Chapter 356

Chapter 356
Kael

The gates were barely behind us when the silence of the castle began to feel wrong.

There was something unsettling about the complete lack of movement beyond the entrance, especially after everything we had already encountered outside.

A castle this large should never have been this quiet in the middle of the day, not with guards stationed throughout the kingdom and servants, nobles, and members of the royal family supposedly living within its walls.

We moved farther into the entrance hall with my men spread around us, weapons already drawn and their attention constantly shifting between the numerous doorways branching away from the main corridor, while Cecilia remained close enough that I could feel her presence beside me without having to look in her direction.

The castle was enormous from the inside, far larger than it had appeared from outside the walls, with towering ceilings disappearing into shadows above us, polished stone floors stretching beneath our feet, and long corridors branching off in every direction, each one disappearing into another part of the building.

I slowed slightly as I looked around.

Something was wrong.

There were no servants carrying trays through the corridors, no guards changing positions, no voices coming from the rooms surrounding us, and not even the faint sounds of conversation that should have carried through a building this large.

It felt abandoned.

Except I knew it wasn’t.

I tightened my grip around the weapon in my hand and glanced toward the men surrounding us.

“Stay alert.”

No one answered, although every one of them immediately became more attentive, their gazes sweeping over the hall as we continued forward.

We had barely taken another few steps when a door suddenly flew open.

A guard charged out.

I barely had time to register the movement before another door opened farther down the corridor, followed almost immediately by another on the opposite side, and within seconds the silence that had surrounded us was gone as armed men poured from every direction, rushing into the hallway with weapons already drawn.

The first guard reached me before I could properly prepare for the attack, but I moved on instinct, stepping into his path and driving my fist into his jaw hard enough to send him stumbling backward while one of my men intercepted another attacker coming toward me from the left.

Cecilia raised both hands.

The air around us shifted violently.

A powerful gust exploded outward from her position, catching several guards in its path and sending them crashing across the hallway while another wave of magic tore weapons from the hands of two men before throwing them backward.

More guards rushed toward us.

Then more.

There were far too many of them.

I could feel the beast stirring beneath my skin, responding to the growing threat around us and pushing against the control I had spent years forcing upon it, and after everything we had already fought through to reach this place, I finally stopped trying to hold it back.

The transformation tore through me.

My body shifted violently as the beast surged forward, bones and muscles changing beneath my skin while my senses sharpened until every sound around me became painfully clear, from the scrape of weapons against stone to the heavy footsteps of the guards rushing toward us.

A roar ripped from my throat as I charged the nearest guard, slamming into him before he could properly raise his weapon and driving him backward until his body struck the wall with enough force to leave him motionless.

Another attacker came from behind me.

I turned instantly.

My claws caught him before his blade could reach me, and I threw him aside before immediately turning toward the next man rushing into the fight.

Around me, Cecilia continued tearing through the guards with her magic, fire sweeping across the polished floor and forcing several men to retreat while the ground beneath another group suddenly shifted, rising around their legs and trapping them where they stood.

A violent burst of wind followed, catching two more guards and sending them crashing into the opposite wall.

My men fought alongside us, keeping the guards from surrounding Cecilia while she continued throwing spell after spell into the growing crowd, and every time another attacker tried to reach her, one of my men intercepted them before they could get close.

Then I saw one slip through.

He moved behind Cecilia while her attention was focused on the guards in front of her.

I crossed the distance immediately.

He never got the opportunity to strike.

My claws caught him before his weapon could reach her, and his body hit the floor as I turned toward the next threat.

The battle ended almost as quickly as it had begun.

The hallway was left scattered with bodies and abandoned weapons, while the guards who remained conscious were either too injured to continue or too stunned by the sudden defeat to make another attempt at attacking us.

Cecilia finally lowered her hands, breathing heavily as she looked around the corridor.

I turned toward her.

She met my eyes.

“Let’s find him.”

I nodded.

We moved deeper into the castle.

We searched everything we could reach, moving through bedrooms, offices, meeting rooms, private chambers, storage rooms, and every other room we came across, opening doors and checking every possible hiding place while the silence of the castle seemed to follow us from one corridor to the next.

Nothing.

No Zayn.

No Aurora.

Not even a clue that either of them had been inside the castle.

The frustration building inside me became harder to ignore with every empty room we searched, especially after everything we had gone through to get inside, and when I kicked open another door only to find another completely empty room waiting on the other side.

I stepped inside anyway, scanning the room from one end to the other before checking behind the curtains, and inside the cabinets, although somewhere in the back of my mind I already knew exactly what I was going to find.

Nothing.

I turned toward the doorway.

Cecilia stood there.

“Nothing?”

I shook my head.

“Keep going.”

We had barely turned the corner when I felt it.

Someone was there.

I stopped so abruptly that Cecilia nearly walked into me, and my attention immediately fixed on the figure standing at the far end of the hallway.

The king.

He stood completely still, watching us from a distance with an expression that was so calm it immediately made every instinct in my body tense.

There were no guards surrounding him.

He wasn’t running.

He wasn’t even holding a weapon.

He simply stood there as though he had been waiting for us to reach that particular corridor.

Cecilia stepped slightly closer to me.

“Kael…”

I didn’t wait.

The beast reacted before my mind had time to catch up, and I launched myself down the corridor toward him.

The king didn’t move.

I had barely covered half the distance when a guard suddenly stepped out from one of the side passages, his sword already swinging toward me.

I barely registered him.

Then Cecilia screamed.

I turned my head.

The sword had gone straight through her.

For one impossible second, everything seemed to stop.