All Chapters of Caged by a King: Chapter 11 - Chapter 20

Elowen descended the stairs from the mage tower, but the tower did not loosen its hold on him. The mark inside Theon’s glass sphere, the jagged symbol formed from ancient curse work, lingered in his mind like an unwelcome memory.He had seen that mark once before. It had been carved into a stone arch in the eastern wildlands, a place the elders refused to discuss. They whispered that the arch belonged to a forgotten age when magic shaped souls instead of guiding them. No shifter ever lingered there for long.Now, the same symbol had appeared inside the assassin who had tried to kill the king.Elowen walked the palace corridors without purpose. The halls blurred around him. Nobles avoided his gaze, guards bowed stiffly, while the servants looked at him the way small animals looked at fire, with fascination edged in fear.He should have felt satisfaction. Once, he would have. But everything about this place unsettled him in ways he had not expected.A voice interrupted his spiraling tho

Somewhere above them, Valdris roared.Elowen heard it through stone and distance as if the palace itself had a pulse. Boots struck floors in uneven rhythms. Every so often, a sound rose too high and broke too quickly, which meant someone had screamed and then stopped.Corvin did not slow. He moved through the tunnel with the certainty of someone who had memorized these routes in childhood and carried them into war. His sword remained in his hand, point angled downward, ready to rise in an instant.Elowen followed close enough to feel the warmth of Corvin’s back in the cold air. The wound at his side throbbed with each step, but he kept his breathing even. He had learned long ago not to let pain become a voice.The tunnel narrowed, then widened into a chamber where the ceiling lifted and the air grew damp. Water dripped somewhere in the dark. The smell of earth and old stone pressed into Elowen’s senses, heavy and ancient, as though this place remembered the first crown that ever sat i

The palace above them did not fall silent all at once. The noise receded in uneven waves, shouts breaking apart into commands, commands into echoes. When Corvin finally lifted his head from the stone door, his expression had shifted from alert to intent.“Tavris has control,” he said.Elowen watched him closely. “How do you know?”“The cadence changed,” Corvin replied. “Mercenaries do not shout orders like that, guards do. Tavris is pushing them back wing by wing.”Elowen exhaled slowly. The tension in his chest eased, though it did not disappear. “Then we are not trapped.”“We were never trapped,” Corvin said. “We were delayed.”He slid the iron bar free and pressed the concealed latc

The restrictions came quietly.Elowen noticed them first in the morning, when two guards waited outside his door instead of one. They did not follow at a distance anymore. They flanked him, close enough that he could feel the scrape of their armor when he turned too sharply.He said nothing at first.The palace had learned to watch him the way hunters watched fire, not moving too close, not turning their backs. After the attack, fear clung to the walls, and no one trusted shadows anymore.But by midday, the pattern was undeniable.Doors that had once opened for him now required a word from Corvin’s seal. Corridors that had been neutral ground became redirected paths. Even the gardens were off limits, closed “until further notice

Elowen did not return the way he came.He moved through servant corridors and narrow passages where torches burned lower and shadows gathered thicker. The palace felt awake in the wrong way, as if it had learned how to listen. Every sound carried farther than it should have. Every glance felt like it lingered longer than it should.He kept the sigil clenched in his fist until the edges bit into his palm.When he reached the mage tower, he did not bother with polite knocks. He pushed the door open and stepped inside.Theon looked up from his table, already alert, as if he had expected Elowen to come running with blood on his hands.“You found something,” Theon said.Elowen crossed the ro