Chapter 34
My eyes are still adjusting to the unsettling darkness as we trudge through the abandoned tunnel.
I run my hands over my arms, but it does nothing to stave off the icy chill of the air.
According to Ajax, nobody uses the interlinking tunnels beneath the palace anymore, making it easy to come and go if you know that they exist.
“So, you and the prince are…”
I turn to find Finn making a gesture with his hands that is anything but appropriate. I slap his hand away.
“I said that we’re mates, not that we’re sleeping together.”
“Isn’t that the same thing?” Finn says.
“It’s the same thing,” Ajax throws over his shoulder as he steadies himself against the slickened stone wall. I hope he trips.
Athriel seems to find this amusing.
“It’s not…we’re not…Gods, I’m not sleeping with the prince.”
“You’re not?” they both sing in unison as they stop walking to look at me.
“No, we’re not.”
“That explains the sexual tension,” Ajax says.
“Oh, they have sexual tension. I love it.”
I push past them, making my way down the dark passage as my eyes squint to make out the path ahead.
“Will you two shut up? We’re not talking about this.” They hurry to catch up with me, both standing on either side of me, and I already know that I’m about to hate this conversation.
“I’m only saying that mates who don’t…you know. Well, they suffer.”
“Suffer how?” Finn beats me to it.
Ajax shrugs.
“Mates are literally made for each other like a perfect fit, and when they don’t come together, it can be hell for both parties.”
“I wish I had a mate. That sounds kind of hot,” Finn says. “At least I know why you didn't come back to me. You have a mate. I knew my sex wasn’t the problem…you were.”
I roll my eyes and try to ignore Ajax’s chuckling.
“Wait, you two hooked up?” he asks, laughing.
“Once,” I say.
“You better never let Karius find out about that,” he tells Finn.
Finn hurries to catch up with him, stumbling over a fallen rock as he goes, but Ajax catches his arm smoothly.
“Why? He wouldn’t kill me or anything, right?”
Ajax shrugs.
“I don’t know. You’ve left your scent on his mate. It could end up driving him insane, and the only way to stop it would be to kill the source.”
Finn’s eyes widen in horror. “And I’m the source, right?”
Ajax nods apologetically.
“Shit. I told you not to bring me here, didn’t I? Now I’m going to be killed for no other reason than being skilled with my dick.”
Ajax howls with laughter at this, spluttering as he tries to catch his breath.
“I’m joking,” he says. “I honestly have little idea how the mating bond works. There hasn’t been one in over a century.”
Finn places a hand on his chest and blows out a breath.
“So, the prince isn’t going to kill me?”
“Oh no, he’ll definitely kill you when he finds out, but I doubt he can still scent you on her.”
“Ajax, stop,” I warn, and I see the mischievous grin on his face. And part of me is not sure whether Karius will actually kill him.
“Sorry, he’s just so easy to wind up.”
“Thanks,” Finn says, throwing up his hands. “Glad I could be of entertainment to you.”
I can’t help the smile that slips onto my face as I watch the two of them.
We continue on mostly in silence, Finn asking the odd question as we go.
I let out a sigh of relief when we finally exit through a door that leads us outside.
I take in the cool air as it tickles across my skin.
It’s been so long since I left the castle that I almost forgot what the touch of air on my skin felt like.
“So, what now?” Finn asks.
Ajax gestures to a path ahead of us.
“We follow that path down there, and it’ll lead us to a gate. We’ll have to climb it, but it will take us to where we need to go.”
“Climbing is not really my thing,” Finn says.
I roll my eyes.
“Tonight, it is,” I tell him.
We move quietly through the shadows. Ajax assured us that the guard who is supposed to watch this area is always slacking and that we should have a wide enough window of time to escape undetected. We’re almost at the gate when I notice two figures standing in front of it. I freeze instantly.
“Ajax,” I whisper, interrupting the conversation he and Finn were just having. Both fall silent as he steps forward, looking into the darkness.
“Get behind me,” he tells me, but I ignore him. Finn, on the other hand, scampers behind the two of us, his breath coming in sharp and fast. I refrain from rolling my eyes. I’ve never met someone who loves to protect themselves more than he does.
We move forward quietly toward the unmoving figures. Why are they just standing there? Surely, if they were guards, they would have announced themselves by now and questioned what we were doing. Just then, I hear Ajax suck in a breath and curse.
“What?” I ask, but the answer comes in the form of the two figures stepping out of the darkness and revealing themselves. Kaia and Piper.
