Chapter 25 Dove
twenty-five
Dove
Thump.
Thump.
Thump.
The sound seems to be getting closer and closer, vibrating the water underneath us, ripples forming every beat of the travelling sound.
“Rivern?” I question the bond holding us together. This time, I get nothing. He’s alive. Probably better off than me and Moyrie, by the sounds of it.
“Can you blow the bottom off the cage?” Moyrie asks, also concerned about the increasing thumping coming from below us.
It’s dark up here in our cage of doom. I’ve been trying to find the reserves of the God magic within.
It doesn’t come easily this time. I still don’t know what spurred it on the last three times I used it.
The feeling is there, lingering on my bond strings connecting me to Fury.
Grasping it and holding on is another matter entirely.
Each rhythm the power has worked through me, I’ve felt a bone-deep exhaustion afterwards. Not that it stopped me from pushing forward. Running on barely any food or sleep was a daily occurrence for me in past rotations, especially as our rations became smaller and smaller in Haven.
The darkness is cloying up high like this. There’s a dripping coming from the water that slides down the sides of our prison, grating on our souls. I want the rage to come, except I find flashes of luminous green eyes, a darker shade than my own, glaring back at me.
It’s not real.
It’s not real.
I repeat the mantra—my lifeline in this turmoil.
When I was younger, I found my sister’s voice and latched onto it, pushing away all the images that kept me scared. With her voice gone, her face keeps finding mine, and pictures I never want to see glide past Argus’s sleeping form.
It’s my fault. I left. Now this is happening. I should’ve stayed. I got swept away by the idea of freedom and love.
I’m on the cusp of losing it all again.
“Dove, Dove!” Small but firm hands grip my shoulders, shaking me.
“What?” I frown at Moyrie.
“You were muttering and pacing. It didn’t seem productive.” She quirks her nonexistent eyebrow. I rub my eyes.
“Sorry, I thought I saw something.” Remembering her last question about blowing off the bottom of the cage, I tell her I can try.
Reluctantly, I reach for bond number two. “How do I summon the power?”
“Do you need me, Pet?” Fury seems awfully chuffed with himself, considering I’m the one who is meant to save him. I’m stuck in a cage, dangling over an ominous pool of water that continues to make unusual thumping noises.
“No, I need power to blow the bottom off this cage so we can escape,” I huff the words internally. A trickle of anger dances before me—I grasp it. That’s exactly what I need. “Tell me you hate me.”
“What?” He’s caught off guard. That makes me smile.“Why would I… Right, I see,” he says before I need to answer, somehow understanding my intentions thanks to our connection. That thread that binds us grows increasingly stronger with every turn. Unfortunate.
I hold onto the bit of rage that wells below the surface whenever I interact with my God.
“Hate is such a strong word. I think I would rather show you with my claws and teeth and cock—” He trails off, no doubt a smirk on his lips that I want to bite off. “You can bite any part of me, Pet.”
Fuck, really? Does he think now is the rhythm to start the sexual innuendo with me? I’m stuck in a cage hanging—Ooooh. The feeling is there in my throat, that fiery need to snap back at him working its way into my lungs, plumes of smoke threading their way through my blood.
My blood sizzles. My body vibrates. “More,” I whisper down the bond.
“You’re desperate to be my good girl, aren’t you, Pet? To sit at my feet like a good little bonded mate and worship at my cock. Mmm… I would have you suck it so good. Your pussy would be dripping.”
I… I…
“I would NEVER. Keep dreaming, asshole.”
“I won’t have to dream, Pet, because soon, you will be on your knees, begging for me to fill that wet cunt.”
My body is a living furnace. “NEVER!” I scream the word in my head. That laid-back chuckle hits my ears. I want to punch him in the face.
“Send that power into the cage, Pet.”
Clasping and unclasping my hands, fire heavy in my throat at the rage I want to direct at Fury, I open up my palms, aiming at the floor.
Moyrie senses the shift in me, standing to the side.
“Pet, I hate to inform you, but the next rhythm we meet, I’m going to be cock-deep in your pussy so fast your head is going to spin.”
“Argh, bastard!” I aim at the floor. The sick thing is, I know none of what he is saying is a lie. It’s truth bomb after truth bomb. My core burns just as much, if not more, than my heart. I imagine my anger pushing into the iron below our bare feet.
BANG. It’s quick, reverberating through the air. My ears ring. Our cage swings. A snapping sound accompanies the loud force. It’s not enough—
We are now swinging violently. I give it my all for the second time, ire a deep well in my being, overflowing and ready to come out to play.
BANG.
The God magic flows from me again, followed by some more cracking of our cage.
