Chapter 357

Chapter 357
Kael

Cecilia looked down at the blade protruding from her body, her expression filled with disbelief as though even she couldn’t comprehend what had just happened, before slowly lifting her eyes toward me.

“Kael…”

Her voice was barely audible.

The guard ripped the sword free.

Cecilia collapsed.

I stared at her.

My mind refused to understand what I was seeing. Only moments earlier she had been standing beside me, fighting alongside my men, and now she was lying motionless on the stone floor with blood spreading beneath her.

“No.”

I rushed toward her, my claws hovering uselessly over her body as I desperately searched for any sign that she was still alive.

There was nothing.

Her eyes were already empty.

Something inside me shattered.

A roar exploded from my chest so violently that it echoed through the corridor, and I turned toward the guard who was still standing there with Cecilia’s blood covering his sword.

I lunged.

I wanted him dead.

I wanted to tear him apart with my own hands for what he had just done, but before I could reach him, agony ripped through my body with such sudden force that my legs gave out beneath me.

I crashed onto the floor.

The beast screamed inside my head as invisible magic seized every part of my body, crushing down against me until I could barely breathe.

My claws dug into the stone as I tried to force myself upright.

I fought against it with everything I had.

I tried to move.

Tried to get back to Cecilia.

Tried to reach the guard who had killed her.

Nothing worked.

The magic only tightened.

My body began changing against my will as the beast was violently forced beneath my skin, my claws disappearing while my bones shifted and my muscles contracted, and the pain became so intense that my vision blurred at the edges.

I hit the floor hard as I was forced back into my human form, left naked and shaking against the cold stone while I struggled desperately to draw enough air into my lungs.

For several seconds, I couldn’t move.

I could only stare at Cecilia.

“No…”

The word broke somewhere in my throat as I tried to crawl toward her, dragging myself across the floor with whatever strength remained in my arms.

I barely made it a few inches before a boot came down beside my hand.

I looked up.

The king stood over me.

His expression held no sympathy.

There was only cold disappointment in his eyes as he looked down at me.

“I am disappointed in you, boy.”

I stared at him through blurred vision, barely understanding what he meant while my attention remained fixed on Cecilia’s body.

“Your father will be too.”

I didn’t care what he meant.

I didn’t care what punishment waited for me.

All I could think about was Cecilia lying dead only a few feet away.

The king turned away.

“Take him to the dungeon.”

One of the surviving guards immediately grabbed me by the arm.

I fought him.

I twisted violently, trying to pull myself free, but my body was too weak after being forced out of the shift, and the guard overpowered me almost immediately.

“Let me go!”

He ignored me and dragged me down the corridor.

I fought until my strength finally began to disappear, my bare feet scraping uselessly against the stone as I was pulled farther and farther away, while my eyes remained fixed on Cecilia for as long as I could still see her.

Then the corridor turned.

She disappeared from view.

And I knew I would never see her alive again.

The guards dragged me downstairs, deeper beneath the castle, until the polished halls gradually disappeared behind us and the surroundings became colder, darker, and increasingly bare, with rough stone walls replacing the polished surfaces above and the faint sounds of the castle eventually disappearing completely.

By the time we reached the dungeon, I barely had enough strength left to keep my head up.

One of the guards unlocked a cage and shoved me inside.

I stumbled forward and hit the floor hard, catching myself with my hands as the iron door slammed shut behind me.

The lock clicked.

I remained on the floor for several seconds, breathing heavily while the silence of the dungeon settled around me, and then, somewhere across the corridor, I heard a faint movement.

My head lifted.

Another cage stood directly opposite mine.

Someone was sitting inside it.

At first, the figure was little more than a shadow in the dim light, but as my eyes adjusted, the shape became familiar enough to make my entire body go still.

Dark hair.

A familiar face.

A posture I had seen countless times before.

Zayn.

He was sitting on the floor with his knees drawn toward his chest and his back against the wall, staring blankly at the stone in front of him as though he had long since stopped expecting anyone to come through those doors.

He looked exhausted.

Not simply tired, but completely worn down, with his hair disheveled and his expression so empty that I could barely recognize him.

I stared at him through the bars.

After everything we had done to find him, after every lead that had gone nowhere and every possibility we had chased only to end up exactly where we started, he was sitting directly across from me.

Alive.

Zayn must have eventually sensed my presence, because his head slowly lifted, and when his eyes met mine, neither of us said anything.

I swallowed, still trying to process the absurdity of what had just happened.

I had spent six months searching for him.

And somehow, after all that time, I had finally found him only to end up locked in a dungeon directly across from his cell.

A tired, humorless laugh escaped me as I leaned my head back against the wall.

“Well,” I muttered, staring at him through the bars, “the good news is that I finally found you.”

Zayn continued staring at me.

I glanced around my own cell before looking back at him, letting out another slow breath as the reality of our situation settled over me.

“The bad news is that I’m now in the exact same fucked up situation you are.”