Chapter 20
Chapter Twenty
Joy
I leaned my head against the cold stone wall, the rough surface scraping against my scalp like sandpaper. All hope died in that moment. I was completely defeated in this godforsaken place.
The man’s chains clinked musically as he shifted to look at me, the sound unnaturally loud in the oppressive silence. “Don’t mind me asking, but who are you?”
I sighed heavily, my breath visible in the frigid air like a ghost escaping my lips. “I’m nobody.”
“Come on, tell me your name at least.” Surprisingly, his voice held a warmth that seemed impossible in this frozen hell. “I’ll tell you mine—Darius Acosta.”
I studied him through the flickering torchlight that cast dancing shadows across his features.
He didn’t have the otherworldly beauty of the Unseelie courtiers—no pointed ears or impossibly perfect bone structure that made them look like living sculptures.
His face was rugged, human, with dark stubble shadowing his jaw and laugh lines that spoke of a life before this nightmare. “Are you an Unseelie?”
He snorted, a sound that bounced off the stone walls and returned to us like mocking laughter “No, thank god. I’m a Golden Demon.”
Fear shot through my veins, and I pressed myself against the wall, trying to put distance between us despite the chains. “You’re in league with Ari?”
His silver eyes blazed with such fury that for a moment they seemed to glow in the darkness. “Hell, no. He’s the fucking enemy. I’m a Golden Demon, not a fucking Dark Demon.” His hands clenched into fists, the chains cutting into his already raw wrists.
“Is that fucker here?” Darius’ voice turned deadly quiet, filled with venom.
What little fight I had drained out of me. “Yes, he’s the one that forced me to come here.”
He blinked in confusion, his brow furrowing. “How did he open the portal? I’ve been trying for years to get back.”
“He didn’t.” Shame burned through me, and I had to force the words out. “I did. Ari promised to kill the man who means everything to me unless I did what he asked.”
“Sounds like the fucking Ari I know. ”
“You’re from Earth, aren’t you?”
“Yeah, but to be honest, I don’t remember much of it anymore.” His expression grew haunted, hollow, as his gaze swept our stone tomb. “This place...it has ways of changing you, making you forget who you used to be.”
My skin prickled with unease that had nothing to do with the cold air. “What do you mean?”
He leaned his head back against the wall, staring off into nothing. “Reality becomes fantasy and fantasy becomes reality. After a while, you can’t tell the difference between what’s real and what this place wants you to believe.”
“You don’t remember anything about back home? Maybe like a family?” I searched his face desperately. If Darius remembered our world, maybe he could tell me things about my father, about what really happened. Information I desperately needed if I was going to survive this place.
His silver eyes grew distant, pain flickering across his features like shadows.
“I vaguely remember fragments—a woman’s laugh, the smell of coffee in the morning, sunlight through windows.
” He shook his head roughly, as if trying to dislodge cobwebs.
“But all I’ve been doing for god knows how long is trying to escape the fucking queen. ”
My stomach twisted with dread. “Why are you here? What did you do?”
His jaw clenched so hard I could see the muscle jumping beneath his stubble. “Because she’s got this sick obsession with me; she thinks I’m her mate.” The words came out like poison, filled with disgust and rage.
I gasped, my chains rattling as I jerked back in shock. “Really? Why would she think that?”
“Ever since she first laid eyes on me, she’s been hounding me like a wolf stalking a buck.” His hands curled into fists, knuckles white with suppressed fury. “But she’s pure evil. Twisted. There’s no way in hell I’d ever be with that monster, even if it meant freedom.”
“So she locked you up?”
A bitter laugh escaped his lips, echoing hollowly off the stone walls.
“I’ve escaped her dungeons more than once.
Guards get complacent, make mistakes, and I’m gone like smoke.
” His eyes gleamed with fierce pride despite his current predicament.
“I’m fast—super fast. Superman fast. Sometimes I think that’s the only reason I’m still sane in this nightmare. ”
“I’m so sorry. That’s terrible.” The words were inadequate, but I meant them with every fiber of my being. No one deserved what he’d endured.
