Page 51 of Wolf Caged
The little wolf was immortal, in the sense she was long-lived, but tumbling over the waterfall would have been the death of her. There was no way she would have survived the impact with the water, and even if by some miracle of the Great Mother she had, she probably would have been knocked unconscious and drowned in the sea before I could find her.
Her trembling slowly subsided and she shifted in my arms, her palms scalding my flesh as she pressed closer to me. The feel of her leaning on me, seeking more from me, bewitched my shadows and calmed the darkness that writhed within me, demanding someone pay.
If anyone were to blame, it was me.
I smoothed my hand over her tangled silver hair, my chest tightening as I felt her beneath my palm, in my arms, tucked close to me. Safe. My mind flashed with images of her falling, of what might have happened if I had not reacted so quickly, and I found myself holding her more tightly.
“Foolish little wolf,” I murmured against her hair, unsure whether she was the one shaking or I was too, and tried to banish whatever softness was building inside me, building between us as she clung to me, and made light of the moment by adding, “If you wanted my naked body pressed to yours, you only had to ask.”
She tensed.
And then did something that altered something fundamental inside me.
Something that felt too dangerous.
Too bewitching.
She laughed.
Her breath bathing my skin.
Warming me.
Soothing me.
Lightening me but making me feel weary at the same time, as if it stripped all my strength from me and I was in danger of crumpling under the weight of all I bore on my shoulders.
I growled and teleported away from her, slamming shut the iron doors around my softer emotions—my useless emotions—she had somehow pried open.
Because I had no use for them.
I had no use for her beyond my vengeance.
And it was time I remembered that.
Chapter 12
SAPHIRA
The muted sunlight was warmer today, and I wondered whether it was spring here as well as back home as I stood on my balcony, fully dressed in my blouse, leathers and boots, longing to be down among the townspeople seeing more of this world.
Kaeleron had kept me shut in my room the last two days. The only people I had seen in that time were my handmaidens, who I had annoyed with so many questions during their brief visits to bring me my meals that they had eventually surrendered a few crumbs of information.
Firstly, I had learned that the younger of the females was called Thalina, and the older one was Beliana, and I had apparently insulted the latter by believing their ages to be vastly different. It turned out that there was only a twenty-year gap between them and that was nothing when you were talking about ages in the hundreds. I had believed Thalina younger than me, but she was close to two centuries older, and had been working for the castle for longer than I had been alive.
That had left me wondering how old Kaeleron was. Neither had been willing to disclose that information, so instead I hadasked where he was and whether I was being punished. My captivity certainly felt like punishment. He had given me a glimpse of his world and a taste of freedom, and then he had snatched it away again, and a small part of me couldn’t help but feel it was my fault.
It had been stupid of me to let my emotions get the better of me and my angry thoughts steal my focus away from the world so much that I hadn’t been paying attention to where I was swimming, especially when I knew there was a waterfall at both ends of the lake.
And how far that water fell to the sea below.
That moment reared up on me as it had so many times in the last two days, and my throat closed as jumbled memories barraged me, stealing the world from my grasp until I felt sure I was back in that frigid water, fighting for my life.
Desperate to live.
I looked down at myself, at my violently shaking hands as I held them before me, and curled my fingers into fists. I owed Kaeleron my life, and he hadn’t even given me a chance to thank him for what he had done. He had saved me, risking his own life to protect mine, and then he had held me so damned close.
So damned hard.
