Chapter 168: Huge

Nyx’s POV

By the time we reached the outer grounds of the Lykae palace, I had completely forgotten that we were supposed to be leaving. That was partly Draegan’s fault.

He had spent the entire afternoon showing me things I had never even imagined existed in the Lore and every time I thought we had reached the end of the tour, another part of the palace opened up.

There were training grounds cut directly into the mountainside, old stone circles where the Lykae still held ceremonies. Even the gardens were different from anything I had seen in Noctharys.

They were not neat or carefully arranged. They were wild, thick and green with enormous trees growing wherever they pleased. Draegan seemed to like watching me discover everything. He pretended he didn’t. He was terrible at pretending.

“You’ve been staring at that tree for five minutes,” Caelan said beside me and I turned to find him watching me with the faintest amusement in his face.

“It is huge.”

“You said that about the dining hall.”

“The dining hall was huge.”

His mouth twitched. “You have a very sophisticated vocabulary.”

I gave him a look and turned back toward the tree. “I’m trying to appreciate nature.”

“You’ve been calling everything huge.”

“Because everything here is huge.”

Draegan, walking several steps ahead of us, glanced over his shoulder. “She’s right.”

Caelan sighed quietly. “I am surrounded.”

“You are,” I agreed, slipping my hand into his.

His fingers closed around mine immediately. I had started doing that without thinking. That was probably the part that frightened me more than anything else. Not the affection itself. The ease of it.

A few months ago, I would have thought twice before touching him in public. Now my hand seemed to find his whenever we walked somewhere together. Sometimes he reached for me first. Sometimes I did.

Draegan stopped near the stone arch that marked the beginning of the outer grounds.

“That’s enough for today,” he announced.

I frowned. “Already?”

“We’ve been walking for hours.”

“I didn’t notice.”

“I did.”

He looked exhausted. I smiled. “You’re tired.”

“I have spent half the day answering questions about things you were not supposed to know existed.”

“I asked good questions.”

“You asked whether one of the ceremonial wolves could fit through a human-sized doorway.”

“That was important.”

“It was not.”

“It could have been important.”

Draegan rubbed his forehead and looked toward the mountains as though he was reconsidering every decision that had brought us here.

Caelan leaned closer to me. “You have been torturing him all day.”

“I’ve been learning.”

“You asked him whether Lykae dream while shifted.”

“I wanted to know.”

There was something warm in his voice that made me glance at him. He was smiling. Not the tiny almost-smile he used when he was trying to hide amusement. A real smile, although small, with his eyes softened as he watched me.

Draegan turned around with an expression of profound irritation. “You have become unbearable.”

“I’ve been told.”

I laughed and Draegan’s expression softened despite himself. That was the thing about him. For all his complaints, he had a soft spot for me.

“Come on,” he said, turning toward the courtyard. “I’ll take you back.”

We had barely gone twenty steps when he stopped. I nearly walked into him. “What?”

“You wanted to see a Lykae wolf up close.”

My eyes widened. Caelan’s expression changed immediately. “Draegan.”

“What?”

“Don’t do it.”

Draegan’s mouth curved. I knew that expression because all the Moravia have it when they want to get beneath his skin.  It was trouble.

“I’ll take her around the lower grounds.”

“No.”

“I’ll be careful.” Draegan looked at me. “You want to ride a wolf?”

Caelan closed his eyes. “Draegan.”

“I do,” I said immediately, clapping my hands in excitement.

“I know.”

Caelan looked at me. “Nyx.”

I was already smiling. “I have never ridden a wolf.”

“You are not riding Draegan.”

Draegan’s eyebrows rose. “Why not?”

“Because you’re enormous.”

“I’m aware.”

“And she’s immortal but not invulnerable.” Draegan looked at me again. “He’s going to keep talking.”

“He does that a lot. It’s getting annoying.” I pursed my lips while Caelan stared at both of us.

Draegan laughed and then his body changed before my eyes. The transformation was nothing like Rydstrom’s. There was no graceful shift from one shape to another. Draegan’s bones moved with brutal force.

His shoulders broadened. His hands struck the ground as his body dropped forward and dark fur rushed over his skin. His face lengthened, his jaw changing until a massive wolf stood where the man had been. I stopped breathing.

His paws were bigger than my head. His dark coat almost looked black in the fading light, except where the sun caught it and showed the deep brown underneath. His eyes remained unmistakably Draegan’s, gold and intelligent, fixed on me with an expression that somehow managed to look smug despite being attached to a wolf’s face.

“Oh,” I whispered.

Caelan stepped closer to me. “Absolutely not.”