“Tell me you weren’t about to do what I think you were?” Kaia says in Ajax’s direction, and he folds his arms across his chest, staring at her in challenge.
We don’t have time for this. Fighting Ajax was one thing; I’ll never be able to do the same with Kaia.
You underestimate yourself, Athriel says.
No, I’m just not a fool.
“Please go back inside and pretend you didn’t see us, and just know that we are doing what needs to be done,” he tells her.
Kaia’s eyes narrow into slits. “What needs to be done? And you think sneaking her out of the palace, knowing her connection to the prince, is what needs to be done? Damn, Ajax, I knew you were stupid, but I didn’t think you had a death wish.”
My eyes meet Piper’s, and she must see my surprise at her being here.
Her eyes soften in an apology that tells me that there is more to her being here than I know.
I want to be angry with her for trying to stop me, but she never acts without reason — and that only makes it harder.
If I must fight my way out of the palace, I will.
Even if it means taking her down. We need that final ingredient to cure Willow, and I will stop at nothing to get it.
“Finn knows how to make a cure,” I interject, and all eyes fall on me. Kaia’s intense stare pierces through me as though she is searching for a lie. “To get it, we need to leave now.”
“And go where exactly?”
I consider lying, but it’s only going to make her challenge us more.
“It’s called the shadow market. What he needs isn’t exactly legal.”
She laughs. Actually laughs.
“Have you been there before? Do you know what that place is like?”
I shrug.
“I don’t care. I’m getting that ingredient.”
Anger flashes in her eyes as she steps toward me, but I straighten my back. We may have been training together and even shared a few civil conversations, but I know there is still a part of her that doesn’t trust me.
“You’ve spent the last year murdering vampires and ripping out their fucking fangs like trophies, and now you want to help us find a cure for impures and prevent a war that could kill us all?
” She shakes her head. “And don’t tell me that it has anything to do with your bond because, believe me, if anyone will survive another war, it’ll be Karius. ”
“Her sister is becoming one of them.”
I snap my head in Ajax’s direction, the anger of his betrayal clear on my face. His eyes soften as he looks at me.
“She isn’t going to let us go any other way,” he tells me. He turns his attention back to his sister. “She doesn’t want to see her sister become one of those things, and I’m going to help her make sure that it doesn’t happen. So, if you plan to stop her, then you’ll have to fight me too.”
They stand in a silent stare-off as the tension lingers in the air, and we wait. After what feels like an eternity, Kaia turns her attention to Finn.
“You’re sure that what you need is there?”
He only nods. She sucks in a breath, and then her eyes meet mine.
“You better hope he’s right.”
“This isn’t going to work,” Kaia moans as she looks down at herself. I have to bite my lip to stop laughing.
After she and Piper agreed to join us, Finn broke the news: the shadow market is an illegal human-run venture, and if the humans catch wind of vampires there, they’ll flee — and we won’t get what we need.
That’s when he pulled out his special concoction.
A glamor, he called it. A piece of magic that makes things look like something they’re not.
The exact one Amabel takes, he told me. The problem is that it also dampens their powers, which Kaia was definitely not happy about.
“These people are the ones that sell magic on a daily basis, so if anyone is going to know that you are not who you say you are, it’s them,” Finn tells them. “You need to get this right.”
“And what the hell is right?” she sneers.
“You all walk like…vampires,” he tells her, and this time I can’t hold my laughter in.
“What does that even mean?” Ajax asks.
“You just have this air of…arrogance and power.” Kaia charges toward him, and he holds up his hands. “I didn’t say that it was a bad thing, it’s just not a human thing.”
“So, you’re telling me that you create all this stuff from our venom?” Ajax’s eyes widen in horror.
Finn shrugs. “In theory, vampire venom is just raw magic. It can be used for many things if you play around with the amount you use and what you mix it with.”
Ajax shivers. “That gives me the creeps.”
“It’s actually how humans got the upper hand in the middle of the war.”
“They never got the upper hand,” Kaia says defensively.
“Ok, sore subject. Let's go back to practicing walking,” Finn says.
My mind trails off as they all continue squabbling about whether they look human enough.
What is bothering you, young one?
I shake my head.
I don’t know. I just have a bad feeling. Something weird in the pit of my stomach.
I think you humans call it nerves.
It’s not that…it’s…it doesn’t matter. I just want to get this over with so that when we finally find Willow, we have a way of helping her.