost much.” Neve looked at me again, her grip on my arm tightening as her voice softened. “Do not think to take more from her.”

I snatched my arm back and glowered at her, anger curling hot in my veins as I pulled my shadows away from the wolf before they could snap at her by accident in response to my rage. “Do I have to tell you that I am not a monster now?”

Neve held her ground, her expression unapologetic. “This is not like you.”

My shadows lashed at the boundaries of her cage and she was fortunate that the ward that concealed and protected her prevented even them from reaching her.

I growled, “You are beginning to sound like Jenavyr. She will be punished for her insubordination by training new troops with Riordan. I will need to think of a fitting punishment for you. Would you like me to see you returned to the Wastes?”

She stiffened and paled, genuine fear flooding her eyes and dulling the fire in her irises.

Regret punched me deep in the chest.

“I am sorry. I would not do such a thing.” Because it would be the death of her. I pinched the bridge of my nose, a headache building there as I withdrew a step. “I am tired.”

Neve whispered, “You have been tired for a long time.”

“I have not.” My denial was weak, breaking easily under the knowing look that Neve gave me.

I looked at the wolf rather than her now, unwilling to let her see how easily she had seen through me and how tired I truly was.

I had no time to be tired. I could rest when it was done.

“I will not take more than what the wolf will give me willingly.”

Her glare scalded the side of my face. “That is not good enough.”

“What is her purpose?” A change of subject seemed like the most appropriate choice given the darkness that emanated from Neve.

It provoked the darkness within me, the shadowy part of me that wanted to toy with this wolf, to push her and delight in how she pushed back.

“If you could tell me that, I would not need to discover it through my own means.”

“I still do not know, but I seek visions whenever I am strong enough.” A sigh escaped Neve and I could sense her irritation and sorrow, her desperation to help me and despair that she was failing as a seer.

Part of her still believed that I would turn her lose and take away my protection if she could no longer complete that work for me.

Despite her fears, I was not a monster. Or at least, not that much of one.

I would never subject her to the terror she had felt before I had met her, to the daily struggle to survive that had seen her skulking from cave to cave in the Wastes to the north of the Shadow Court, hiding from the beast that hunted her.

She was part of my family now.

The grace I had shown her, I had failed to show the wolf.

“It will reveal itself in time.” Neve moved to the bars that kept her from Saphira and gazed at her slumbering form, a distant but warm look in her eyes, one I had not seen in a long time.

Neve liked the female. I was not sure any good could come of that, because the dragon was fiercely protective of those she cared about, even me.

She sighed, her fine eyebrows furrowing.

“It will reveal itself in time, if you keep the wolf close.”

Keep her close.

I stared at Saphira, so innocent in her sleep, the words of those men clanging in my ears. One of her kind had auctioned her virginity. She was as innocent as she appeared.

Innocent and beautiful.

“I do not like that look,” Neve murmured.

“Your order was to keep the wolf close to me.” I stalked towards the female’s cell and halted before it, my eyes locked on her. “And that is what I shall do.”

“What is it you plan?” Neve sounded concerned, and ready to fight me. So protective of the little wolf already. The female must have worked her charms on my dragon, luring her over to her side, attempting to pull her away from me.

“I plan to take what is mine. I paid for a servant—for entertainment. That is what Saphira will give me.”

My mind whirled, a plan forming as I studied the sleeping shifter, sensing that dark seed that was growing within her. While I waited for Neve to have a clearer vision of Saphira’s role in my vengeance, I would attempt to discover it by myself, by spending time with the female.

I would enjoy my time with her until her usefulness was revealed and my revenge was done.

“I will offer her a choice.”

I grinned as I sank into the shadows, wrapping night and starlight around me, eager to set my plan in motion.

“Rot in this cell… or earn her freedom.”