Page 104 of Wolf Caged
Starting tomorrow.
Tonight, I just wanted to sleep.
Or maybe pace a little to work off the adrenaline and post-battle energy and then sleep.
Jenavyr pushed my door open and helped me inside.
“I will send a medic up to you,” she said and released me.
I grabbed hold of her arm to stop her. “Please don’t tell Kaeleron.”
She hesitated, her expression softening, and I thought I had won and would be spared the agony of him discovering why I had been caught up in a fight against one of his court, but then she glanced away and sighed. “I cannot do that. My loyalty is to my brother first and foremost. It is my duty to inform him of everything that happens within the court. Even this.”
I wanted to argue with her, but what was the point? I understood where she was coming from and I didn’t want her to endanger her position or even twist her loyalties a little for my sake. So I nodded, letting her know I understood, and watched as she exited my room and closed the door behind her.
All I could do now was hope she had been wrong and that business in Belkarthen would keep Kaeleron away for a few more days, long enough for me to heal.
Unsure how long it would take for the medics to arrive, I unlaced my corset, thankful for the extra protection it had given me. Flashes of the fight replayed across my mind and fur danced over my skin, my wolf side agitated by it all. My hands shook as I removed the corset, my claws still out as I twisted what had happened in the fight in my head, so it was Elanaluvyr on the ground, cowering and desperate to live. Pathetic. Weak.
I cast my corset away from me, growling as I began to pace, as adrenaline drowned out the fear and the pain, replacing it with rage and a fight instinct that had me wanting to find where the guards had taken the fae female and have my revenge. This fight wasn’t over. I wasn’t done.
I was going to do my research, and I was going to practice my limited fighting skills, and then I was going to have a rematch with the bitch.
My fingers flexed and curled, claws pressing into my palms as I paced, mind whirling with a need to lash out and make thefemale pay for what she had done. My shoulder ached, throbbing deep in my clavicle that I was sure was broken. I would break her bone in return. I touched my split lip. I would make her bleed.
The fae would likely utterly destroy me, but I didn’t care. Here in this rage-fuelled high, I didn’t care.
I wanted to destroy her too.
I stalked to the end of the room and back again, and caught my haggard reflection in the full length mirror near the blood-red dressing table. Split lip. Bruised cheek. A huge spreading blotch over my collarbone. And those were the wounds I could see. The ones I could feel were too numerous. Bruises mostly. I gingerly prodded my side and gasped as pain lanced it, fire licking through my blood.
The door blasted open.
Inky night exploded into the room.
Chapter 26
SAPHIRA
Ashriek tore from my lips as I whirled in the thick, chilling shadows threaded with glittering flecks of silver and gold, my eyes flying wide as the darkness parted to reveal him.
Wrath incarnate.
Shadows streamed outwards behind Kaeleron, forming great wings that clung to the shoulders of his tunic, blending perfectly with the inky fabric. Silver eyes stained with crimson darted around the room, his eyebrows pitched low above them.
I stiffened as his searching gaze landed on me, fresh embarrassment rolling through me. I couldn’t believe how violently I had reacted to the thought of Elanaluvyr in his bed—at his side. Where some reckless, foolish part of me wanted to be. But as his eyes narrowed on me, raking over my body, lingering on every exposed injury, my traitorous body warmed and my heart fluttered, a timid thing in my chest, beating unsteadily in his presence.
So irritatingly uncertain.
So filled with hope.
Because he was here, with me. Not in the dungeon. Not with the fae bitch.
He was here, and he was looking at me as if he had stolen that seed of rage that burned within me still, demanding I find her and end her, that she pay for what she had done to me and the things she had called me.
Kaeleron strode towards me, darkness pouring off him, streaming behind him to blot out the rest of my room, narrowing the world down to only us as he wrapped that glittering night around me in a soft, almost tender embrace.
Shielding me with it.
