Chapter 16: The Night of Two Monsters

POV: Nyra

I wake to rough hands dragging me.

Everything is fuzzy. Distant. Like I'm watching my own body being moved through thick glass.

The silk bindings are gone. Someone must have cut them off while I was unconscious. But I'm still too weak to stand on my own, too drugged to coordinate my limbs properly.

Voices echo around me, distorted and strange.

"Get her to the chamber. Now."

"He's completely feral. Are we sure this is safe?"

"Just get her in there and let her do her job. That's all she's good for anyway."

My feet drag across cold stone. I try to make them work, try to walk, but they won't respond properly. The guards holding my arms are the only things keeping me upright.

We're descending. Down into the hidden passages. Toward Caelum's chamber.

The roaring gets louder with each step.

It's not like his usual rage. This sounds worse. More desperate. More violent. The kind of sound that comes from something breaking apart completely.

The guards stop at his door.

I can hear destruction on the other side. Claws on stone. Chains snapping. Something shattering.

"Maybe we should wait," one of the guards says nervously.

"The Queen Regent ordered this. We do it now or we answer to her."

The door opens.

The smell hits me first. Sharp and acrid, burning my nose even through the drug haze. Chemical. Artificial.

Stimulants.

They've used another scent-bomb on him. Maybe multiple ones, judging by how thick the air is.

The guards shove me through the doorway.

I stumble, barely catching myself before I fall. My legs shake, threatening to give out entirely.

Through blurred vision, I see him.

Caelum is half-shifted.

His shoulders are too broad, muscles straining beneath skin that's pulled tight. Claws extend from his fingers, dark and curved and wickedly sharp. His fangs are fully extended, gleaming in the ice stone light.

His eyes are pure gold. Wild. Confused. Lost in whatever rage the stimulants triggered.

Chains hang broken from his wrists. He's torn free of at least three restraints, the silver links snapped like thread.

He spins toward me when I enter, a snarl building in his chest.

I can barely stand.

The drug in my veins has dulled everything. Pain. Fear. Even the instinct to protect myself. My thoughts move like sludge, slow and thick and wrong.

I try to reach for a blade, but I don't have one. They didn't give me one this time. Didn't trust me with anything sharp after my refusal in the throne room.

I lift my hand to my mouth, trying to bite my wrist like I did in the throne room, but my coordination is off. My teeth don't connect properly.

Blood won't flow right when I'm drugged like this. My heartbeat is too slow, too weak. Everything in my body is sluggish and unresponsive.

"Do your job!" one of the guards barks from the doorway.

Caelum's eyes lock onto them, then back to me.

I take a shaky step forward.

My legs give out.

I'm falling.

Then Caelum catches me.

His hands close around my arms, claws pricking my skin but not breaking through. He holds me upright, his breathing ragged and uneven.

For a moment, we just stare at each other.

His eyes are wild, but something shifts behind the gold. Recognition flickering through the rage.

He freezes.

Completely still, like a predator that's just spotted something wrong in its environment.

His nostrils flare as he breathes in my scent. Or the lack of it. Whatever he senses, it's not right.

He leans closer, his face near my neck, inhaling deeply.

Then he pulls back sharply, a sound like a wounded animal escaping his throat.

Something is wrong.

He can tell.

My blood smells thinner, he'd said before. My heartbeat is uneven.

But it's more than that now. The drug has changed something fundamental about how my body functions. Changed the very thing that makes me useful to him.

Caelum's head turns slowly toward the guards still standing in the doorway.

The movement is deliberate. Controlled. Dangerous.

A growl builds in his chest.

Not the mindless snarl of bloodline rage. This is something different. Something focused and purposeful.

This is fury with a target.

The sound grows louder, resonating through the chamber like thunder rolling through mountains. Deep and primal and absolutely terrifying.

The walls shake.

Frost cracks on the floor.

The guards take a step back.

"What did you do to her?" Caelum's voice is barely human, distorted by the shift, but the words are clear. "What did you give her?"

"Nothing that concerns you, Your Highness," one of the guards says, trying to sound authoritative but failing. "She's just been prepared for easier handling."

"Prepared," Caelum repeats, the word coming out like a curse.

His grip on my arms tightens, just slightly. Protective rather than possessive.

"You drugged her," he says. "You sedated her so she can't fight back. So she can't refuse. So she can't do anything but bleed for me whether she wants to or not."

"It's for the stability of the realm," the guard says. "For your stability."

Caelum's eyes flash brighter.

"I don't want this," he snarls. "I don't want her drugged and broken and forced. I never wanted that."

He carefully sets me down, leaning me against the wall where I won't fall. His hands are gentle despite the claws, despite the rage still burning through him.

Then he turns fully toward the guards.

"Get out," he says, his voice dropping to something low and deadly.

"We have orders to ensure the donor completes her task."

"I said get out."

"Your Highness, you need to calm down. The scent-bombs are affecting your judgment. Once the defective bleeds for you, you'll feel better and..."

The restraint around Caelum's other wrist snaps.

The sound is like a gunshot in the enclosed space.

Metal screams as the chain breaks, links scattering across the floor.

Caelum is free.

Completely, terrifyingly free.

The guards' eyes widen in genuine fear.

"Your Highness," one of them starts, raising his hands in a placating gesture. "Please. We're just following orders."

"Then you chose the wrong orders to follow."

Caelum moves.

Not toward me.

Toward them.

The guards scramble backward, shouting for reinforcements, reaching for weapons.

But Caelum is faster.

He crosses the chamber in three strides, claws extended, fangs bared, every inch of him a predator finally unleashed.

Instead of attacking me like they expected, like they wanted, like they've been conditioning him to do, he attacks them.