Chapter 18
Rylee
I wipe the tears from my cheeks as we make our way back to the palace. I don’t dare look in a mirror because I’m sure I look like death. Luckily, we don’t run into any of the ball guests, and instead head straight for the dungeons below the palace.
Pierce, Jax, and Axl cast me concerned glances as we make our way down a set of spiral stone steps, golden torchlight illuminating the smooth rock as we descend.
My heart beats hard in my chest, my head pounding with the rhythm.
I’m still free of my mates’ powers, which is the only solace I can take from the night’s events. I halt on the steps, my chest tightening.
Pierce slides his hand along my back, patient. Quiet. All three of them know better than to ask me to sit this one out. I’m with them. Now and always.
Even if I’m out of control.
Fear prickles the back of my neck, and I tell myself it has everything to do with the dungeons and not whatever happened back there.
Bodies. There were so many bodies.
I cringe, forcing the thoughts away.
Another smooth wave of calm washes over me, and I flash Jax a grateful look. If not for him filling me with the emotion, I don’t know if I’d be standing right now.
The air feels thick as we clear the last step, infused with the smells of wet stone, packed dirt, and something putrid.
I pause as the dungeons stretch out before me. “I’ve been trying to avoid this place my entire life,” I whisper, an icy shiver skating over my skin.
It’s cold down here, the stone walls leeching any warmth the torches create.
And the space goes on forever. Paths are chiseled from rock with evenly spaced bars for doors among them.
Cells.
My stomach turns.
Pierce takes my hand, gently tugging me down a path to the right. “Kal and the prisoner are this way.”
Axl presses in on my opposite side, Jax at my back.
Their support gives the illusion of safety, but the farther we twist and turn, the worse I feel.
We pass prisoners in their cells, some sleeping, others watching us quietly from the dark corners.
One snarls at us as we walk by, and another hums while rocking near their bars.
I wonder which prisoners are demis.
How many innocent people are wasting away in the dark? People who crossed borders they weren’t supposed to? Wore clothes they weren’t allowed to? Stole food to avoid starvation? Used a power they were born with?
Acid fills my stomach. Another item to add to my ever-growing list of responsibilities once the Legends ascend the thrones. I’ll need to research the history of the prisoners here and ensure they’re where they belong.
What will I say to them if they’re innocent? How can we possibly mend what’s been done to them?
As we turn a corner, relief pools in my chest at the sight of Kal, but it quickly ebbs once we’re close enough for me to see the stern lines of his face.
“Has he said anything?” Axl asks, peering into the cell.
I follow his line of sight, spotting the Fader lying unconscious on the dirt floor.
“Occuli healer just left,” Kal says, arms folded over his chest. “He should wake soon.”
I take a step closer, then pause as power slams into me. “Damn it,” I groan as Jax’s ability returns to my body. Emotions flood from each of them, and it’s all I can do to not buckle under the weight. “I didn’t mean to take it,” I explain to Jax.
“It’s all right—”
A loud gasp cuts Jax off and snaps all of our attention to the Fader, who is no longer asleep.
The Fader scrambles around on the dirt, hands splaying and searching for something before he reaches for his head. Fingers spear into his hair, and his eyes widen as he looks up at us. He drags his nails down his face hard enough to draw blood.
“Goddess,” I whisper, taking a step back.
Axl bangs on the bars. “Knock it off.”
The Fader goes still at his command, then bursts out laughing.
“You are under the control of the Legends of Chaos,” Kal says, his voice nothing like the soft, sweet tone he uses with me.
This is the Legend rumors spread about. The one who steals dreams. He pries open the barred door and closes it with a clang behind him.
“Cooperating with us will be very beneficial for you.”
Tension coils in my stomach at how close Kal is to the Fader, but I hush that anxiety with the knowledge that Kal is fully in control of his power. I can feel it on the other end of the bond—strong and unflinching.
I hope I don’t take it by accident.
The Fader leaps to his feet, and the rest of us instinctively move toward the cell.
But he doesn’t go for Kal.
He slams himself into the stone wall on his left, then races to the one on his right to do the same.
“Fuck is wrong with this guy?” Axl asks.
“Stop,” Kal commands, but the Fader isn’t listening. I’m not even sure he can understand Kal in this state. “Stop,” he says again.
The Fader doesn’t stop. Each leap he takes into the wall is more intense than the last.
Stone cracks beneath the force of his hit before he speeds into the next wall, his movements abnormally powerful.
Kal snatches him up by his uniform, preventing him from crashing into the stone again.
“Is he a demi?” I gasp, adrenaline crackling in my veins.
