Chapter 30 Caught in the Crossfire
Nevaeh
I look around, blinking in confusion. Why am I surrounded by trees?
I brace my hands on my knees, my lungs burn as I try to breathe like I’ve been running for miles.
“Angel?” The silence stretches too long.
Where is everyone?
I search for the portal leading home, but no trace of it anywhere.
Panic claws up my chest. Something inside me is screaming at me to run.
Footsteps echo behind me, and I take off instinctively, like I already know whatever is coming shouldn’t reach me.
I still don’t understand why or how I’m here, running through the woods when a detail catches my eye, and I stop breathing.
How am I back here? Back in the same enchanted forest I escaped.
There’s a weight on my chest I don’t understand, but I know I can’t stop running. Then suddenly, everything fades to black, and I trip, falling to my knees. I brace for the sting… but nothing happens.
How’s that possible?
The darkness slowly peels away, and when I look up, there’s a figure lying on the ground in the distance. I rise carefully, scanning the woods to make sure I’m alone as I move closer—but something about them feels familiar, and my steps quicken. Dread coils tight in my stomach with every step.
No. This can’t be happening. Not again.
“Anxo!”
My heart lodges in my throat as I sprint to him, dropping to my knees beside my mate.
A trail of blood runs down his mouth, and his arm… there’s a gaping wound where it should be, blood pouring out, soaking into the dry leaves beneath him.
My hands shake as I carefully lift his head into my lap, shaking his shoulder to wake him, but nothing happens. I press a hand to his heart, reaching for my Divine to try to heal him, but nothing works.
He stays still. No pulse. No breath.
“Angel, wake up. Please wake up!” A loud, heartbreaking sob echoes through the woods. I don’t even recognize the voice. It sounds so… broken.
I lift my head, searching for help, but the clearing is no longer empty. It’s filled with the bodies of everyone I love. I clutch Anxo tighter as the horror sinks in.
My family is in pieces, limbs twisted, scattered, their blood soaking the soil, guts splattered across the trees.
Everything around me smells like iron and death.
I freeze when I spot Harvey and Grace lying beside each other. Bile rises in my throat at the sight of Harvey, torn down the middle.
He’s dead. They’re all dead.
I turn away with a broken cry at the sight of Grace’s stomach carved open, the horror frozen in her lifeless eyes, squeezing my chest until I can’t breathe.
The weight on my chest turns crushing, and when I look down, a scream rips out of my soul. August is strapped to my chest with a blanket.
His eyes… someone took his eyes. hollow sockets stare back at me, and I choke on a cry, jerking my gaze away.
The world tilts, and my vision blurs before I collapse backward.
When my eyes open again, everything has reset, and I’m running through the woods all over again.
Fear chokes me, my legs trembling so violently I fall to my knees, and when I look up, everything starts playing out again like a loop I can’t break.
The same steps. The same path. The same ending waiting for me.
After a moment of pure panic, the torture becomes so familiar it makes me pause. There was a time I lived like this—but now… my life isn’t like this anymore. I clawed my way out of this. I know I did.
My nightmares have all but disappeared. Now they only come when something triggers me, and even that hasn’t happened in a while. My mate and family pulled me out of it. Helped me heal.
So why am I still stuck in this nightmare?
My head snaps back when I feel a presence behind me, but when I turn, there’s nothing there. Still, my instincts have never failed me. I can always tell when I’m being watched.
Someone is here.
I scan the woods, but I find nothing. Grace screams for help behind me, trying to get my attention, but for some reason, I can’t look away from the empty space to my right.
It’s not empty. I can feel it.
I slowly rise to my feet, turning my back on the horror behind me. The second it’s out of my sight, it becomes easier to ignore like it loses its hold on me.
That doesn’t happen in my nightmare. My past clings to me. follows me. haunts every step I take.
The trees ripple in front of me like static, and it’s gone so fast I almost miss it. The forest is still distorted, almost identical to the one I escaped, but something about it is off. It’s not memory. It’s… imitation.
There’s a scent in the air I ignored before, buried by my panic.
Faint. Rotting. Familiar.
Something slithers behind me, but again, there’s nothing to see when I turn.
A dark sensation crawls up my throat, and for the first time, I notice how quiet my Divine is… like it’s not here at all. You don’t lose your Divine in a dream. That’s the one constant I’ve always had.
This isn’t a nightmare.
There’s a faint whisper in my ear, and when I turn, my right arm brushes against something that sends a shiver down my spine.
And now I remember why this feels familiar.
