Chapter 39
Her Circumstances Have Changed
Enzo
One Hour Ago – Grypheem
Enzo hadn’t been in the right headspace since landing in this country, or perhaps it went before that, back to when everyone learned his darkest secret, or maybe it was when he first touched her. Pushed his cock in her pliable body.
Into Raven’s.
I hate you, Raven.
The thought circulated but never landed. Time and time again.
And then he had fucked her again. His nightmares fueled by the delirium-soaked wet dream of pumping twice into her tight—
“Enzo.” Maverick snapped his fingers in front of him. “Come on, I need to go to the library again, I am so close to understanding this country, and I need your company, Oleks is busy with the wedding. Ivan still hasn’t made his move, but I imagine he will soon.”
Enzo didn’t want to go. Didn’t want to think about the wedding. Didn’t want to be here any longer. Didn’t think Ivan was in this country at all. There hadn’t been a single trace of him.
“Sure.” They had been hidden off in a room on the same floor as Griffin’s. Confined to their space, rarely leaving except when this area of the castle was assuredly empty. He had seen Raven from a distance but hadn’t spoken to her.
And last night, the screen in his room had flicked on to the video of her being—
He shook his head. “I’m ready, let's go.”
Maverick opened the door, but he froze, and Enzo joined him.
The sight of Raven in her wedding dress pulled his attention first, but then it dragged to the man holding her wrist. She was on the very opposite end of the hallway. Too far away to understand or hear what was going on.
When the man began to wrench her towards the secondary stairs, when it was clear she was fighting him, it instinctively propelled the brothers forward. But another person appeared before them.
Amelia.
She raised her hands, her one visible eye widening as she looked back over her shoulder. She shook her head, her arms crossing in an X. It was clear she didn’t want them to continue.
But anxiety wouldn’t allow Enzo to remain stationary any longer, he easily side-stepped the injured woman, running after Raven. Not caring that he was acting recklessly.
He heard two other sets of feet behind him as he sprinted. As he made his way down one set of stairs, he searched the dining hall but didn’t see her. He continued down the long hallway, a noise drawing his attention to another set of hidden stairs.
Descending those next, he realized at the bottom that following after her blindly was a terrible idea.
He stood in the doorway petrified by the sight before him. By the man holding Raven. By the one staring at her. By the dungeon they were in.
“There’s my special bird.” The man’s voice across from her was monotone and dull.
“Ivan.” Raven was terrified.
Ivan.
It was too late for Enzo to turn back. Ivan found his eyes, his lips curling upwards. “Amelia located you two, just as I requested.”
Enzo was paralyzed, his brother at his back.
They needed to leave. To run. To escape.
“Leave her alone!” Levi’s shout was unexpected, but it came from further in this grimy space.
Enzo’s attention flashed to it for a single instance to find Levi in a miniscule cage before returning to Ivan.
“Birdie, I figured this time I should have friends for you. Instruments in your lessons.” He snapped his fingers and more men appeared from the shadows creeping forward, sheer masks covering their faces.
By the time Enzo’s brain made the decision to fight, it was already too late. Four of Ivan’s men had him in their hold.
“You don’t need them,” Raven barked. “It’s me that you are after.”
Ivan approached her, a long bony finger brushing the bottom of her chin.
Enzo struggled against his constraints, attempting to go to her.
To escape this. He knew once Ivan had them, they were as good as dead.
Raven’s stories had landed in the deep recesses of his mind, a source of pain and fear, and Maverick’s had not been much better.
“Perhaps. But there is always space in my house for more pets. In fact, I lost quite a few after you left.” Amelia walked past Enzo until she stood by his side.
“Amelia?” Raven asked. “Why?”
“She’s not Amelia.” Maverick answered from beside Enzo, gruffly as he was shoved forward onto his knees. “Is she?”
Ivan laughed, slithering back from Raven and focusing his attention on Maverick.
“I knew you were special. No. This here is the mother of the child Raven killed. The one who died because of her unfortunate escape.” Ivan’s hand landed on the woman’s shoulder.
“Her daughter died, and she tried to defy me. Nothing a bucket of acid couldn’t cure. ”
A single tear dripped from the woman’s unbandaged eye.
I’m sorry, she mouthed.
