Page 59 of Wolf Caged (Bound to the Shadow King #1)
KAELERON
S aphira angled her head towards me, the globes of magic light that bobbed in the air above the map in the war room casting a warm glow over her beautiful face. “Have they ever… I mean… I can’t help but wonder if they have a thing for each other.”
I scoffed at the very idea of my sister with Riordan. “Great Mother, no. I have spent most of my years trying to keep them from killing each other. There is no love there, little lamb.”
She shrugged. “Vyr denies it too, but the way they act around each other. I’m not buying the hate. I’ve seen enough wolves cover their feelings with aggression.”
My gaze strayed to the fortified wooden door again, Saphira’s words echoing in my mind as I thought about my sister and the vampire, about how they had acted around each other from the moment Riordan had joined us, and unease grew within me.
They did hate each other, did they not? Things had not changed.
Saphira’s words were so quiet I barely heard her as she whispered, “She said she’s to marry.”
My focus darted down to her, shock rippling through me. How close were Saphira and my sister? Vyr never spoke of her impending nuptials to anyone, and only brought them up rarely around me. Neither of us wanted to contemplate what fate awaited her.
“Tradition dictates that she must marry. Relations between the courts depend upon the females in the ruling line marrying into another to strengthen the bonds between them. It is not something I wish upon her, so do not give me that look, little wolf.” The anger and disappointment that shone in her eyes was immeasurable, and vicious.
I stared after my sister, a heaviness growing within me as I thought about her and the choices we faced.
“I will do all in my power to ensure it never happens. This is my burden to bear.”
Saphira’s look softened, warmth blooming in her eyes as she gazed at me, as if I was some gentle, worthy male.
I looked away from her, pinning my gaze to the map, because she did not know me.
She did not know the things I was capable of or how cruel I could be, or the lengths I would go to in order to protect my sister.
I moved one of the pieces, placing it near the southern border close to Belkarthen.
Saphira reached over and picked it up, toying with the carved piece of black wood. “What are all these?”
Her gaze lifted to mine, curiosity brightening it now.
I took the piece from her, a shiver bolting up my arm as our fingers touched, and carefully set it back where it had been. “The black ones are markers for the Shadow Court forces. Shields for the legions. Swords for the undercover operatives I have in other courts.”
“And this one?” She picked up a winged wraith from the mountains bordering the Summer Court.
“My spymaster.” I took it from her, weighing the piece in my hand and staring at it.
It had never felt so heavy.
It was only a matter of time before Malachi returned to the Shadow Court, and each day closer we grew to that fateful moment, the heavier this piece felt in my palm.
“It all sounds very intriguing.” Her gaze darted over the map, studying each kingdom, and settling on the Twilight Court. “I’m glad there’s a whole sea between here and there.”
I almost smiled at her fear and dislike of that court, all based on what I had told her about the source of the wood she so admired.
“Do you station your legions along the borders in case someone dares to march into your lands?” She toyed with one of the Nightmare Court legions that had recently been posted close to the Dusk Court.
“We do.”
“And these legions?” She touched two shields close to the border between the Nightmare Court and the Dream Court, one of which was white and the other inky blue.
“The white belongs to the Dream Court, a seelie kingdom. The Nightmare Court keep a legion permanently posted there to keep the peace between the two sides of Lucia.” I swept my hand out across the left hand side of the map, where few pieces had been placed.
“I rely on an exchange of intelligence from other unseelie courts to know the whereabouts of the legions within the seelie courts, and even then it is rare to discover the locations or sizes of their armies. It is dangerous to insert operatives into those courts, but not entirely impossible. I have managed to embed several non-fae operatives in various courts.”
I pointed to the most westerly island of Lucia—the Aurelian Court, close to the seelie high king’s island home of Aurien—and then the mainland south of there, to the densely forested Spring Court, and its neighbouring court in the centre of the seelie lands, next to the Black Pass and just north of the Dream Court—the Golden Court.
I had not dared risk attempting to embed an operative into the Summer Court in the north of the mainland. I left that task to my spymaster, since he couldn’t be easily traced to my court if he was captured.