Kal holds the Fader aloft. The man goes limp, drool pooling from the corner of his lip. “We don’t know,” Kal answers. “The Occuli checked him for marks, but he has too many scars to truly know.” He dips his head, studying the Fader’s eyes more intently. “Shit,” he hisses.
“Enhancements?” Pierce asks from my right.
“Eyes dilated. Incoherence.” Kal glances at the massive crack in the stone wall. “Abnormal strength.”
“Shit,” Axl says.
Kal does his best to gently set the Fader down on a small hewn bench attached to the farthest cell wall. He crouches when the Fader makes no move to jump again. “What is your name?”
A small laugh. The Fader’s eyes loll back and forth like he’s following a trail of something we can’t see.
“Pierce,” I whisper, glancing up at him. “Can you hear him?”
Pierce dips his head, brown eyes focused.
I go quiet, not wanting to interrupt his focus. He interlocks our hands, our bond going taut. I gasp as he propels the power down it, swirling past my mental door and around the golden thread of our connection—
Capture them . . . any means necessary. Capture . . . Legends. Win . . . freedom. More. Need more.
The Fader’s thoughts are fragmented and hard to follow, but the intent is clear, and the emotion behind it is chaotic and malicious.
I grip Pierce’s hand harder, doing my best to not let my instincts sweep me away again. Because if they did? This Fader would be added to my already too-large body count.
Fuck, that’s sobering enough to hush the protective mating bond instincts inside me.
“Kal,” I say through clenched teeth, barely holding on to myself. “I need you to get out of that cell.”
Kal flashes me a questioning look but immediately backs away from the Fader and exits the cell.
“You got something?” he asks Pierce and me.
“His mind is cracked,” Pierce says, his voice so much calmer than mine. I know they’re used to death threats, but I’m not. “The effects are unlike any enhancement I’ve encountered.”
“So we were right,” Axl says. “Their strength and abilities are from enhancements.”
“This one’s, at least,” Pierce answers.
Kal looks back at the Fader’s cell. “What does he want? Can you hear that?”
“More of whatever he’s hooked on,” Pierce says.
“And to capture you all,” I snap, watching the Fader twitch on the bench.
Jax brushes his shoulder against mine, grounding me.
I lean into that touch, into his emotions, which are drenched in curiosity, not fear.
“Can you push deeper?” I ask Pierce. “Maybe find something we can use to uncover where they’re hiding?”
Pierce tightens his grip on my hand. “Close your eyes and look with me.”
My heart expands at his immediate inclusion. He wants me to see. Wants me to learn.
He believes I’m strong enough, despite what I’ve just done. The carnage I caused.
I don’t deserve him. Any of them. But I do as I’m told.
Closing my eyes, I follow the coiling, spiraling power around Pierce’s and my bond, letting him take the reins and doing my best to focus on the way he does it.
It’s so damn natural for him, almost like breathing. I can sense it in the way he merely forms a thought, and his power does as he commands. He spears that power deeper into the Fader’s mind—
We’re no longer in the palace dungeons. No longer outside a dank cell.
Though there’s stone everywhere. And Faders. All masked yet walking around with no sense of urgency. The vision goes in and out, as if the Fader’s mind is missing pieces of memory.
Cold, empty, fearful, vengeful. The emotions splinter from the Fader, skittering down Jax’s power that I hold. It’s hard to concentrate on one power, let alone two.
A crevice in a slice of rock. The Fader wedging himself in it to be out of sight. A bright white powder fills the palm of his hand. It tastes like dragon fruit on his tongue. Relief consumes him once he’s swallowed. Then a surge of energy.
The scene disintegrates into another. He’s looking down at a . . . body.
I swallow hard. The person’s lifeless eyes are glassy and cold, his skin drained of color, splotchy and almost gray. What could’ve killed him to make him look like that?
He nudges the corpse with his boot.
The vision pops to another. He’s looking up at a Fader who stands on a slab of stone, illuminated by flames contained by iron lanterns positioned haphazardly throughout the space.
“Do you understand?” A familiar feminine voice radiates from above the crowd. “We must find a solution. That’s more important than any other order given. We’re running out of time.” The woman raises her arms. “Go. Don’t let me down.”
Submission and loyalty fill the Fader’s mind at her orders.
I gasp, flinching back to the present. Erin. What solution? What other orders?
There was no one else next to her. No one visibly pulling her strings. She’s their leader. She’s truly behind the atrocities they’ve committed.
My sister.
Pierce releases my hand, eyes still closed.
“Are you all right, love?” Kal asks, hands on my shoulders as he draws me to him.
I shake my head against his chest. “No,” I whisper. “No, I’m really fucking not.”