But fear crept in behind my sympathy. If they’d done this to Darius—broken him, tortured him, stripped away his memories—would they do the same to me? How long before I couldn’t tell reality from illusion? Before I forgot Enzo, forgot myself?
Yet...he’d escaped. Multiple times. That meant it was possible. Even from this nightmare, even broken and chained, he’d found ways out. If Darius could do it, maybe I could too.
He shrugged, but I could see the pain he was trying to hide behind the casual gesture. “What’s done is done. Can’t change the past.” His voice grew harder, more focused. “So what does Ari want with you? Why drag you into this hellscape?”
I swallowed hard, the taste of fear bitter on my tongue.
“He wants to restore the Dark Demons to power. Complete dominion over all the supernatural realms.” My chains clinked as I shifted, trying to find a more comfortable position that didn’t exist. “He doesn’t want any of the supernatural races to have mixed bloodlines. He thinks we’re all...contaminated.”
Darius’s expression darkened. “Sounds like Ari, the sadistic supernatural supremacist.”
“He’s obsessed with Gunnar Khan. He wants to turn him back to what he was—some kind of killing machine.
” Shame burned in my chest as I remembered what I’d been forced to do.
“I...I had to help capture him. Gunnar had fought so hard to protect his wife, Ebony. He was willing to sacrifice everything for her. And I’d been the one to deliver him into Ari’s hands—back to the people who wanted to strip away his humanity and turn him into a weapon. ”
“Ebony?” Darius frowned. “I should know that name. Damn it, I can’t remember.”
“What about Gunnar?”
He jerked back. His entire body went rigid, and he whispered the name again, as if tasting something half-remembered. “I know that one.”
“Wait.” He shook his head as if trying to clear cobwebs from his mind. The name had finally registered, cutting through the fog. “Gunnar Khan—you said Gunnar Khan? The former Dark Demons’ healer?”
“Yes, yes.” Excitement flickered through me. Maybe he could help me find a way to stop Ari.
Darius shook his head slowly, his eyes unfocused as he stared at something I couldn’t see. “Long blond hair? Blue eyes? Some kind of intricate tattoo covering his chest?”
“Yes,” I said, recognition flooding through me. “He’s got blond hair and blue eyes. I’ve never seen his tattoo, but I heard it’s a dragon.”
“It’s coming back—talking about it helps. I remember more now.” Darius’ voice grew stronger as memories surfaced.
“Please, please keep going.”
“For what I remember, Gunnar was evil, twisted by his father into something monstrous. He was a healer for the Dark Demons, but he was also their most deadly weapon. Gunnar has the ability to kill you just by touching you or he can heal you, depending his choice.”
Terror shot through me. Ari wanted to turn Gunnar back into that—a weapon that could kill with a single touch. Enzo wouldn’t stand a chance. None of them would. I had to find a way to stop Ari before he succeeded.
“And he chose to betray his father? Why?”
“He came to our side because my brother, Armond, healed him.” Darius’ expression grew wondering. “My twin brother—how funny how I’d forgotten him when he’s the most important person in my life.”
“Are you a healer too?” My mind raced with possibilities. If Darius could heal, if we could escape this dungeon together, and I could open the portal—he could heal Enzo and the others.
Darius shook his head. “No, I’m not a healer. I’m a runner.” He winked. “Faster than the speed of light.”
Maybe all wasn’t lost. He might not be a healer, but if he was fast, maybe that could help us escape this place.
“Ari said Gunnar could heal Enzo. He was entangled in magic vines that were literally ripping him apart. He’s a made vampire and practically immortal, but Ari said he would eventually die without help.
It had something to do with his tattoo. Is that true? ”
“Possibly. You never know with Ari—he tells just enough truth to make his lies believable.” Darius’s eyes grew distant as more memories surfaced. “Gunnar has a tattoo on his chest of a Cantan Dragon—Hades.”
