33. Chapter 33
thirty-three
Rodi
M y head pounds like crazy, my body sore and broken. My hand rakes through my hair, and a hiss leaves my lips when I touch something on my neck.
Gently, I brush my fingers on the spot, following the outline of the mark. Wait… Mark.
Slowly, everything comes back to me. How Cedric—no, Hephaestus—has trapped me in this world he created. But I can’t remember him marking me.
“Finally, you’re awake,” his voice snaps through the air, and I flinch. A shiver moves down my spine.
“What have you done to me?” I sound hoarse, and my throat burns slightly.
Dark laughter echoes as he edges closer, stepping out of the shadows that surround him.
I try to move away when he reaches for me. His eyes change to his dragon’s, and an impatient growl rumbles in his chest as he grabs my hair and pulls me with him.
I scream and fight in his hold, kicking at his legs and trying to loosen his hold on my hair by scratching at his hand.
It’s all in vain as he drags me over the cold floor and tosses me against a wooden dresser.
“Get her ready,” he says to a young woman who peeks through the old oak door.
“Yes, Aetherion,” she whispers, her red hair covering her features as she hesitantly inches closer.
Aetherion? I clench my eyes shut as my head rings. Memories resurface, words, thoughts, and the haze that had his grip on me fades.
No, Ares is the Aetherion.
“What have you done?” I spit out and crawl to my feet.
“What have you done to my mates?” I ask as his spell on my mind lifts. My fists pound on his back, and he turns, quick and sharp, and I fly across the room as the back of his hand connects with my face.
My skin burns and breaks, and my gaze hardens.
“You aren’t his!” he bites and crawls back into the darkness, leaving me alone with a trembling Netherling.
Silence lingers in the space as I glare at where he was standing, hurt tears pricking at my eyes. I’ve never felt this much pain, physical or emotional, before, and I can feel myself edging toward my breaking point. I feel so… weak.
Will I ever get to be free?
“Come on, let’s freshen you up.” A sweet, caring voice falls from her as she pretends nothing’s wrong.
“Don’t touch me,” I grit as her fingers brush over my arm, and she winces back. I narrow my eyes at her, seeing her as part of the enemy. She’s doing what he wants.
“Draconis, we need to get you ready,” she says, the edges of her voice breaking as she stares at me with icy blue eyes.
“No, Ares and Ethan will come. They’ll find me.” I hear my own words echoing around me and remember what happened to Ethan.
My throat closes and tears sting my eyes. He has to be okay. That world wasn’t real. But as I trail my fingers over the mark on my neck, doubt takes root inside me.
“They are both dead, Draconis,” she says as pity edges on her features.
“No… No, they can’t be. Ares marked me. I should have felt his death,” I stutter under my breath as I shake my head, panic starting to grip me. I can’t live without them. They’re a part of me, and I fear that I’ll rot away if we can’t be reunited again.
“Please, Draconis,” she tells me with nervous eyes. She reaches for my hand, and I hesitantly take it. With a gentle nudge, she lifts me to my feet and leads me to the mirror in the corner of the room.
As she steps beside me, she brushes my hair to the side, revealing my neck, and gestures for me to look closer.
Tears roll down my cheeks. My chest tightens as there’s no scar from what I did, no mark from Ares, only Hephaestus’s mark. I shake my head in disbelief and stare at my own reflection. His mark doesn’t belong on my neck.
“Then we have to find our way out of here,” I say with newfound determination .
I will not submit. I don’t need to remember my past lives, or the one before the curse. But I remember the tales of the gods, and I could never love Hephaestus. I might have loved him once, but I see what he is, a cruel man with a foul soul. Hephaestus is a hateful, destructive being, and I believe only death will stop him. He’ll never give up, which is what worries me the most. No amount of negotiating can stop this chaos.
“I need to get you ready, Draconis.” The Netherling’s voice pulls me out of my thoughts.
“For what?” I ask her.
She gulps as my gaze pierces hers. “The other Dominions are here to pay tribute to their new Draconis. With the Aetherion Ares’ death, Cedric is taking his place and claiming back whom Ares stole from him,” she says, not daring to break eye contact.
“Stole from him?” I snort, raking my fingers through my locks, detangling the knots.
I chose to leave Hephaestus. When it came down to picking the person who truly loved and cared about me the most, it was Ares. It’ll always be Ares when against Hephaestus.
“Aetherion Cedric explained that you might still be confused. When he saw you, the bond flickered to life, but Ares took you away before the same happened to you.”
A menacing laugh rumbles. I can barely believe the words she’s telling me. “He made the other Dominions believe that? That lie?”
