Chapter 65

Chapter 65
Evelyn’s POV

The first thing I felt was the heat. It wasn’t from the hearth the fire there had burned low, leaving only orange embers glowing weakly. No, this heat was alive, restless, pressed against my skin like invisible hands. It curled along the walls, licked the floor beneath my bare feet, and sank into the marrow of my bones until I thought my very blood was burning. Kael. I knew it without question, without thought. His presence surged through the bond with the force of a storm breaking across the sea. It wasn’t the steady warmth he sometimes gave me when he brushed against my thoughts to soothe me. This was a flood. A blaze. It poured through every crack in me until I couldn’t tell where I ended and where he began. And underneath it all, like a pulse against my throat, was his fury. The intruders were gone. I hadn’t seen their deaths, but I’d felt them. The bond had shown me flashes a man choking, another screaming, a wolf made of smoke and fire ripping through the last. It was brutal. Terrifying. Final. And Kael had done it all from leagues away, his rage turned into something more than distance could cage.

I pressed trembling fingers to my chest. My heart was still racing, fluttering like a bird caught in a snare. My guards had burst into the room moments after it happened, weapons drawn, eyes darting wildly for threats they were too late to catch. They looked at me as if I could explain what none of them had seen. I had no words for them. I still had none. They were gone now, dismissed when I told them I needed silence. They had obeyed reluctantly, their loyalty warring with their nerves. And now it was just me, standing barefoot in the quiet chamber, trying to breathe past the scorch still clinging to the air. I sank onto the edge of the bed. My hands wouldn’t stop shaking.
The Chain had come for me.
Even now, I struggled to believe it. I had told myself that maybe they would wait, maybe Kael’s suffocating measures had bought us time. But no. They had come, and they had nearly reached me. If not for Kael I shut my eyes, swallowing hard. If not for Kael, I would already be dead. The bond pulsed again, sharp enough to make me flinch. Images bled into me: snow, the gleam of steel, men falling with their throats opened, Kael’s eyes burning like coals in the dark. His wolf prowled inside him, savage and unrestrained, and I felt it as if it prowled inside me too. Each death was a hammerblow through the tether. I wasn’t holding a sword, but I felt the weight of one. I wasn’t spilling blood, but the copper tang of it coated my tongue. It terrified me. And yet there was safety there too. I wrapped my arms around myself, rocking once, twice, trying to make sense of it. The men who had broken into my chambers were gone. I was untouched, not a single scratch on my skin. Kael had reached across leagues to shield me, and for that I could breathe, I could still exist. But his protection was violence, raw and merciless. And through the bond, I could not separate safety from slaughter. I drew in a ragged breath. “Kael!
The name slipped out of me before I could stop it. The bond answered instantly, tightening like a rope pulled taut. For a moment, it felt as if he were in the room standing at my shoulder, heat radiating from him in waves, eyes watching every tremor of my hands.
“Mine,” the bond whispered in his voice. Not aloud, but inside me. “Safe. Always.”
Tears stung my eyes. I pressed my forehead against my knees, torn between relief and fear. I wanted to believe him. I wanted to trust that his fire could burn away everything that hunted me. But I had seen too much, felt too much. His promise wasn’t a soft shield. It was a cage of flames, and I didn’t know if it would keep me whole or consume me with him. Time slipped strangely after that. The bond eased a little, but not entirely. It was as if Kael had left a part of himself behind to stand guard with me. I felt his march north, the rhythm of his men’s boots on frozen earth. I felt his hunger for more blood, his need to tear down Ashmoor stone by stone. He was gone from me, yet still here, and the contradiction made my skin itch. The servants brought food, but I couldn’t eat. My stomach twisted whenever I tried. I wandered the chamber instead, touching things only to drop them again, restless as a caged bird. The window drew me at last, and I stood staring into the snow-flecked night. Somewhere out there, Kael was tearing men apart for daring to breathe my name. And here I was, trembling in the quiet and I hated it. I hated how powerless I felt, how dependent I was on his strength. He had scorched my enemies into silence tonight but what about tomorrow? What about the day when the Chain learned to strike differently, to slip past even his fire? My reflection in the glass startled me. Pale skin, wide eyes, hair mussed around my face like I’d been dragged through a storm. I didn’t look like a queen, or even a woman who belonged in Kael’s world of steel and fire. I looked like a frightened girl who had stumbled into the wrong story. And yet, that frightened girl had power. I had seen it in the dungeon, when the men had broken under my voice and told secrets they’d sworn to die with. That power was still in me. I could feel it, coiled deep, whispering for release. But it scared me almost as much as Kael’s fire did. What if I used it and became something monstrous? What if it wasn’t meant for saving myself, but for destroying others? The Chain wanted me for a reason. Maybe they understood me better than I understood myself. A knock at the door shattered my thoughts. I spun, heart leaping into my throat. The guards’ voices drifted through, cautious but steady. “My lady? The wards are holding, but the Alpha gave strict orders we must remain at your door until he returns. Do you require anything?”
I opened my mouth to say no. But then I heard it a faint whisper, almost inaudible, brushing against the edge of the bond. Not Kael’s voice this time. Something colder.
We will come again. My breath caught. I looked wildly around the chamber, but nothing stirred. The wards still glowed faintly on the walls, pulsing with Kael’s heat. The guards waited patiently beyond the door. And yet, the words clung to me like frost, seeping into my bones. They weren’t done.
The Chain had failed tonight, but they would not stop. They would wait, and they would try again, and again, until either I was theirs or I was ash. The thought rooted itself in me like a thorn. My hands clenched into fists. I couldn’t I wouldn’t spend every night curled on this bed, waiting for Kael’s fire to rescue me. His protection was fierce, but it was not enough. Not if I remained only a thing to be guarded. I touched the bond again, deliberately this time, reaching for the heat that was Kael. He answered at once a rush of strength, wild and burning, flooding me until my vision swam. For a heartbeat, I saw through his eyes: snow whipping at his cloak, enemies scattering before his sword, the world bending beneath his fury. He didn’t falter. He didn’t doubt. I pulled back, gasping, my body shaking with the echo of his certainty. If he could wield fire like that for me, then I had to find the courage to wield what was mine. Whatever it was. Whatever it cost. Because if I didn’t the next time the Chain came, even Kael might not be enough.