I’ve felt this before. It lurked in the shadows when we went to the Griari Empire for August’s birthday.
I draw in a steady breath, trusting my instincts to point me in the right direction.
Another movement to my left cracks through the silence like thunder. Muscle memory takes over, and my hand shoots up, wrapping around something soft, thumb pressing into a spot that crushes a windpipe for good.
I turn toward my invisible prey, and when a pair of white eyes flickers to life in the dark, I know exactly what I’ve caught.
A coward who hides behind illusions.
There’s only one man I know and loathe who can split his consciousness and force himself into someone’s dream to terrorize them.
I tilt my head, a slow smirk pulling at my lips when Tiberius’s eyes widen in shock.
Has he ever met his match? Or has the king of Eldoris surrounded himself with so many incompetent assholes that he’s forgotten he’s not the most powerful being around? Not when he’s standing in front of me.
“You didn’t do your homework before coming here, did you? I grew up with scum like you, Tiberius. Your lousy, pathetic tricks won’t work on me.”
My Divine surges to life with my anger, shattering whatever weak barrier he tried to build in my mind. My eyes flare gold as my essence coils around us, ready to strike, but before I can tear him apart, he mutters something and vanishes from my grip.
“Scared of a girl, Tiberius?!” I shout into the darkness, laughter ripping out of me when he throws me out of his trance.
My vision tunnels, darkening at the edges, and then suddenly Angel is there, holding my face, shouting my name, trying to snap back to reality.
My hands come up to frame his face before sliding down to grip his arms, checking, needing to know everything is where it should be. The ringing in my ears fades, and his voice finally breaks through.
“It’s okay, sweetheart. Everyone’s okay. We’re safe. You can breathe now.” Angel keeps talking, keeping me anchored, like he’s afraid I’ll slip away again.
I rise on my toes and kiss him, letting the last of the fear and confusion bleed out through and hoping he feels me steadying and stops freaking out.
When I pull back, the people around us finally come into focus.
Grace crashes into me, tears streaming down her cheeks as she chokes on a sob. I hug her tight for a second before sliding my hand to her stomach. My eyes fall shut as I feel the rapid heartbeat under my palm, and a tear slips free.
They’re okay. Thank Fates, everyone is okay. I don’t think I would’ve survived if anything that bastard showed me was real.
I ask about August, and Papa is quick to assure me that Seiji’s parents and Khatri are with him in the Horsemen castle.
I know even if August had no one else, the Hellhound would never leave his side. I was hesitant at first, but after tonight, I’ve never been more grateful for one of hell’s most dangerous creatures to be in my son’s life.
When my breathing finally steadies, I look around, trying to figure out why I’m sitting on damp ground near the southernmost portal… the one barely anyone uses.
I gasp in horror as I take the bodies scattered around me.
“Angel…” My vision blurs.
Did I do this? Did I kill my own people? All these innocent guards.
“Stop. You didn’t do anything. They did it to themselves. Tiberius got into their heads. Sweetheart, look at me.” I tear my eyes from the fallen warriors and turn to my mate. I blink back the tears, but they end up spilling. “I promise you didn’t do it. It was all him. All him, okay?”
His voice is steady, but I can feel the controlled anger beneath it.
I turn at the sound of rushed footsteps and see Hazel running toward me, but she stops short, like she just ran into a nightmare, taking in the devastation around us.
Her face turns ashen as she stumbles back. “I’m so sorry.”
Papa calls for her, trying to get her attention, but she keeps backing away, her eyes locked on my arm.
I follow her gaze, and I’m surprised to see a dark bruise across my arm. I can’t even feel the pain or remember how I got this. I didn’t fall that hard, and Tiberius never touched me.
He brushed past me once, but that shouldn’t leave a bruise.
Before I can tell Hazel I’m perfectly fine, and none of this is on her, the siren turns on her heel and runs.
Papa rushes to me, grabbing my face and kissing the top of my head. “I don’t know what I would’ve done if something had happened to you.” His voice breaks, and I know he’s remembering what Visha did.
I squeeze his wrists before leaning back into my mate, his warmth helping me get out of my head. “I’m fine, Papa. I promise. Go after Sharky. She needs you more.”
Papa glances at my mate, and when Angel nods, he takes off after Hazel.
I already know this is going to haunt her. I know exactly how it feels when your family is hurting, and you think like you’re the reason.
Right now, Hazel is probably finding reasons to blame herself for that psychopath and everything he did tonight.
And the worst part? She’s going to believe every single one of them.