I peered at a drying bloodstain to my right, and wondered if another pair had made it out before us.
I stared at her, breathing hard. My knees buckled, but Kaelric caught me.
The assembled council didn’t speak, didn’t cheer. They simply watched.
Like predators studying prey.
But I was still standing.
And that would have to be enough. For now.
Chapter Fifteen
The train groaned beneath us as it pulled away from the arena, steel wheels shrieking like the mountain didn’t want to let us go.
I sank into the corner bench of our shared compartment and closed my eyes. The soreness in my legs felt permanent, like my bones had been swapped for iron rods. Kaelric sat across from me, freshly cleaned but still pale, his jaw tense like he was expecting an ambush at any second.
We didn’t speak for a while. The silence wasn’t awkward. It was tired. Heavy. We’d survived something unholy and now had to pretend to be normal again.
Whatever that meant.
I stared out the window as trees blurred past in smears of green and gold while we made our wayhome. Every now and then, my fingers found the edge of Valkaryn’s hilt and held tight.
'Home,’I thought, though it didn’t feel like one. Not anymore.
A knock came at the door. Kaelric rose, cautious, but it was only one of the wolfkin. The male had a dark auburn braid down his back with the sides cropped short and a thin scar across his cheek. He was the House of Thornevale heir’s bonded wolf.
He stepped inside like he belonged there.
“Forgive the intrusion,” he said, his Fenmyr accent clipped and light. “I thought you’d want this.” He held out a folded note.
He nodded to the wolfkin, and then he left. Why did they all treat Kaelric like he was in charge?
Kaelric opened the note and scanned it, his face falling. He then took a big sigh, ripping it into five pieces and throwing it out the window.
“Bad news?” I asked, observing him.
He peered at me with those intoxicating green eyes. “Could have been worse.”
I frowned.
“I thought you didn’t need messengers. That you could…” I tapped my mind.
He nodded. “I can. To fellow wolfkin, and you, now that we are bonded. But not to… this person.”
My brows bunched together. “Why do the otherwolfkin treat you like… I dunno… like they work for you?”
A slow cocked grin pulled at his lips, and my stomach did somersaults.
‘Because they do.’He chose to send that mentally, as if demonstrating some power display.
I opened my mouth to ask another question when he cocked his head to the side.
“I have news of your mother,” he said suddenly.
I lurched forward, skidding across the space between us and perching right before him.
“Tell me.” My body was tightly coiled, heart beating frantically in my chest.
