Chapter 52: Alkan - Fated to the Night King

I’d followed her trail easily. Between the additional power the Mantle of Night gave me and the protection from the sun I’d been blessed with through my connection to Sena, I’d arrived at the Citadel without expending too much energy. Even though Night was still hours away. But that was information Thalon didn’t need to know.

“He claims you stole something from him, Sena. That he’s here to take it back.” The shifter leveled his gaze at her, and I wanted to snarl when his elder son reached out and stroked a strand of her hair between two fingers. He had no right to touch her. And by the way Sena went still, I was sure he’d been the one to hurt her the most when she was part of this pack. “Is that true, little one? Did you steal from him?”

I sent a pulse of reassurance through the bond, and watched it land from the corner of my eye. Her breathing evened out and she straightened her shoulders enough to tell me some of her fear was ebbing away.

It had been a gamble, my decision to walk up to the gates of the Citadel, but it had been a calculated risk. Thalon would want me brought before him. That much I was sure of. He liked dramatics, to show off. Forcing his enemy to kneel before him would be exactly the kind of thing he’d draw satisfaction from. It might even distract him enough to give Sena enough time to find the ones she was looking for and administer the treatment she’d brought with.

“I did.” When my love spoke, her voice was low, but not weak. “You sent me to look for proof of the origin of the Silver Sickness. I found it.”

Thalon smiled and every part of me ached to cut the male’s head off. Seeing the effect he’d had on Sena, the brutality and horror she’d endured during her time here, every protective instinct I had was alive. And with the Mantle of Night around me, it was harder to see reason. Harder to stay the man I’d become before I’d cast off the cloak that made me an executioner and claimed the crown that made me King.

“Of course you did. I’d expect nothing else of you, sweetling.” There was a spike of emotion radiating from Sena and I recognized it as revulsion. She’d been called that in painful times.

Hugh, the eldest son, pushed the tip of my sword deeper into the skin of my throat, and the smell of copper rose up into the air as he broke the skin. “We should bring all the Whole in to watch this, Father. Let them see him brought low by a Stricken bitch.”

I snarled, my lip curling, and began pulling in the strings of darkness that hung about the cavernous room. Shadowed corners, hidden nooks, the darkness that lurked in those forgotten spaces answered my call, moving slowly. Snaking across the floor and ceiling without notice. Waiting for the right moment to strike.

“I’ll be happy to welcome you back properly, Sena, once this is done. Calla was fun, but she hasn’t learned to handle pain as well as you. Yet.” Hugh turned his attention away from me, the sword dropping just enough, and that’s when I gave the order, releasing the restraints and letting the darkness have its way.

Thick, tendrils of night swarmed over Hugh, his big frame bulging as they trapped him. He screamed, but the sound was muffled by the weight of my magic. Given form, given direction, and ready to feed.

I rolled away, scooping the sword up off the floor where it had fallen when Hugh dropped it, and met Thalon as he descended from his throne, blocking the blow of the jeweled staff he held. Gold and covered in jewels, it was heavy, but it had no real power imbued in it. A false god, he was. Alpha in name only.

Sena rushed toward me, ducking under the arm of the younger male, one who seemed to want to avoid hurting her. It bought him a reprieve from the edge of my sword. A short one, at least.

I knocked him back, my arm wrapping around her waist and pulling her against me. I brushed a kiss against her temple, then whispered a reminder. “They called you weak but forgot you were born with claws. Don’t be afraid to remind them.”

The bond between us thrummed with energy, and I let her go. She had a fight to win, and I was here to witness her rise. The young male, Cass, tried to reach for her, to pull her out of the room, I was sure, and she growled at him, slashing at him with claws that gleamed silver. He screamed, pain given voice, and there was no mistaking the sizzling scent of burnt skin mixing with the copper of blood.

He fell back, cradling his wounded arm, and stared at her in stunned surprise.

Thalon stood, immobile as he took in the sight of her half-shifted form and gaped. “How?”

