Chapter 43
ADRIEN
“Well, you definitely made getting in easier than I’d originally planned.
Last time I snuck over here, I had to scale that whole cliffside by myself,” Adrien whispered, raising the burgundy fabric of a guard uniform from a folded pile and comparing it to his body.
Deeming it too small, he tossed it to Raana, whose eyes had been taking in the dimly lit space.
She still hadn’t drifted far from the now-closed tunnel door.
She caught the shirt just before it could hit her in the face and narrowed her eyes. “It couldn’t have been that bad.”
Of course, not for her.
Her power allowed them to just appear on the rock face, whisking them through the shadows and into the tunnel.
His previous attempt at sneaking into the High Ground involved lying flat on his stomach on the rust-colored cliffs, his scent masked and his sweat dripping as he elbowed himself through the plumes of stone dust.
“Let’s see you climb then, Scornn,” he teased.
Raana shrugged and allowed darkness to dance along her fingertips.
“I’ll never need to.” She held up the fabric.
“I also don’t need this. Isn’t the point that I use my shadows to blend us in and move us around?
You’ll observe your father’s meeting, and I get to find the other witches, then you find your friend. ”
Adrien wouldn’t exactly consider Lukas of Tethys a friend, but he had been an unwitting victim.
Plus, Adrien couldn’t shake the nagging feeling that there had been a reason his father had been keeping the former Hunter prisoner, other than to cover his ass when it came to there being a witch on the continent.
So much treason to accomplish in one night. But he was done with being a bystander to his father’s games.
“Well, in case that doesn’t work, the uniforms will help.” He reached for the back of his shirt and pulled the garment over his head. The humid air of the laundry room kissed his skin, and he caught Raana staring. She hadn’t bothered averting her eyes like she’d done many times before.
No, now her gaze dipped down every contour of his chest and abs, her eyes darkening.
Goddess, spare him.
He’d scented it back at her cottage, too, when he’d pinned her beneath him against the cabinet. She wanted him, and he’d be damned if he didn’t want her. Even if he still debated the level of trust he had.
His mind drifted, images percolating of what they could’ve done back at the cottage. How he could remap all those places that left her screaming his name…
“Focus, Scornn,” he said, meaning it more for himself. Her eyes snapped up to meet his.
And there was that blush as if she hadn’t realized she’d been ogling him.
It fell away to a flat look before she turned away. Adrien mirrored the action, giving her privacy to change.
Only a few moments passed before he heard footsteps approaching. Too close—they didn’t have enough time to hide.
Small, icy hands suddenly gripped his arms, and darkness enveloped him.
When his vision cleared, they were back in the escape tunnel again, just behind the door they’d shut.
Because, of course, shadows.
Shielding Raana’s body against the wall, his arms bracketing either side of her, he faintly heard a female’s melodic humming. The laundry room door opened. A laundress?
He knew the general staff they employed at the prison typically couldn’t shift, so her senses wouldn’t have been so keen. And Raana, bless her mind, had also swept their clothes up with them when they’d hidden.
So, they just needed to wait this out.
Adrien glanced down at the witch, his animal eyes able to see her faintly through the darkness. Even if he couldn’t see, he felt her.
He also scented.
She hadn’t managed to get her uniform on yet. He also hadn’t fastened the buttons on the tunic. So, the peaks of her bare breasts were pressed against his own naked chest.
Adrien made to step away but found himself bumping into cool, writhing ebony. The shadows were still swirling around them. Gentle kisses peppered over his back and neck, and one mimicked Raana’s pounding heartbeat.
It felt like they’d remained there for eternity, staring at each other, sharing breaths in the dark. And they stayed forever still, even when the humming faded away. Even when the laundry room door opened and closed again.
They should’ve moved.
They should’ve fought the tension, the allure, the constant drags towards each other.
Adrien felt it looming, then. Every conflict between them. Every impossibility that had been so easy to forget when they were together. Raana had been ready to leave Morai not long ago, and now she was working with the witch who wanted his father dead. Who probably wanted him dead, too.
They had no future.
And yet.
