Chapter 12 Dove
twelve
Dove
My mouth is dry like it’s filled with cotton.
I try to swallow, but no saliva pools to loosen my vocal cords.
“Rrr—” I try my best to rasp out again roughly, but I can barely get past the R of his name.
My whole body lies slack. I twitch my hands by my side.
And that’s not the oddest thing—my vision seems to be tunnelling down a large hole.
I blink a few times, trying to right my gaze, but each time I do, it stays the same.
Walls close around me, a panic setting in.
What is going on? None of this feels right.
Last night, I fell asleep next to Rivern.
Then I was dreaming about Fury. During my dream, I was ripped away from him.
Even Argus feels weary in my chest, unable to gain the strength to fight.
What am I fighting? Rivern said we were safe.
The silvers didn’t seem like they wanted to hurt us.
They offered us food and shelter. Moyrie even seemed interested in helping us in our plight.
My heart beats rapidly. I try my grounding technique, which was taught to me many turns ago. I can barely feel my limbs, just an odd fluttering of my fingers and toes. The sounds around me are a murmured humming until they turn sinister, fraying my already cracking nerves.
A hiss—not just one, but a continuous crescendo—finds me in my tunnel.
Stay calm, Dove. Don’t freak out. The mantra plays in my head, a heavy weight falling on my chest. The worst part is, I know this can’t be a dream.
If I were dreaming, Fury would be here, making himself known.
Through that fact alone, I know this is my reality.
“Dove?” It’s a question, like his voice has been trying to find me.
“Fury?” I try my best to send the words to him through the foggy strings of our bond.
“Pet, where are you?” It’s not a roar, but a softly spoken promise that he will find and rip the head off anyone who hurts me. As his words hit me, a shiver rolls through my body. I sense, for the first time, that I’m naked.
Whoever took me pulled me straight out of bed, putting me in this place without a stitch of clothing. Knowing I have nothing covering my body is alarming in a whole new way. “Fury, something is wrong.”
And how can I hear him this time, when I couldn’t before?
“Your power is growing and our connection is becoming stronger.” He answers my unasked question.
Thanks to my prone body, I’m facing upwards, unable to move, my gaze focused straight ahead, down the tunnel that continues threatening to close in on me, pondering those words.
Noises beyond the hissing start to trickle through.
My eyesight slowly begins to move from a tunnelled blur to crisper outlines.
“Where is Gideon, Pet?” Fury’s voice is firm yet somehow comforting as his words travel through me, filling my tired bones with new vigour. My arms and legs gain some movement.
“I was asleep with Rivern… Now, I’m waking up paralysed and naked.
I don’t know where Gideon is. You created him.
Can’t you tell me where he is?” I snap back in my mind.
I don’t want to sound curt, though he is the God here.
The fact that he keeps losing me when we are bonded for my protection makes my hackles rise.
“Due to my diminished powers and considering your distance, I can no longer watch you as I did within Haven. I now rely purely on our connection until you draw nearer to me. I’ve never been able to see much beyond the coastline that stretches the land closest to the isle I’m imprisoned on.”
That’s just great. The words fall through my mind, inadvertently finding Fury.
A growling comes through the bond. I feel his anger. Not anger for me—for the situation we suddenly find ourselves in. For a moment, his walls drop. I feel his desperation to be here, to protect. However, that feeling is immediately replaced, gone as if it never existed.
“Fury—” I start. A rumbling through the air cuts me off, the sound echoing down my tunnel. I sigh heavily, knowing only one beast could make that spine-tingling noise. Gideon.
Since conversing with Fury, my body has gained more feeling, so I try pulling myself up.
Now, I can see the hell I’m cocooned in, the hissing still prevalent around my body, drenched in sweat.
My skin is overheated from the poison—or the suffocatingly heat-drenched air.
Argus unfurls within my chest. I push up on my arms, struck with the gut-clenching scene surrounding me.
“Fury?” My voice is unsure in my head. He didn’t reply to me before, and I’m afraid I might be alone down here with …
with them in a deep pit, a hole of endless roughened walls.
I don’t know how I even got down here. Getting out seems impossible in my current state.
The circular space I’m in is wide enough for the snakes to form a ring around my body without touching me.