“Your secret is a secret no longer. All these years,” said Sena, hurt and anger and despair all melding together in her voice. “All this time, you could’ve stopped it and still, you kept on. It was never enough.”

He swung his staff at her again, aiming for her head, but she slid back out of his reach easily, her wolf instincts guiding her now. Hugh twitched in the grip of my power, and I smiled at him, showing my fangs and promising myself that I would exact my own punishment for what he’d done to her. All in good time. Let him see what the woman he’d tortured could do first.

Sena slashed at Thalon as she circled him, the scent of spilt blood amplified with each strike that landed. Sure of his power, though, he raised his head, seized on the only magic he had, and issued a barking command.

“Sena. You. Will. Submit.”

I felt the attempt at control, the compulsion he loaded behind the words. It weighed them down, made them heavier as he threw them at her.

And all she did was smile.

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Smile, step in under his guard, and bury her claws in his stomach.

“No. I will not.”

Thalon’s eyes went wide at the proof he held no sway over her any longer. He’d been a fool, taking in a child who would be Alpha on her own someday, and thinking he could rule over her forever.

She looked him in the eyes as he wavered on his feet. The silver imbued in her claws poisoning him more every second she held them inside his gut. Pain transformed his features, and I felt it in the air when he tried to shift, tried to force his healing, and couldn’t. Because she wouldn’t let him go.

Cass cried out, watching his father die before him. And Hugh thrashed, trying to break free.

Another false prophet waiting in the wings. Sure of his place.

A throne taken from him by direct challenge.

Sena shoved Thalon down until he was sprawled on his back, blood seeping out around her hands, and she waited.

Until he stopped begging, stopped bleeding.

Stopped breathing.

When she stood again, she was still the woman I loved, but she was more. She was the Alpha she was born to be. A leader her people could look up to. Trust. And she would return their fealty with true protection. I watched as she hooked her claws around the chain Thalon had worn, an old piece of heavy gold, and with a powerful yank, tore it off him. She stared at it, closing her hand over the pendant, and bowed her head.

It was important to her. That much was clear.

A second or two of remembrance, maybe even grief, was all she allowed herself before she stood and faced what remained to be done.

Her eyes had bled to wolf, and I knew that when she was able to fully shift, she’d be beautiful. Moving with a wild grace, she stalked over to where I held Hugh tight, the tendrils of Night suffocating him slowly. The bond told me that Sena recognized that kind of pain and it made me want to tear the man to bloody pieces. That he had such a prize before him and treated her so poorly.

“What do you wish, ey ruhum?” I said the words softly, but still caught her attention, and I felt her love flow through the link we shared. Gratitude, as well. That I’d trusted her to face the fight she needed to finish. Allowed her to heal.

Sena stepped close to Hugh, dragging in a breath, then smiling with her teeth bared. A wolfish display of warning.

“He deserves to suffer,” she finally said, and the man strained against the bonds again, trying to break free. Night is strong, though, and it would take a lot more than the likes of this one to defeat it. “He deserves pain. He deserves terror and agony. He deserves to feel everything he made so many others feel. That he made me feel.”

Hugh tried to scream, opening his mouth, but darkness spilled inside, muffling the sound.

Sena shook her head, and I knew when she’d made her decision.

“But I am not you, Hugh. I will never be you.”

Then she sliced her claws across his throat.

A merciful death.

His blood spilled out, coating the shining floor that was covered in gore, and I held him in place as his final struggles faded away.

When he was dead, I released him, and his body collapsed in a heap.

“Sometimes, justice requires blood.” Sena stood beside me, looking at the carnage she’d been able to create in bare minutes.

“It does.” She’d get no disagreement from me. “But how you spill the blood matters. You did well here, my love. Their deaths were earned.”

She nodded, leaning against my side, and I wrapped my arm around her. Even through the Mantle, I could feel her warmth, radiating into me.

We stood there, together, our bond burning brighter than it ever had, and I was able to relax once more, my soul whole again.