Page 87 of Wolf Caged (Bound to the Shadow King #1)

KAELERON

M y senses immediately stretched towards the tower as I led Saphira towards it, my gaze rooted on the bleached bones that formed the columns and walls of it as I breathed through the rising nerves, slowly vanquishing them.

Again, I sensed no life within it, but that was not a comfort.

I was not sure a lich could be considered a living being.

They had crossed to the other side, born behind the veil of death.

Saphira pressed close to me, her side grazing my arm, and I squeezed her hand, silently reassuring her that I was here with her and would allow nothing to happen to her.

What I really wanted to do was return home with her and bring Malachi to this place instead, but the thought of leaving her alone in the castle with Morden had me keeping her pinned to my side.

Despite how uneasy I was about taking her into the tower of bones.

I glanced at her, meant only to briefly check on her, but she snared my gaze and filled my mind with thoughts of our moment in the cave.

What power this little wolf wielded over me.

I had held her so close and so tightly as she had slumbered, keeping watch over her as the storm had raged outside the cave, ensuring she was safe.

Afraid to let her go.

I had never feared in all my years, in all the battles I had fought that might have claimed my life, as I had in these short few months with her.

She eyed the piles of bones as we picked our way between them, whispering, “I can’t sense anyone. Not a soul.”

It reassured her, so I did not mention my theory that a lich might be capable of hiding from our senses, using the veil of death to conceal themselves. My court necromancers were not capable of such a thing, but they were not as old nor as powerful as the one we might face in this tower.

When we reached the arched door, I tugged Saphira closer to me.

It was open.

I signalled for her to be silent and laid the flat of my free hand against the crumbling wooden door, and carefully eased it open, pushing back the layer of glittering grey sand that covered the floor.

It had piled up beneath the staircase that tracked up the curved wall too, and even coated some of the steps.

Steps made of more bones.

I glanced at Saphira to check on her and caught the fear in her eyes as she looked at those bones.

And squeezed her hand again.

Her blue eyes lifted to mine and she forced a tight smile.

I nodded to her dagger as I drew my sword, and she gripped it and pulled it from its sheath, holding it in her right hand. I was right-handed myself, but I could fight almost as well with my left, and I was damned if I would relinquish her hand to wield the weapon in my stronger one.

Sand trickled down from the point where the steps met a floor above us and Saphira looked ready to attack it as she tensed beside me, brandishing her dagger.

I pointed to the arched window close to the top of the steps, one that had a frame of bones criss-crossing it, the glass long gone, only shards of it remaining, trying to tell her it was only the wind that continued to scour the Wastes that had disturbed the sand.

Wind that might be a problem if the lich was home.

Dust from the sandstorm made the air hazy, the magic it contained dampening mine, working against me.

Good thing I was skilled with a blade as well as magic.

I tugged Saphira forwards, my steps stealthy as we ascended the bones to the first floor.

I readied my weapon as I peeked to my right as it came into view and relaxed a notch when I saw only ancient, worn furniture in the large circular room.

The bed was decaying, the black blanket on it rotting away, and a layer of dust covered the wooden chairs and table.

Saphira exhaled behind me as she saw the state of the room, her grip loosening a touch as we crossed it to the next set of steps. It slowly tightened as we ascended, her trailing behind me, her breathing loud in my ears as I focused on her, on that sound that told me she was alive.

Safe for now.

Flashes of a dark room crossed my vision as I led her ever upwards, of a sliver of light that stuttered, and trembling breaths sounded in my ears, far too loud.

I banished that vision from my mind, fixing my focus on my task—retrieve An’sidwain, see Saphira safely home.

I tiptoed to peek at the next floor, making sure we were alone before I continued to follow the stairs up to it.

A laboratory of some kind. Wooden shelves housed colourful dusty bottles and vials, and musty tomes with yellowed pages.

A curved bench took up half of the wall, covered with flecks of sand and equipment—rusty tools, more books, what looked like some kind of clamps, and a bowl of runes and bones.

Saphira stopped dead.

I looked at her and tracked her wide gaze to the centre of the room.

To a wooden table with chains and shackles attached to it, the surface scarred and stained. Blood. I looked at the tools again and then the wooden buckets lined up beneath the bench. The lich had brought his victims here to rid them of their corporeal flesh and turn them into his puppets.