He. Couldn’t. Move.
Raana’s hand was a cool touch to his scorching chest as she eased him back. For a moment, he swore guilt flashed over her face. “We should go.”
Adrien swallowed, savoring the feeling of her. “Is that what you want?”
Raana’s eyes dropped to where their bodies skimmed, where their hearts beat in time. “I can’t have what I want, Prince.”
Before he could respond, his face nearly struck cold stone, Raana having fallen back into the darkness.
“Eli is dead. Beta Sampson is grieving. And he was like a son to Alpha Ivander. Alpha Kai of Deimos should be held responsible. We know he’s planning something.”
Hidden amidst the shadowed steel rafters, just out of sight, Adrien peered into the cavernous meeting room. The shock of Alpha Locke of Charon’s presence was enough to distract him from whatever had occurred between him and Raana earlier. She’d gone on her excursion, tracking down the witches.
“You know I cannot force anyone’s hand, Locke,” Cassius said, scratching at something Adrien couldn’t see on the table of sleek black stone they sat on one side of—who would take the other? “The continent cannot descend into chaos for the sake of selfish vendettas.”
Not for the sake of selfish vendettas? What else had approving Kai’s challenge been? All of this had been about eliminating a threat only he seemed privy to.
Locke clenched and unclenched his fists, trying to rein in his composure. “We can vote—”
“It must be unanimous, and Verena and Deacon would never vote against him. They were friends of Kyran’s, and even under Kai, Mimas, Deimos, and Tethys remain close.
” Despite his own even disposition, disgust dripped from his father’s voice.
“And if he were forced to step down by vote, it would not be a quiet endeavor.”
Adrien had nearly forgotten about that part of the Code—a vote to allow all alphas to decide if power needed to be shifted away from a bloodline without the need for a challenge.
His own bloodline could’ve been forced to step down at any time, but his father treated allies well. They’d never vote against him.
Locke pushed, “We’re also losing Southern Iapetus. Ivander is struggling to maintain control, and his land is divided. Eli’s death—”
“Means nothing.”
Adrien flinched at the harshness of Cassius’s voice and tucked in closer at the tiny creak of the beams. Luckily, neither man glanced up.
“It only sows distrust,” his father said. “Alpha Kai did not commit the murder. We cannot use that for grounds.”
“How do we know? He was in rogue territory. You know he left that message.”
“Above your bounty hunter. Go to Deimos and accuse him, then. I’d love to see how it plays out.”
“I would not go down as easily as a rogue,” Locke snapped, and at a glower from his father, a warning, he retreated. “I refuse to bend in fear to a child.”
Cassius drummed his fingers on the table, checking his pocket watch. Whoever was supposed to meet them was late. “It’s not fear; it’s acknowledgment of the unknown. And calling him a child is ignorant. He has a weakness. Everything, everyone does.”
“What about Imperial Beta Malakai’s daughter?” The malice on his face, the cruelty, was undeniable. His eyes flashed like a myriad of wicked ideas had just sprung to his mind for how to use Isla against Kai.
Adrien imagined himself springing from the shadows and running his claws along Locke’s throat.
Even Cassius didn’t seem to appreciate it. “What about her?”
The lower alpha schooled his face, seeming to tuck some of his ideas away. “Does she not have any shred of loyalty to her homeland? To her family?”
“Alpha Kai is her fated mate. That holds precedence, by law and Code.”
Locke’s jaw set, his eyes narrowing as he chuckled bitterly with a shake of his head. “It’s unbelievable, actually.”
Cassius raised a brow and turned his head with predatory slowness. “What exactly?”
“They were at the feast, they were in the Hunt together, and some saw them speaking in the fields before it. Alpha Kai saved her Goddess-damn life. If they were mates, they knew it, and then she returned here, did she not? The Alpha of Deimos’s fated mate was right under your nose, likely spying for him, and then you permitted her warrior assignment to his kingdom. How could—”
Locke cut off as Cassius’s claws dug into his throat.
Crimson eyes flaring, the Imperial Alpha rose to his feet, his aura of power a near shockwave through the room. Locke cowered beneath him as blood dripped down his neck, soaking his white shirt.
