113

113

KAEL

The halls of the keep smell like blood, and dark magic, and I feel like I’m trudging through molasses to take another step. The walls have sickening life of their own, sapping my power and enhancing the otherworldly capabilities of every rogue we meet.

"Alpha, behind you!" Vance screams as his sword sings through the air.

I duck just in time to see the claws of a rogue, whose eyes are blazing with dark fire. I extend my half-transformed claws and go right through his neck in one motion. The body thuds wetly to the stone floor, and the footsteps in the passages beyond start echoing already!

“These aren’t the regular rogues,” Marcus pants, re-cocking his crossbow with another silver-tipped bolt. "They're too fast, they're hitting too hard."

“The fortress is boosting them,” I say, spitting blood from a gash on my cheek. "We need to move faster.”

With the bond, I can feel Raven in there like a burning star against my mind. She’s alive, but something in her changes — her power is increasing, shifting, becoming something not as I know it. And far below that, I can feel her fear, and her silent plea that I will reach her soon.

A warning flickers down our connection, images and feelings instead of words. Betrayal. Thane. Danger from within.

“Son of a bitch,” I mutter, the puzzle snapping together in my mind. “Vance, Marcus, we’ve got to divide and conquer.”
"Sir?" Vance arches an eyebrow, concerned.

"Thane is here. He’s been working both ends against the middle, and now he’s going for it.” I look between my two closest warriors, loathing what I’m about to ask them. “I want you to find Lysandra and get her out of here. That ritual demands her death — do not let them play this card.”

"Alpha, we're not going to let you face this alone," Marcus objects.

"You're not leaving me. You’re making it so I don’t have to decide between saving my mate and saving her mother.” I clamp both their many shoulders. “I believe in both of you. Now I’m trusting you with hers.”

Vance nods grimly. "Where will you be?"

"Following the bond. "I can hear Raven's power—it's calling for me I know I can find her." I face the hallway that stretches off deeper into the fortress, toward the chamber of ritual in which I can sense dark magic reaching its apex. "Go. And, whatever you do, don’t trust Thane for a second.”

We part at the next intersection, and I sprint through the winding halls by myself. Desperation and rage enhance my lupine senses, every instinct howling for me to get to Raven before it's too late.

It seems like the fortress is working against me in every step. Corridors that ought to guide to the ritual chamber double back on themselves. Apparent doorways are revealed to be illusions, and walls are like stone when you run into them.

“Very clever,” I mutter, resting my palm against a wall that seems to shimmer with concealed magics. "But not clever enough."

I close my eyes and stretch through the bond, using Raven's being as a compass. Her strength is like a light in the dark, it's increasing with each moment. I obey that pull and tune out all of the fortress’ attempts to confuse and mislead me.

There’s a soft groan from a chamber at my left, and I stop. That voice—I know that voice.

"Eira," I gasp, pushing against the door that wasn't quite closed.

What I see there sends ice through my veins. My sister is in chains that resemble the ones holding Raven, her flowy red hair stained with blood and her usually bright green eyes bleak with pain. She’s littered with bruises, and I can see the brand marks of magical torture on her flesh.

"Kael?" Her voice is so hushed, but her eyes lock to me with a fierce gratitude. "You came."

"Of course I came." I’m right by her side in seconds, my claws easily shredding the chains. "What did they do to you?"

'Asked me about the Spire's defences, asked about the pack, about you and Raven.' Her legs fail to support her weight as the chains fall from her, and she slumps against me. “But Kael, you must know this about Thane... ”

"I know he's a traitor."

"No, it's worse than that." My shirt sleeves dig into me as Eira grabs hold of them with unexpected force. "He's been plotting this for years, ever since Father exiled the Shadowmere clan. He has been patient, inching his way into the council’s confidence, gathering intelligence.”

"Why?" Although a part of me already knows the answer.

"Because he assumes he should own the Obsidian Spire. His family was banished for using dark magic, for attempting to challenge Father's power." Tears stream down her filth-streaked cheeks. “But Kael, he murdered Aeliana.
The world stops. "What?”

“Aeliana found his true self. She was following odd magical scents around the Spire in efforts to locate the source of the leaks. When she grew too close to the truth, Thane killed her, with the attack looking like a maverick-themed assassination.
Hot, consuming molten metal fills me with rage, white hot. My first mate, my dear Aeliana was not murdered by senseless violence, she was murdered by treachery in cold blood. “They’re just a keg of fire-wine waiting for a spark … And now Thane has Raven in his grip, going to use her like we used Aeliana’s death—like a weapon at our backs!”

"Where is he?" I growl, my voice warping as my wolf fights to take over.

Ritual chamber, but Kael, you can't--." His shadow magic is even more powerful than anything else that we’ve seen. It’s like he’s been banking power for decades.”

Eira, come with me," I say, and I pull her up off the floor and help her keep her balance as I lead her to the door. “First I get you out of here.

“No time,” she gasps, indicating a narrow passage that leads up. "That direction is the direction of the surface. I can make it on my own."
"Eira—"

"Go save your mate." She shoves me down the corridor that continues to the back of the fortress. “Don’t let him take her like he took Aeliana.”