“You’re kidding? The tattoo dragon has a name?”
“Yeah. When Gunnar calls him, he peels off his chest. Hade’s small but fierce as hell.
” A genuine smile crossed Darius’s face for the first time since I’d been chained next to him.
“He has the ability to heal anyone infected with dead demon blood.” His chuckle echoed off the stone walls. “Ari’s actually afraid of him.”
Hope surged through me so powerfully it hurt. Gunnar could save Enzo—actually save him. And Ari was afraid of him. That meant Gunnar had power, real power. If I could just get to him before Ari’s spell completed, before Gunnar was turned back into a weapon...maybe there was still a way to win this.
But then his expression darkened, the brief moment of lightness vanishing. “Hades is bound to Gunnar’s soul. If Gunnar goes dark, so does Hades. They would be almost unstoppable if Ari manages to change them both.”
“Tsk, tsk, Darius.”
The mocking voice slithered through the darkness like a blade against skin. “Giving away all of my secrets?”
Ari emerged from the shadows, his pale face gleaming in the torchlight, Queen Alanna gliding behind him like a cobra ready to strike. The room seemed to shrink around them, the air thickening with menace.
My heart plummeted. They were here—both of them. Whatever they wanted, whatever they’d come to do, it wouldn’t be good. I pressed myself back against the wall as far as the chains would allow, every instinct screaming danger.
Darius yanked on his chains, the metal rattling in a desperate, furious rhythm. “Fuck you, Ari.”
Ari’s laugh was low and cruel, a sound that made the hairs on the back of my neck stand on end. “Watch your tone, boy,” he sneered, taking deliberate, leisurely steps closer.
“I’m not a boy,” Darius growled, his teeth clenched, muscles trembling with restrained fury. “Not anymore.”
Ari tilted his head, mock amusement flickering in his cold eyes. “So it seems.”
“Enough.”
Queen Alanna’s voice cracked through the tension like a whip. She stepped forward, an actual whip curling in her hand, its dark leather gleaming with a promise of agony. “Time to pay for your insolence, girl.”
My throat went bone dry. I couldn’t swallow. Couldn’t even breathe.
Shitshitshitshit.
“Leave her alone, Alanna!” Darius roared, spittle flying.
But I couldn’t move. My shadows—my last line of defense—remained stubbornly dormant. No whisper of darkness answered my call, no surge of power. The air left my lungs in a rush, and I swore my heart simply stopped.
“I don’t think so,” Ari said smoothly, as if Darius’s rage amused him. He prowled toward me, his smile a wicked curve of possession. “It’s time you learned your place.”
“No!” Darius kicked out wildly, chains clanging, but Ari stayed just out of reach as he unchained me. His hand clamped around my arm, fingers bruising, and I stumbled helplessly as he yanked me forward.
“Let her go!” Darius bellowed, the sound thundering like a war cry in the stone chamber.
Ari didn’t even glance at him. He dragged me across the room, my heels scraping against the cold floor, until we reached the looming whipping post. The stink of blood and sweat clung to the wood, and bile burned the back of my throat.
The manacles snapped shut around my wrists, just above the binding bracelets, locking me in place. A cold, sinking dread rooted me to the spot.
“You bastard!” Darius snarled.
I twisted my head around. Queen Alanna stood there, her lips curved in a sadistic smile, eyes glittering like jagged shards of glass.
The first crack of the whip split the air.
I squeezed my eyes shut a second before it bit into my back. Fire lanced through me, and a strangled gasp tore from my throat. My teeth ground together as I fought not to cry out, the taste of copper filling my mouth.
Another strike. And another.
Each lash ripped through flesh and willpower alike, my screams tearing free no matter how I tried to hold them back. The world narrowed to nothing but pain and the cruel rhythm of Alanna’s laughter.
When the next blow fell, the agony shattered something inside me, and I screamed a single name—a desperate plea that rose above all else.
“Enzo!”