Page 194 of Wolf Caged
I had almost lost her. I had been a fool to bring her here. I had almost lost her.
I lifted her in my arms, shadows trailing in my wake as I strode towards the pack and her clothes, the ground still trembling beneath my boots with each step I took. She leaned into me, her gaze on my face, and even when I set her down on the sand, she did not look away from me.
She took the vials I offered, one to heal her and the other to rid her of any necrotic effects, in case the spell that had spearedher had been of that kind. And I carefully dressed her as she drank the elixirs, my hands shaking as I covered her dirty skin, as I replayed that moment she had been speared over and over again.
I had failed to protect her.
I had failed to protect her and she had almost been taken from me.
Killed.
My breaths shortened as my chest squeezed and darkness encroached at the corners of my vision.
“Kael,” she breathed, banishing that darkness and drawing me back to her. “Are those your men?”
I looked at her face, and then over my shoulder, my eyes widening as I spotted what she had.
A wall of men marching towards us through the fog.
Vengeance.
This was the reason Neve had sent me to the Wastes, had seen me here and had believed it vital. My vengeance marched towards me, little more than a scouting party from the Summer Court, but they were heading towards my lands, and should they follow me there, I would be justified in my retaliation.
And decimation of their court.
But as their forms grew clearer, my vengeance slipped through my claws.
Not Summer Court.
They wore the deep blue and silver of the Evening Star Court, whose lands extended north of the Winter Court, separated from it by a broad channel of water.
I looked from the seelie to Saphira, torn between fighting them and retreating. The darkness in me pushed to fight, to eradicate the seelie presence from the unseelie lands, but the strategist in me demanded I fall back.
As did my heart.
I gathered Saphira to me and placed the pack on her lap, and teleported with her, as far from the seelie as I could manage.
And then I teleported again, sacrificing my strength.
My focus on Falkyr.
And getting Saphira as far from danger as I could.
Chapter 53
KAELERON
“Medic!” I yelled as I strode into my castle, Saphira tucked close to my chest, one of my arms cradling her back while the other supported her legs.
I kept walking, heading for the great hall at the end of the broad corridor, my gaze flickering between her and the arched double doors ahead of us.
I willed her to be strong, as strong as I knew her to be in these coming moments. The bleeding had stopped, but her blouse was wet with it, her skin stained by it, and the material concealed the wound, making it impossible for me to reassure myself that the tonic really had done its job and she would survive this wound.
Jenavyr was the first to come rushing down the stairs near to the entrance of the great hall, her silver eyes wild as they landed on me and then Saphira, and the way she looked at me, concern shining in her eyes, told me Saphira was not the only one with injuries that needed tending. I did not notice my own wounds as I carried Saphira towards the doors.
“They are already waiting for you,” my sister said as she fell into step beside me, that concern in her eyes growing.
“How?” I kicked the double doors open and sure enough, the medics were waiting beside the dais, as if someone had warned them we were coming.
