Page 108 of Wolf Caged
Had been outside her room in a flash, breaking the door down, my shadows pouring into the air around me.
And there she had been.
Wounded.
Bleeding.
Broken.
Shadows ripped at the flagstones around me, shattering some and hurling others clear across the courtyard. They threatened to tear the stones from the arch as I passed under it and I barely leashed them, pulling them hard back under my control. They seethed with me as I stalked down the slick stone steps to the dungeon, as I scented my prey ahead of me.
Her fear. Her blood.
I would savour both.
The dark-haired fae female flashed fearful eyes at me as I strode into view, shuffling backwards in her cell, until her back hit the far wall and she could go no further.
“My king,” she whispered, gaze imploring me, even when she knew I had no mercy to give her.
She had tried to take something from me.
All who dared such a thing faced the same punishment.
Death.
“Kaeleron,” Neve warned, the dragon female evidently aware of where this was going. She approached the bars, no love in her eyes as she glanced at the cowering fae female. “At least do it outside. Blood is so very hard to remove from these old stones and I prefer not to have to endure the irritating sound of hours of scrubbing from your servants.”
The hope that had been building in the fae female’s eyes turned to horror or perhaps betrayal. Had she honestly believed Neve would care about her fate? My seer could be as ruthless as any of us when she felt her precious treasure trove was threatened, and the kind of death I wanted to give this fae would end with her entire hoard splattered with blood.
I wrenched the barred door of the cell before me open with magic, the sound of iron striking iron singing around me, together with the startled gasp of my prey.
The fae female huddled and shook her head, pulling her filthy fine dress towards her as she gripped her knees. “Please, my king. It was a moment of madness. It will not happen again.”
“It will not,” I agreed, darkness pouring through my veins as I considered what her moment of madness might had stolen from me.
How I had failed to protect the little wolf.
I sneered down at the female and snared her with my shadows, hauling her towards me, the inky vines burrowing deep into her flesh and tearing a pained scream from her.
I would protect Saphira now.
I would ensure no one dared harm her and would remove this danger from her path.
My fangs lengthened, the world sharpening around me as I sank into the darkness, as I gathered it to me and wrapped myself in it. Images of Saphira continued to flutter across my mind, fuelling the rage that consumed me, swept me up in it and shattered my control.
She had been wounded. Had bled.
She might have died.
The images of her distorted as my breaths shortened, as my past surged up on me, twisting her face into that of another, older female who bore the same dark hair and silver eyes as my own. Her terrified screams rang in my ears and my chest heavedwith each laboured breath I pulled down into my lungs as my throat closed and I wanted to throw my hands over my ears to shut out the sound.
Wanted to tear my gaze from that sliver of her as she fought her attackers, desperate to live even as her life leached from her in thick almost black rivulets that spilled down her nightdress.
Rage and darkness purred within me as that memory twisted again, the female taking the form of the one I dragged from the cell with my shadows, hauling her up the stone steps as she wailed and begged for mercy.
No mercy.
Whatever shred of that quality I had possessed had been killed in that moment all those centuries ago.