That dark room flickered across my eyes again, that rough panicked breathing scraping in my ears.

Followed by screams.

I gritted my teeth so hard they hurt and clung to Saphira’s hand, my heart pounding as a war erupted within me, one side demanding I take her far away from here, from danger, while the other demanded I press onwards, towards vengeance.

“Kael,” she whispered.

“You are safe. Nothing will happen to you. I will not allow it, Saphira.” I felt as if those words were to reassure me as much as they were to reassure her as I strode onwards, heading for the final set of bone steps, and the beating waves of power that pulsed through the tower grew stronger, beckoning me.

A crimson glow lit the top of the staircase, pulsing in time with the power coursing over my skin and sinking into my bones.

I slowed as I neared the top, gaze shifting to the plinth of white bones and the ruby crystal lovingly held aloft within two bony hands. In the middle of the crystal, a heart of fire beat in time with the waves of power.

“An’sidwain,” Saphira murmured.

And reached for it before I could stop her.

The moment her fingers made contact with the crystal, darkness poured into the room.

Saphira began choking and my heart seized as she snatched the crystal and covered her mouth, her eyes watering as she turned back towards me. Not just darkness. It was poisonous.

“Run,” I barked and pulled her with me, pushing her in front of me as she coughed and spluttered, still clutching the crystal tight against her chest.

She ran down the stairs ahead of me and I kept pushing her, forcing her to keep moving as black mist rolled after us. We were barely keeping ahead of it. When we hit the next floor down, I grabbed hold of her and lifted her into my arms and summoned all of my strength.

And bellowed as I forced a teleport that felt as if it was ripping my flesh from my bones.

We hit the dark grey sand outside the tower in an uncontrolled landing that ended with Saphira pinned beneath me.

I rolled off her and grabbed my pack, ripping it open and snatching up the vial as she coughed and wheezed, her back arching as she struggled to push herself off the ground.

Popping the lid off the vial with one hand, I grabbed her with the other, twisting her onto her back on my lap.

Red streaks marred her skin, branching outwards from her lips and her eyes.

“Saphira,” I whispered and her blue eyes opened, bloodshot and filled with pain. “Drink.”

I tipped the vial towards her mouth and she opened for me, greedily drinking down the violet liquid I tipped onto her tongue.

Her body seized, stiffening, and she jerked in my arms. I held her more tightly, pinning her arms and her legs, holding her down so she would not hurt herself.

Her head launched backwards and she screamed at the top of her lungs, a scream that ended in a howl that tore at me as she shuddered.

And then her shaking subsided, the crimson veins receding to leave healthy pink skin behind.

And I could breathe again.

I pulled her to me, burying my face in her throat, breathing her in as her own breaths slowed and settled, and growled, “Fool. You should have let me take it.”

Her left arm came up, wrapping around my back, and she held me gently, no doubt with all the strength she had as her body recovered from the poison and the trauma of healing so rapidly.

I pulled down another breath of her scent, pressing my nose to her hair, clinging to her as she clung to me, my heart labouring as fear trickled through my veins, whispering dark things at me. I had almost lost her.

I had almost lost her.

Power rolled over me and I eased back to look down at the crystal she still held to her chest, and frowned. This wave of power did not match the one emanating from An’sidwain.

I slowly lifted my head, my fear turning to shadows and darkness that poured through my veins as I stared at the figure standing a short distance from us.

Cloaked in tattered night.

Bound by thorny vines.

Blue fire ignited in the hollow pits of the lich’s deer-skull-like head, the shimmering ghostly crown that sat between his horns distorting the jagged collar of sharp bones behind it.

“Saphira,” I whispered and she looked at me, her eyes dull and tired. “Hold on tight.”

I teleported with her, shrouded in black smoke and glittering stars, and grunted as I hit something solid. We fell together, and I took the brunt of the impact this time as I landed in the sand with Saphira on top of me.

Barely feet from where we had been.

The lich slowly turned to face us.

Saphira scrambled off me and I sat up, pressing my hand to the invisible barrier to my left as I kept my focus fixed on the lich to my right, between us and the tower of bones that leaked black mist.

“This isn’t good,” she said.