“I think it’s loosening the bars,” Moyrie exclaims. She holds her hands to her ears to protect them from the splitting sound that follows every rush of power.
Just for good measure, I release the power for a third time. Third time’s the charm. That’s what the priestesses always used to say when they were praying to the Goddess. Pray in threes.
BANG.
RING.
ROAR.
My eyes go wide, finding Moyrie’s. “What was that?”
“Fury? We aren’t alone.”
That’s all I manage to get out as I look down beyond the bars and the bottom of the cage that is barely holding on, to find tentacles, surfacing from the deep like dark arms and springing out of the water, reaching for us.
“The kraken,” Moyrie murmurs in shock.
It happens so fast I barely register the shouting in my head to use the power. Fury shouting. Strange, I don’t think he’s ever shouted before.
Two thick tentacles with suckers trailing their lengths latch onto the cage, squeezing tight and popping the busted bottom off.
Moyrie grasps my hand before I fall into the grips of the six other waiting tentacles.
I look up to see her hand firmly latched onto one of the bars, yet she’s slipping. There’s no grip.
“USE YOUR POWER,” Fury shouts, finally reaching my ears.
He can sense my distress. I thought he’d be calmer when faced with my ultimate demise. What I feel coming down the bond now is anything but relaxed. He’s pushing his rage into me. It floods me down the bond.
My fingers zap with electricity. HOLY FUCKING GODS.
I feel invincible.
My body is electric.
This sensation surpasses all the other times he shared his magic with me.
The thrum of my heart against my rib cage is a beating drum. It’s like he is right there with me. Every thought, every fear, every unknown is no longer mine but his and vice versa. My God, who forced me to bond with him, is so much more than the prison he has been entombed within.
He can create life.
He is life.
Yet, he is also the darkness that surrounds us—that is what calls to me. I want to grasp onto the darkest parts of him and bleed them dry. It’s where we have always met, and where I feel his strength—our strength.
This is beyond what I thought the bond could feel like. He’s the deep yearning for love I’ve always wanted, made reality. Yet, it’s him, and he forced me into something I wasn’t sure about. I shouldn’t want him.
I hate him.
This is too much.
All of it is too much.
When you’re faced with the reality of all your dreams coming true—the dreams you never once thought of because you were never allowed to hope, dreams that were nothing but wisps on the wind—what do you do?
Do you hold onto them with all your might, or do you let them pass you by, knowing that to hold them tight takes a type of strength and endurance only a healed heart can possess?
I don’t know if I have that kind of strength anymore.
Rivern is one thing. But Fury? He’s an immortal God on the precipice of finally being free. Fury is too much.
Too much.
And at that thought, I release it.
I release his power into the water below, where the tentacles of the kraken fall.
In the large, rocky chamber, the echo of an unforgettable force hitting the surface catapults us into the water, the kraken going limp, far-reaching tentacles winding back under the surface.
Now, in the endless cold again, my head bobbing above the water, my feet kicking frantically underneath, I panic, realising I have no idea what I’m doing.
I don’t know how to swim.
Considering the sputtering next to me, Moyrie has no idea, either. Before my body drags me down, I take one large gulp of air, my head sinking under.
Fear grips me tight. My lungs burn for a whole new reason. They will want to release the air I stored soon, and I have no idea how to go back to the surface.
“Fury?” I reach for that fizzling tether, but like a burnt-out fuse, it fizzles into nothing. “Dammit. FURY.” I am counting on him.
Here I am, falling further and further into an abyss, and I have no way of reaching him.
“Rivern.” My lips try to open, but I force them closed, searching down the bond.
Frantically, my legs push back and forth below me, trying to boost me up.
He doesn’t answer back. Instead, I get that same feeling of pain in my head, this time just above my right eye. I touch the space, almost expecting to find a wound, but the skin is smooth, unblemished.
Where are you both?
I want to scream. But I can’t let the air out of my lungs. It is all I have left.
Here I am, drowning, and neither of my God-bonded mates has anything to say. Goddess.
Looking around, I can’t see Moyrie, either. No twinkling scales. No swishing tale. Nothing.
Everyone has just disappeared.
Madly moving my hands in synchronised movements above my head, my body begins to move slowly. It’s too slow. I’m too slow. Fuck, how do people do this?
Tentatively, something soft moves against my ankle, sending my heart into a frenzy.
It’s just a fish, Dove.
I don’t know if that’s comforting since I’m dying in an endless dark blue.
Proving my statement wrong, the smooth, snake-like thing grasps my ankle and pulls. Once again, I don’t have time to think.
My mouth opens.
Water replaces the air in my lungs.
Everything goes black.