“Do the two sides of this world ever go to war?” Her gaze lifted to mine again.
“Rarely since the accord between the two high kings was written in blood and signed. It is an offence to march into another court, and one punishable by death if that court belongs to the other side of this land. No unseelie can march into a seelie court without breaking the accord and the peace between our peoples. So as long as no court marches into another, whether that is seelie or unseelie, and no king crosses a border without permission, the accord stands and peace reigns… at least on the surface. We are all civility and smiles as we plot each other’s downfalls. ” I grinned at her.
She rolled her eyes. “It doesn’t sound too different to wolf packs.”
I lowered my gaze to the Black Pass that separated the Shadow Court from the Summer Court, my shadows growing restless as hunger to cross that broad strip of land and the mountains beyond it stirred within me.
I curled my fingers into tight fists and drew down a steadying breath, clinging to my control and my calm.
Malachi would return soon with news of the Summer Court. This time he might bring me the information I needed to take down that court once and for all.
Saphira followed my gaze to the Summer Court, a crease forming between her brows. “You don’t like the seelie, do you?”
“No unseelie likes the seelie. No seelie likes the unseelie. We are two sides of a coin, sharing many traits, but we could not be more different, or hate each other more violently. The seelie are treacherous, wretched beings, and if I had the power, I would wipe every single one of them from the face of this map,” I growled, shadows twining around the sturdy legs of the table, snaking tighter and tighter as I thought of the seelie, of the lies they spread and the false airs they used to deceive and ingratiate themselves to other breeds, making themselves appear the noble and gentle beings of Lucia while they painted my breed in shades of darkness and horror.
As monsters.
The room closed in on me, the shadows turning inwards, pouring through my veins to stifle what little light existed within me.
I would show them a true monster.
One day.
“Where does your high king live?” Her tone was soft, distracting me from my dark thoughts and pulling me back to the room as light seemed to pour into it again.
Her focus shifted to me again, eyes tracking my hand as I placed Malachi’s piece back where she had found it.
“Ereborne.” I pointed to the island nestled in the heart of several courts south-west of here, a castle city like no other in the unseelie realm.
“The most powerful unseelie male in this world lives there?” She leaned over the map to study it more closely. “It’s so small compared with the other courts.”
I smiled wickedly and took hold of her arm, done with my work and determined to make the most of the fine day. “A title is not the only measure of power. How many alphas in your world are taken down by a more rabid wolf?”
She walked beside me, her arm looped around mine, a thoughtful expression on her face as we exited the room and strolled along the corridor on the ground floor of the castle.
As if it was the most natural thing in the world for us to be doing.
As if she was my queen.
“You do realise you liken yourself to a rabid wolf,” she said as we stepped out into the afternoon light and she released my arm.
She tilted her head back, her face to the sky, and drew down a long, deep breath as her eyes fluttered closed, so much pleasure in that small action, as if the war room had been a cage and now she was free.
“Not myself. I am neither rabid nor a wolf.” I held my hand out to my right, gesturing towards the spot in the garden I had noticed she favoured.
The same spot where I had found her conversing with Oberon as if he were as nice as she believed him to be.
I prayed she never found out just how cruel and violent Oberon could be.
One of us deserved not to be judged a monster by her.
“You know what I meant. If you could seize that power and become high king, would you?” She ambled ahead of me, her shoulders shifting in a sigh as her blue eyes flitted about the flowers that lined the path towards the wall and the waterfall overlook.
“Perhaps. Perhaps not. I believe I would prefer to remain here, at my court. Power is not everything.” I slowly raked my gaze down the line of her spine, taking in her tempting curves, images of her spread out before me on her bed flashing across my mind.
Such a wild, unfettered thing she had been once she had let go and embraced her passion in pursuit of her pleasure rather than being ashamed of it.
“Quit staring,” she muttered as she scowled over her shoulder at me, a touch of red on her cheeks.
The flicker of heat in her gaze said she did not mind me staring.
Not really.
She was just clinging to her sense of right and wrong again, closing herself off to the pleasures of this world and the flesh because someone had told her it was the right thing to do.