Chapter 281: Sandwich Boy Got The Call

Before Nicholas Shadowfell was blasted with dark magic, two very cranky dragons were storming through Shadowfell Keep. Thankfully their Master Mage had made a portal anchor there a day prior.

Why Shadowfell?

They needed a mage named Brennan because he could trace Luminari portal signatures, the only play they had left to find Guinevere Lunaris before the Luminari did.

Rewind six minutes before that and they were in middle of a room full of feathers with the Luminari Kingsguard.

"If one of your men lays a hand on my wife, Velkaris will consider it an act of war," Maddox said to the Commander. "And I will personally burn whoever does it. She is the future High Queen of Velkaris. Touch her and your kingdom learns what dragonfire smells like from the inside."

After they filed out, the healer looked at Kael one final time.

"The dark magic appears to be purged but the wound itself needs another day to close fully, Young Dragon."

Kael had looked at the man who had spent the last twelve hours pulling poison out of his body while a soap opera, a dragon tantrum, and an arrest warrant happened around him.

"Thank you," Kael said. He meant it entirely.

Maddox glanced at Kael. Two words. No sarcasm. No commentary. Kael Ashenvale had just thanked someone without a punchline and Maddox considered marking the date.

The healer gave a single nod and left with the Luminari Master Mage, who, to his credit, stayed silent the entire time the kingsguard was there. Maddox noticed the silence because that Master Mage likely had the ability to backtrace Guinevere’s light signature. But he stood against the wall and kept his mouth shut and Maddox appreciated it.

That gave them a head start.

✦✦✦

SHADOWFELL KEEP - THE MASTER MAGE’S QUARTERS

Jaxon knocked once.

The door opened in under four seconds. Brennan stood there in pajamas, hair looking like a bird’s nest after a hurricane, eyes still half-asleep. Then he snapped to full attention because Jaxon Valerios, the Dragon King, and his ex-boss, Kael Ashenvale, were at his door.

Jaxon didn’t need to say a word.

The mage who had punched through seventeen Luminari failsafes while eating a sandwich was already pulling on his boots.

He brought a mask for good measure. Career had drilled three things into him. First, always bring a fucking mask. Second, if you need it, you should’ve brought two. Third, do not sneak up behind Alpha Shadowclaw in a dark alley with a mask on, because it might scare him.

✦✦✦

LUNARIS KEEP — GUINEVERE’S CHAMBERS

"Can you trace it?" Jaxon asked.

"I can feel it. There are layers. The light signature is hers, that’s obvious, it’s enormous. But there’s something underneath that’s pulling it. Like a current under a river. The dark magic isn’t just contaminating the trace, it’s participating in the transport. Whatever moved her used both her light AND the infection as fuel."

"Can you portal to where it landed?"

Brennan’s face scrunched. His fingers worked the residue like a man kneading dough he couldn’t quite get the consistency of.

"I wouldn’t trust a portal built on this. It’s too volatile. If the dark magic component destabilizes mid-transit, everyone in the portal becomes a smear across three dimensions. That’s less of a risk and more of a certainty."

Jaxon looked at Brennan with the expression of a man who had just heard his own assessment echoed by someone he had written off.

"Agreed," Jaxon said quietly. "It’s too unstable to replicate."

That’s when Kael stumbled.

His hand hit the wall and his eyes went distant, the color draining from his face so fast Maddox was already reaching for him.

"I can see her," Kael breathed.

His eyes were open but they weren’t looking at the room. They were looking at something else entirely, something on the other side of a connection that was working again.

"Shadowfell just got hit. Something hit him in the chest. He’s down."

Maddox’s jaw set. "That means she’s in Greyhall Crossing."

"Please tell me you set up an anchor along the way, little brother."

"Two of them," Maddox and Jaxon replied in unison.

✦✦✦

GREYHALL CROSSING - PRESENT TIME

If Guinevere had a list of things she expected to do tonight, broadcasting a proverb through every wolf mind in a five-block radius while gagged was not on it. But here they fucking were.

"Nice trick with the light show, sweetheart." Tharos adjusted his grip on her, blade still at her throat. "But the cuffs are dragon iron, warded, and silver-lined. So whatever flame shit you’re cooking up in there can save itself the embarrassment."

Tharos listed the cuff specifications like a salesman going over the premium package. Dragon iron, warded, silver-lined. All he was missing was the monthly payment plan.

Guinevere’s mouth opened and spoke into the gag, but the voice that rang in every wolf’s mind was not Guinevere Lunaris’s voice or a woman’s voice at all for that matter.

"It’s not her you should be worried about, dipshit."

The temperature in the corridor dropped ten degrees. Unbeknownst to Guinevere, every wolf in Greyhall Crossing heard it.

"Who the fuck was that?" Tharos’s grip tightened.

Guinevere blinked, confused, because she thought she was the only one who could hear imaginary Kael and Tharos had just acted like he could hear him too.

The overlap between ’hostage’ and ’shared psychotic episode’ was a new development. But apparently, she and Tharos had both hit every branch of the crazy tree.

The silence after lasted two seconds. Two seconds was long enough for Reed to press his fingers deeper into Nicholas Shadowfell’s neck, hold them there, and look up at Damon Tavian with an expression that carried no ambiguity whatsoever.

He gave a solemn nod.

That was the signal. Reed had prepared for this moment but prayed it would never come. The prayer lost. But he was not going to leave Nicholas’s side. That part of the protocol could go fuck itself.

His hands stayed exactly where they were, two fingers on the pulse point of a king who no longer had one, his body positioned between Nicholas and the world.

Damon received the nod the way a man receives a crown he never wanted.

Something shifted behind his eyes. The Beta who ran on composure and damage control and the quiet art of making things work was gone. What replaced him was something the Shadowfell wolves had never seen and immediately recognized anyway.

Acting Alpha.

"Every Shadowfell wolf holds position."

His voice was steady. The authority in it was borrowed from a man on the floor and carried by a man who intended to return it. There was no grief in it yet. Grief was a luxury that came after the threat was handled and the threat was still holding a blade at the throat of his Alpha’s mate.