Page 74 of Wolf Caged (Bound to the Shadow King #1)

It was hardly a chore to leave my room and head to the library, a place that was rapidly becoming my favourite one inside the castle.

I followed the maze of black-walled corridors and stairs up into the western wing of the castle, where it was wonderfully quiet and no one ever bothered me, determined to find as many mentions of this An’sidwain as I could before dinner.

I glanced at the windows to my left.

Which didn’t look like it was far off.

But I had only just had breakfast.

I paused and peered out of the windows at the city and the darkening sky.

The hour was definitely growing late. I hadn’t really paid attention to how long I had been sitting outside the cottage, trying not to think about Kaeleron.

Hours must have passed. And Kaeleron must have summoned me a very late breakfast once I had revealed I was starving.

Fine, I would find at least one mention of An’sidwain before dinner.

I pushed the heavy library door open and pulled up short on the threshold at the sight of an enormous black-haired male taking up my favourite chair in front of the fire.

He lifted his onyx gaze from his book, looking as startled to see me as I was to see him.

“Um… hello,” I said and shuffled into the room, keeping my distance from him as I catalogued as much about him as I could, trying to figure out who he was and how I had never met him before.

Not an unseelie.

The black horns that curled from behind his pointed ears, decorated with gold tips inscribed with fae markings were a dead giveaway that he wasn’t one of that breed.

He was ruggedly handsome, his eyes as black as night but sharp as they took me in, raking over me from head to toe and back again, a little rough looking with the scar that bisected his eyebrow and his overlong onyx hair trying to break free of the tie that held it back, curling around to brush his thick neck.

A heavy band of black metal with a purple sheen to it inlaid with gold decorations encircled his neck, not quite meeting in front of his throat.

And he was as large as a house, consuming all of the space in the chair that had dwarfed me, his black shirt and leather pants, and heavy boots making him blend into it.

A chair I was beginning to feel had been built for him.

“You’re new.” His voice was as deep as a chasm, as rolling thunder.

I fidgeted. “I’ve been here a few weeks… months… actually. I’ve not seen you around before. So one might say you’re new… to me, at least.”

The corner of his broad, firm mouth quirked.

I shuffled back a step as he rose from the chair, a monstrous male that had to stand over seven foot tall, but it wasn’t his size that startled me.

It was the great, black leathery wings that unfurled from his back.

He stretched the bat-like wings and then snapped them closed, and I gawped at him. Utterly gawped. Rude of me, but I couldn’t seem to help myself.

“What corner of Hell did he pick you up from?” he said as he looked me over again and I struggled to rouse myself from my stupor.

A demon. He was a demon. From Hell.

I frowned.

One who had just made me sound like some kind of rescue puppy.

“He didn’t pick me up from anywhere. He bought me,” I snapped. I wasn’t sure if that sounded better or worse than being some kind of stray. Definitely worse.

The demon seemed to think so.

His onyx eyes gained a deep reddish-purple corona in their depths as they slid from me to something behind me.

Someone behind me.

“It is true, Malachi.”

I tensed as that rich, deep voice rolled over me, heating my blood, and turned to see Kaeleron leaning against the doorframe, his eyes not on me but on the one called Malachi. Watching. Guarded.

An unholy growl rumbled through the room, more frightening than the storm yesterday had been, rattling my bones and making me take a step back, towards Kaeleron.

Darkness clung to Malachi’s features as he stared the fae king down, his eyes burning with that purple fire now, but glacial at the same time.

“Saphira is not a slave though,” Kaeleron continued, as calm as anything in the face of this male’s wrath, anger I felt sure would detonate at any moment as I inched a little further out of the line of fire.

I recalled the conversation I had listened into that first day in my cell.

Jenavyr had mentioned a male who had been conveniently sent away on business by Kaeleron, one who would never forgive him for buying me.

This male. I looked from the demon to the fae king.

His wary gaze that remained fixed on the demon told me he had known exactly what would happen when this male learned how I had come to be here and he was prepared for it.

Kaeleron’s pose remained relaxed, but I knew better, could spot the tells now as he subtly braced for impact. “What I did could be considered a kindness.”

I snorted, even though it was true. “I suppose you did save me from a far worse fate.”

Kaeleron inclined his head. “So you see, there is no reason for this to get out of hand.”

The demon wasn’t listening. He flexed his clawed fingers and stretched his wings, as if warming up for a fight. His horns grew, curling forwards, the gold shifting with them as if it was part of them and just as organic and fluid, able to grow and contract.

“You bought her?” Malachi snarled.

Kaeleron nodded and held his right hand up. “I saved her.”

“You bought her.” The reddish-purple in Malachi’s eyes began to devour the onyx of his irises and I figured that was a bad sign because Kaeleron stopped leaning casually against the doorframe and straightened to his full height. “What did you buy , Kaeleron?”

“My virginity,” I said brightly, still in a bit of a mood with Kaeleron after last night and kind of wanting to see him get his ass kicked by a demon who stood at least six inches taller and had a couple hundred pounds on him.

If anyone could beat him in a fight, it might be the demon.

“Not helping.” Kaeleron scowled at me.

I shrugged.

Turned to tell the demon I was only joking as I saw how tense Kaeleron was now, as I realised that this would come down to a fight, and that he might just lose it, something that didn’t sound so appealing after all as my wolf side snarled and gnashed fangs at the demon.

And shrieked as I was sent flying.

Malachi exploded in a riot of wings, horns and fangs at Kaeleron, passing me in the blink of an eye and catching me hard with the trailing edge of his left wing.

It wasn’t that blow that sent me shooting backwards into a chaise longue though, my ass hitting it so hard that I rolled backwards and had to fumble to grab the edge of the seat to stop myself rolling heels over head right off it.

It was a wall of shadows that blasted up from the floor to wrap around me.

Cocooning me.

“Kaeleron,” I breathed as he clashed hard with the demon, taking a fierce blow to the face as he reached for me, directing his shadows to shield me.

He had left himself wide open, placing protecting me above protecting himself.

The demon snarled, baring huge fangs, and whipped his head forwards, cracking his forehead off Kaeleron’s in a blow that drew blood and made me flinch, and unleashed an ear-splitting roar that sent pure terror shooting down my spine.

And then shadows whirled around them.

And they were both gone.