“I’m here. You’re never alone, Pet. I’m always here. Gideon will get you out of there.” Unease washes over me. How will Gideon get me out of this place? A loud hiss comes from my right. Sparkling seaweed green eyes find mine, a black, forked tongue coming out of a small, hissing mouth.
“Oh, shit,” the words slip out of my chapped lips.
I quickly plaster a hand over my mouth. Do I scream?
Do I stay silent? There are hundreds of snakes making a circle around my body, just out of reach, like they are giving me space, barricading me in.
I don’t want to scare the creatures and make this worse for myself. This is far from a good situation.
Finally able to sit, I bring my woozy body into a crossed-legged position, resting my head in my hands. A low thumping comes from the back of my skull, my stomach a swooping mess, like I want to vomit. Otherwise, I feel fine.
“Draw your power, Pet.”
“What power?” I push against my temples.
“The fire that runs through the bond. It will strengthen you. It will burn through any lingering pain, just as it is allowing us to speak now.” Fury’s words are steady, hiding the anger I know he feels underneath.
Drawing on the bond, I follow his instructions, my scared body willingly opening to him.
Argus is wide-eyed and bucking within my chest cavity, ready to release some fire when he feels the wash of power down the bond—God power.
Even though it is dimmed, it is enough to right my human form.
Tugging on the power, Argus roars his fire, my limbs sizzling with heat and life.
I’m awash in Fury—his wrath, his revenge, his obsession—just enough light to suffocate the lingering poison in my system.
Pushing from the ground, my body now holds the energy of a fallen God, both my headache and my sickness gone. A hush descends around me. Not even a hiss can be heard.
Until I hear them…
“They didn’t attack her.”
“She still lives.”
“Seraph.”
That word again. It moves around me, another hush descends, and a broad, furry creature falls before me within the pit I’m stuck in.
Clawed fingertips find my body, pushing me into a warm, heated torso, fur tickling my skin. I don’t even have time to look into his eyes before Gideon shoves me against him, shielding me from the snakes that are still around us, not a hiss to be heard.
In his wolf-shifted form, we cannot communicate, so I grip my hands around his body, clinging on, digging my nails into his fur, inhaling the woodsy spice of my beast. His heart is racing roughly against my ear.
He stands holding me, his large frame a veritable monster standing on two legs—legs that showcase his running power. No doubt, when he is on all fours, he could outrun a horse. In every way, he looks like a wolf, but standing like a human on two legs gives away his humanity.
“I’m okay,” I whisper into his skin, a shuddered breath coming from the wolf gripping me tight.
Looking up, I see dark eyes staring down at me.
“Princess?” The word is unsure, but I know exactly who it is. A grin splits my lips.
“Rivern.” I sag in relief, finally hearing his voice. I may be able to feel him through our bond, but it will never replace the relief that encompasses me when his words hit me. My stress is no longer for my own being, but the fae prince I’m bonded to. Hearing his voice is a sweet kind of ecstasy.
“Oh, my love.” The relief in his voice is palpable. “I wanted to jump down there as soon as I saw your body, but the silvers were holding us at daggerpoint. The wolf and I were about to rip their heads off. It was about to turn into a bloodbath up here.”
“I’m glad it’s not. What is going on?” I don’t release Gideon as I continue my internal conversation with Rivern, slowly letting our pressed bodies comfort each other until I hear a purring grumble move through his chest.
“Moyrie just kept saying ‘Seraph’ over and over. I gather this is the test. I don’t fucking like it.” He doesn’t have to tell me. This is a strange way to verify that I’m the Seraph.
I’m just a woman from the Kingdom of Haven. The only reason these snakes are frozen around us right now is because they, too, feel the power from Fury within me. I am not the God here. My doubts of whether I’m even still worthy of being bonded run deep.
“You are.” The words wrap around me.
Who was that? Rivern or Fury?
Suddenly, the hissing resumes within the pit—this rhythm with more vigour—and my thoughts are forgotten.
I peek out from the black-furred chest I’m buried in, finding sharp, green faces staring at us.
They don’t look happy. Gideon picks my body up so I’m no longer standing on the sandy, slightly wet floor.
With my head now near his, I can’t help but trace the outline of his wide, snouted jawline.
His teeth snap, making me flinch back before a loud growl releases from his lips.
The snakes cease their hissing.