Page 30 of Wolf Caged
Or slaughter those in the council who had spoken out against her.
To avoid that, I would consider what she had asked of me.
But first I would consult with the one who had spent the most time with the wolf—the female responsible for her presence in my court.
I teleported to the dungeons, wrapping myself in shadows and stepping out of them closest to Neve’s cell.
My gaze instantly darted to the cell beside hers, to the prone form of the silver-haired female, tucked beneath a dark silver blanket that had once belonged to Neve. She slumbered, her face peaceful and soft. No feigned sleep this time. She was deep asleep.
An unnatural sleep.
Neve’s presence pressed against mine through the wards that protected her home, a bare whisper of her power as she came to a halt beside me on the other side of the bars.
“Is this your doing?” I tried to pull my gaze from the slumbering wolf, but she was stronger than my will, keeping my eyes rooted to her.
“Saphira is exhausted, and so I used a little magic to give her a push.”
My gaze snapped to Neve, the spell shattered, and I frowned at her. “Saphira?”
The little wolf was called Saphira.
Neve caught my look, her amber eyes bright and clear today rather than clouded from fatigue born of her visions, and nodded. “Yes. Saphira. A pretty name, is it not?”
I hiked my shoulders. “No prettier than yours.”
She chuckled, but then sobered, her gaze challenging as she came to face me, Saphira forgotten. “I must side with Jenavyr on this one. Keeping the wolf caged will not help you with your vengeance.”
Vengeance. That word had cast a spell upon the little wolf. Lust for violence had shone inside her, so dazzling that it had been irresistible, had drawn me to her and bewitched me. It had spoken to something deep within me, just as I felt it had spoken to something deep within her, forming a strange bond between us for a heartbeat of time.
I stared at the wolf. “Have you seen that in a vision?”
Neve shook her head, her fall of golden hair caressing her slight shoulders in tumbling waves today. “No. It is simply common sense. You need this female to help you, and to trust you. She will do neither of those things while she is a prisoner.”
“I take it you are also responsible for her new luxuries?” I eyed the blanket, and then the one that lay discarded in the corner, almost pushed into the empty cell next door.
“She despises it, and when I learned of the reason, I offered her one of my own blankets. I have enough to spare… and really, my king, you thought it adequate to leave her with that trinket of her past?”
“A blanket is a blanket. It was better than leaving her naked. I am sure she did not mind it that much.”
The look on Neve’s face as she glanced at the wolf told me the female had minded it, had possibly even been upset by its presence. I was not sure I would ever understand the wolf if that was the case. It was better to have some modest form of covering and warmth rather than freeze to death, was it not? The blanket had been adequate, whether the wolf or Neve believed it or not.
“I will take your advice about her containment under consideration.” I went to leave now that I had a clearer bearing and decisions to make about releasing the wolf, but Neve caught hold of my arm.
“Kaeleron. She is in pain.” Neve looked from me to Saphira as the wolf twitched and moaned, her sleep not as settled or deep as I had believed.
“How do you know that? Did the wolf tell you?” I studied that wolf now, watching her more closely, reaching out with my power to wrap her in tendrils of shadows that would allow me to sense more from her. I felt no pain, but her sleep was troubled, darkness clouding her mind that seeped from her and tangled with my shadows.
Neve slowly shook her head again. “No. But her soul does… Like calls to like. I know a soul in pain when I see it.”
Pain.
I sought it, pressing deeper into my shadows, using magic to heighten my senses enough that I caught a glimmer of it, the barest whisper of her feelings.
It was deep and dark, as cold and jagged as a blade as it twined with my power, but it was hot and violent too, as if twokinds of pain were tearing her in different directions. Strong despite the fragile connection between us. If I could feel the full wrath of it, it would be devastating, a storm of emotion that would batter and break even the strongest soul.
“She has lost much.” Neve looked at me again, her grip on my arm tightening as her voice softened. “Do not think to take more from her.”
I snatched my arm back and glowered at her, anger curling hot in my veins as I pulled my shadows away from the wolf before they could snap at her by accident in response to my rage. “Do I have to tell you that I am not a monster now?”