Aeliana, the sound of her name is like a blade to my heart, but it also hardens my resolve. NOT another woman that I love, to Thane's devices. Not when I won't let him ruin Raven like he ruined my firs' mate!

There's no help for it now, so I press my wolf forward, realize my shift is partial despite the fortress's attempts to leech the magic out of me. Increased power courses through my limbs, sharpens my senses to be more than human. The smell of Raven’s fear and fury leads me down the rest of the corridors and around side-chambers that have walls covered in circles and stars; bunkers that stand empty now, their guards somewhat sobered by my smoke-cracked gray eyes, as they part for me.

I'm done being subtle. I'm done being careful. Thane wants to challenge the Alpha of the Obsidian Spire? And then he’s about to get his wish.

The last corridor leads into an antechamber occupied by three warriors in recognisable armour. My stomach drops as I see the insignia—these are not rogues. They are Obsidian Spire soldiers; my people, who have secretly been loyal to Thane so long I can’t even imagine how long.

” Get out of my way ” I roar, suddenly unable to harness my full Alpha strength.

The lead guard, a man named Garrett whom I have known for five years, looks sad and shakes his head. "I'm sorry, Alpha. But the era of the Rathmores has passed. Councilor Thane is rightful heir to the Spires leadership.”

"The hell he is."

They don’t have time to draw their weapons. I rip through Garrett's throat with my claws faster than he can blink, and whirl to block the second guard's sword with my forearm. The blade digs deep, but the pain means nothing as I plunge my other hand through his chest.

The third guard manages to bring his crossbow up, but I’m already on the move. The bolt hits my shoulder as I bring him to the ground, my jaws snapping shut on his throat in a crushing grip that halts his flailing instantly.

I am standing on the corpses of men who should have been my brothers, my friends, my protectors. They instead decided to march off after a traitor, and now they’re dead.

The great doors to the ritual chamber loom ahead of me, covered in terrible symbols that are painful to look at. Voices echo through the wood—Thane's cold demands, Raven's defiant retorts and underlying it all, the steady beat of a ritual that never should have existed.

I don't knock. I don't announce myself. I bang on the doors with my hands and push against them with enough pressure to split the stone frame.

Worse than I had feared is the sight that meets me. Darian’s corpse lies in a puddle of blood in the middle of a ritual circle, with a dagger of obsidian in his chest. We find Raven in chains, held in the sky up by chains that glow with dark magic as her violet eyes shine with new power and rage. And above both of them, one hand grasping a knife to my mate’s throat, stands Thane.

“Ah, Kael,” Thane responds without looking back. "Right on time, as always."

"Let her go, Thane. Your quarrel is with me."
"Is it?" He looks back at me, and I realize his once lifeless eyes are now filled with that same red flame Darian's eyes bore. “For you see if you were in my position, I have a family who snatched my inheritance and banished my ancestry as far as from myself.

"Your family were exiled for a reason.

"Good reason?" Thane’s laugh is dark and chill. We were sent into exile because we could see the potential of the packs with the right leadership. It was because we were powerful enough to be able to do it.”

You were banished because you attempted to use forbidden magic to murder my father!

"Details." Thane pushes the blade closer to Raven's throat, slicing him, barely. “But speaking of murder, what I really need to thank you for is getting Aeliana so close to the Truth all those years. Her work to look into the Spire's leaks of information proved surprisingly insightful in discerning which members of the council might threaten my designs."

It's like I've just been punched in the gut with the confirmation of what Eira was saying. "You murdered her."

I got rid of a danger to my plan for the long term. The same way I killed Darian when he was no longer of use to me." The smile Thanos bears is sharp as a knife. "And now I'm going to kill you. “But first, I am going to give you the same choice I presented Darian – kneel before me and welcome my rule as the new Alpha of all packs, or bear witness as I finish the ritual to take her power and watch your mate die.

Through the connection, I sense Raven’s resolve and her desperate love for me. But I feel something else, too—a plan is taking shape in her mind, a power stirring that neither Thane nor I fully comprehend.

“There’s a third way,” I whisper, my storm gray eyes locked on Thane’s face.

"Oh? And what's that?"

"I slash you up, let my mate go and watch the the real prophecy play out like it should have."

Thane’s laughter reverberates against the stone walls. “Big words for someone whose mate is one stroke of the blade from death sent.” He reaches into his robes and pulls out a small vial of a thick green liquid. Oh, did I tell you I've infected her mother with a poisonous plant that will get her to pass out in about three minutes? Of course, there’s an antidote right here in my hand.”

My blood turns to ice. I can feel Raven’s terror and despair through the bond. Lysandra is dying and the only way to save her is to give in to Thane's demands.

“Decide now Kael” Thane’s voice changes, he speaks as if this were some ancient magic rite. "Kneel and make me your Alpha, or lose all you have ever loved. The ceremony peaks at the time of moonrise, and that is less than two minutes from now.”