Her lips quiver as she casts her gaze down. “He has multiple testimonies from Ares’ staff saying you never recognized Ares or Ethan as your mate, and that’s why you never claimed them as yours.”
“That bastard,” I hiss as I hear his twisted lies. He’s tearing apart my life, acting as if there won’t be consequences down the line .
“Draconis.” She bows her head, her form shaking in fear, and I hate myself for scaring her.
“What’s your name?” I ask, my voice gentle as my shoulders slump.
“Nyra,” she mumbles.
I inch closer, take her hand, and tug it softly. “From which clan are you, Nyra?”
Her icy blues snap up, and the fear I thought I saw fades as her gaze hardens. “With everything that happened, I got moved around after the last Mates’ Convergence, but I’m from Slatebane Clan.”
Lies. Thick lies.
My lips curve as I nod. “Let’s get me ready.” My smile is fake as I realize Nyra isn’t to be trusted, not when she lies about where she is from.
She can’t be from Slatebane Clan, seeing as I grew up there. However, I keep those words and all others to myself. I’m not sure where my dragons are, which means that I have to look out for myself right now. I have to be smart.
An hour passes, and a soft knock on the door makes Nyra edge away from me. The lock from the door turns and it slowly opens.
A tall man in black warrior attire steps inside and his eyes sweep around the room. As they land on me, he bends his neck. His dark brown curls bounce forward, and a redness glints in his locks.
“Draconis,” he says stiffly .
“What do you need?” I ask, watching him closely as Nyra doesn’t move from her spot. My fingers curl into fists, preparing myself for whatever comes next. Another fight? A possible helping hand?
“Are you ready? They are waiting for you.” He straightens, his arms tugging behind his back.
“I don’t need a guard.” I flash him a suspicious look, my nose wrinkling up. I don’t feel safe here, but I don’t want one of Hephaestus’s guards so close to me.
“I’m Sentinel Ripley. I’ve been assigned to you as your personal guard. Where you go, I go.” A smile crosses his features. A softness radiates from him, but I’m not sure whom I can trust here, who can perhaps help me escape Hephaestus’s grip.
“With whom does your allegiance lie? The Draconis or the Aetherion?” I rise to my feet. The dress Nyra forced me to wear clings to my body. The white cotton fabric drags over the stone flooring as my hair is braided tightly against my scalp, ensuring that everyone sees the fresh mark Hephaestus created.
A slight twitch forms between his brows, but he says nothing and gestures for me to step out of the room to wherever Hephaestus wants me. He won’t give me anything. No clues. No information. Nothing.
I’m still in the dark. Alone.
I sigh in defeat and walk past him into the dimly lit hallway. The last thing I want to do right now is be presented and fawned over as Cedric’s rider. It’s all a lie. But I don’t have much of a choice right now.
I take a deep breath and lift an eyebrow. The scent of water brushes over my nose, and I wonder with which clan we are staying.
“Where are we, Ripley?” I ask as he strides past me and takes the lead down the corridor.
“Riversong Clan, Draconis. ”
Riversong Clan, the lands where all the rivers and streams come together. A soft laugh falls as I remember Dominion Zorn. It isn’t something to laugh about, how he died, how he touched me, but it feels so, so long ago.
Ripley glances at me as I shake my head. “Who took over Dominion Zorn’s place when he… died?”
“After he was brutally murdered by Ares?” he huffs, his jaw tightening. “Aetherion Cedric did. He stepped up to bring order and to ensure no one could kill another and get away with it so easily .”
My throat dries as I take a slow breath. It wasn’t the best moment to laugh, it seems. Sure, it wasn’t the best course of action, but to be fair, Zorn was a piece of shit.
He used his dragon call to make me submissive and eager for his touch, all while I believed we riders had no control over our heats, never knowing it was these shifters’ doing.
“It’s a shame what happened to Zorn, but to take advantage of your call, to make a rider do your bidding… well… I don’t respect anyone who does that.”
His light gaze flicks to mine, and that slight twitch between his brows is back.
He scratches the back of his neck uncomfortably. “I know that you’ve been confused and maybe still are, Draconis.”
“Are you calling me a liar?” I stop in my tracks, and Ripley follows. My eyes narrow as I face him, anger burning within me.
He blinks at me, unsure of what his next words might be. I edge closer, my brows creasing together as I stare up at him.
“Say it again!” I spit as anger coils inside me. I’m unsure where this defiance rises from, but I can’t stop this itch, this nag at my skull telling me I should fight harder .
He visibly swallows. “We’re here, Draconis,” he says, nodding to the door on my right.
My rage fades as my stammering heart draws the anxiety forward, not knowing what to expect behind that door or how I can escape my fate.