It was clear she hadn’t had a choice, and if anything, she had attempted to keep Enzo and Maverick from coming down here. She had tried to stop them.
“You did a great job, pet. But unfortunately that was the last I needed from you. I can’t trust a broken vessel.” Ivan moved swiftly. If Enzo had blinked, he would have surely missed the knife in his hand. The swipe across her throat.
The blood appeared a painted line across her neck. Ivan released the woman, allowing her to drop to her knees to the dirty ground. She didn’t attempt to cover her wound, or to fight.
Her death was silent.
“No!” Raven sobbed, falling to the woman, gathering her in her arms. The wedding dress she wore was stained crimson. “I’m so sorry. I’m so sorry. I’m so—”
Enzo remained frozen, but Maverick attempted to shake the hands off of him, turning and twisting against the ones holding him. He landed a punch to a jaw, a foot to a shin.
“Subdue him. Administer it,” Ivan said.
“No, stop!” Enzo shouted, horrified. Another man in the same sheer mask approached from further in the dungeon. He moved nimbly across the shadowed space, a needle in his hand as he marched directly towards the struggling Maverick.
“You will rot for this,” Maverick screamed. “They will find us and it will be the las—”
The drug was instant as it was plunged into him. His mouth loosening around his rage. His eyes met Enzo’s.
A single desperate plea. A connection of absolute terror.
“Her too.” Ivan angled his head towards the sobbing Raven, clutching the now dead woman. “I can’t handle her hysterics.”
“Stop!” Levi shouted loudly, shaking the bars of his cage. They wobbled and creaked with his strength, but it wasn’t enough. “Enzo, you have to keep her safe! Keep her alive. Please, you owe me this!”
The man with the syringe pulled another from his coat and dropped fluidly down. He pressed it into Raven’s neck.
She fell forward onto the dead woman, her sobs disappearing into the air.
“Him?” the man asked, facing Enzo.
Enzo could just make out bright golden eyes through the mask, but nothing more.
Ivan approached Enzo, eyeing him speculatively.
“No, leave this one. I think it will be the start of the fun to leave one aware of what is happening. Hey there, Enzo. The three of us are going to get really well acquainted. But first we need to ship off to Violencia. Thankfully we have the connections to do just that.” Ivan bent down, scooping Raven easily into his arms. “Three of you Clear the space ahead,” he directed.
The men who had been holding Maverick broke off and hurried away, deeper into the dungeon.
Ivan began walking further into the dungeon in their direction, passing a screaming Levi.
“Please.” Levi’s plea was broken, the croak of a dying creature, a heartbroken man.
Enzo inclined his head, but didn’t speak. He couldn’t. This was too much.
They continued their path for an endlessly long time until they opened to the back of the castle. A bridge separating them from a large set of carriages.
But Drago stood in their path. Three of Ivan’s men were already there.
“You can’t take her!” Drago proclaimed.
Relief skirted across Enzo’s skin. This would be it, he would save them, he would stop this.
Ivan chuckled, tightening his hold on Raven. “We had our agreement. This is what you wanted. A reason for Griffin to remain by your side in your fight against Violencia.”
Enzo’s blood froze as he whipped his attention from the king to Ivan.
But it was all coming together, why there hadn’t been any sign of Ivan, why it had been so easy to go missing, how he easily crept onto the ship.
Ivan had help.
“Her circumstances have changed—” Drago began.
“You are too late!” Ivan cut him off, raising his free hand into a fist.
Two of his men near Drago moved in a flash, pummeling the king. Beating and punching and kicking him. The third crept away, back towards the castle, but Ivan didn’t make any move to stop him.
“Leave him alive, but only barely.” Ivan marched forward towards the carriage, getting into one with Raven still in his arms. He turned back before the door shut. “Enzo, this is only the beginning. I hope you are ready. I hope you can prove to be as special as the others.”
The door slammed shut and Enzo was dragged into a different one.
Stuffed into the small space with Ivan’s men.
His breath hiccupped out of him as his brother wasn’t brought in with him.
He would be alone, again, just like before.
His vision blurred, pain stabbing sharply at his psyche as the carriage began to roll away. His attention went out the window just before it was shut and all he could make out was a field of hibiscus’s, creeping out of the snow.