Locke trembled but didn’t fight, knowing Cassius held his life in his hands. One move and he’d cleave open his throat entirely. “I apologize,” he rasped. “I—I’m sorry, Imperial Alpha. I didn’t mean—”
“Do you take me for a fool?” Cassius snarled.
Locke went to shake his head and regretted it. A whimper slipped from his mouth. “No.”
Cassius’s claws seemed to bury deeper. “Nothing I do, nothing I allow in my kingdom, on my continent, is without intention.” The low, lethal words pierced the air. “Do you doubt me, Alpha?”
“N—no.”
“My father put your miserable bloodline in power, pulling them from nothing. Don’t think I won’t undo it just as easily.”
Locke attempted to nod as a knock came at the chamber’s doors. The inferior alpha’s eyes darted to it, then back at Cassius, who didn’t release his hold. Adrien’s grip on the rafters tightened as his leash on his tempered heartbeat loosened, but there was enough chaos in the room to disguise it.
Slowly, Cassius removed his claws, the sound of wet flesh echoing up to where Adrien lay. He used Locke’s shirt to clean off his blood-smeared hands and didn’t dilute his power—or sit.
“Come in,” Cassius called out, and the door swung open.
Two Imperial Guards stepped into the room, their features like stone as they bowed to his father. “Imperial Alpha.”
Adrien caught the bodies behind them, two women clad in black robes, their faces shadowed by their hoods, familiar crystal pendants hanging from their necks.
He knew that within their folded sleeves, there were several hidden weapons.
He also knew the woman who stepped forward—regal, deadly, and beautiful beyond reason—before she was introduced.
“I present Her Highest, Ellena Hale, Matron of All Witches.”
Adrien’s breath stalled.
Why would his father meet with the matron? The world’s leaders typically convened only once, and that summit always occurred in the spring.
Fear tightened his chest, thinking of Raana roaming these halls.
Just as dangerous to her as his father was her people’s queen.
A collector of sorts, she’d told him, especially of potential threats, of rivals in power.
He wondered if she had sensed the other witches first, if her kind had a keener sense for her, too.
Had he known the matron was a part of his father’s meeting today, he would’ve never asked her to come with him.
Below, Cassius inclined his head, acknowledging the authority Ellena carried. “Matron Hale. I appreciate you meeting me on such short notice.”
Beside him, Locke shifted, clearly unsettled, but he didn’t interrupt. Blood still stained his collar, his earlier bravado muted under the weight of the matron’s presence.
Ellena’s lips curved faintly. Not a smile, but a small threat. “I would have preferred not to come at all,” she said calmly. “But we are clearly out of time, and you are unbelievably unprepared.”
Adrien’s heart stuttered when the doors opened again.
More witches entered—four this time—moving in perfect, silent coordination. Between them, half-carried, half-dragged, was a slight, limp figure.
Iron shackles bound her wrists, etched with runes that made Adrien’s skin crawl even from this distance.
Her head lolled against one witch’s shoulder, dark curls veiling her face but exposing the arch of her ear.
A thin line of blood trailed from her nose, dripping onto the stone floor in slow, sickening drops.
The world narrowed to a single, unbearable point.
Raana.
Adrien’s control shattered, his wolf erupting to the surface.
His heartbeat roared as he launched from the rafters, shifting midair, bones cracking and reforming as fur and muscle tore through skin. The impact shook the chamber when he hit the stone floor, claws scoring deep grooves as he landed between Raana and her captors, his father and Locke.
A line would be drawn with the move he made next.
“Adrien.” His father’s voice boomed behind him, and he could feel the Alpha’s stare digging into his back.
Adrien didn’t turn.
“What is the meaning of this, Cassius?” Ellena asked, her voice heavy with warning. Adrien could feel the power radiating from her. Knew she possessed the spells able to take him down.
But he didn’t care. Not as Raana’s blood pooled before him.
Bracing himself with a small prayer to the Goddess, the traitor prince launched forward. Making his choice. Fighting for what was his.