Chapter 22
Chapter Twenty-Two
Gaia throws me straight onto the dirt floor and brushes her hands off on her gown, like touching me was disgusting. I cough up all the soil she pulled me through until my throat burns and I can finally breathe. When I’ve finished, I look up at her from my knees and glare.
“You’re better on your knees, like a human should be, bowing to your master.
Honestly, how Vargoth let you out of his sight without killing you is a disappointment.
We often take it in turns, drawing straws for whoever will get the human Champion first for the test. Vargoth is usually more heavy-handed and takes the Champion’s life before it gets this far.
” She sounds more than annoyed. Like my life is an inconvenience to her.
She is everything I suspected her to be, a heartless alpha who does not care about life. Vargoth is the same as she is.
“You do kill them. I wasn’t sure, but of course you do,” I mutter, coughing out more dirt.
She paces up and down as I reach for my shadows and realise I can’t feel them.
I try a few more times before I’m left with just tiny whispers in my ear, and I can’t even make out what oblivion is trying to warn me of.
My magic doesn’t come to me. When I turn my eyes up, Gaia is smiling. “What have you done?”
“Not what I’ve done. It’s what this place is.
Did you think you’d walk out of the Folkland being a Champion and there were no further tests for you?
In every court, there is a place like this, left as a test for the Champion.
Of course, as you might know, none of them survived.
I wasn’t sure it could block your shadow powers, creature of oblivion, but it clearly does.
I’m pleased.” She tilts her head. “The goddess left one instruction, passed to every alpha—to bring the Champion here and test them. Of course, there were other parts we decided to ignore.”
“Like what?” I demand.
“That we are meant to work with you, and you are to become the leader, the queen of all packs, and us your servants. They claimed it was how the power stays balanced. The Champion and the three who will defend.” She paces still.
“It was said that the next heir to the throne is meant to work with the Champion and build an alliance of sorts, an understanding or even a relationship.” I climb to my feet, still glaring at her.
“Of course, telling Orion all of this is not what I want, nor am I interested in him being my heir at all. But I do need him under control, and you have become an issue in that department.”
“What did you do to the siblings? The children your husband created?” I demand, not forgetting what she said.
“I hunted them, of course. Elizabeth is a publicly acknowledged bastard to the throne—already an embarrassment to me, a slight. I’m sure there are other bastards out there that managed to slip through my grasp, but they don’t matter.
My husband never really liked keeping his cock in control.
Like most men, he only thought with it, and, oh, how he liked them young.
” She waves a hand. “But those experiments? No. The very rumour of that could ruin our family. There’d be another alpha family by the end of it, when they’ve destroyed me and killed Orion.
You should thank me if you care about Orion at all. ”
Those children. The mothers. Elizabeth thought she got them free, at the very least, and she didn’t.
They are free in a sense. Gaia is only telling me all of this because she is going to end my life soon, or somehow make sure I won’t be telling a soul.
I push down the fear as far as it will go, just like I did so many times in the Folkland.
Tannith would tell me to try to reason with the madwoman. It’s my only chance now.
“I felt sorry for you,” I whisper. “When you told me about the alpha choosing you as a young teenager, I felt sorry for you because you were a victim, and we both know it. But instead of helping others in awful positions like yourself, you turned a blind eye to it and, furthermore, hunted down innocents. How could you?” I hold her gaze.
“I do care about Orion, and it is because somehow a good man lives in his soul. He is fucked up and somewhat crazy and possessive, but he is good. The moment he learnt from Elizabeth of what you had done, he immediately turned against you. He knows you knew everything.”
Gaia looks at me, and for a moment, I wonder how different things could have been in the Mother court if she had just told the world what a monster her mate was, and if she had loved her youngest son.
“Orion was always blind to his father. You only have to show an abused animal a tiny bit of love and they often will adore you forever, despite your sins. My husband had many sins, but he liked Orion. I never understood what he saw in him.”
“You always planned to kill Elizabeth.” I don’t ask, it’s just a statement. All the bullshit about the Mother and loyalty of her court was lies.
“Yes.” There isn’t an inch of hesitation.
“I would have made it more legal with the trial—she never would have won—but yes.” Gaia studies me.
“And if it helps, I had no interest in killing you. Not until you learnt the truth. I hoped we would have some kind of alliance with the fourth pack, and perhaps I could dig my claws into their world. But it seems this is your fate after all.”
I look around for the first time. Tall walls of dirt line a wide pathway; we are standing in the middle of it. Light pours down from flowers across the ceiling, casting deep blue light onto us, and there is a smell to this place. It stinks something awful and metallic. “What is this place?”
“A prison and a home for something older than the Mother herself. It is located in the deepest part of the palace, buried far below the ground, and only an alpha can find it.” I really fucking hope she is lying, or I’m screwed.
I’m going to die in this horrid place. “You only learn of it when you become alpha—the Mother goddess shows it to you. I was shown this place when my husband was murdered.” She never once cared about her husband.
I can see it in her face…and I’d bet she was happy Elizabeth killed him.
“You will meet the Mother goddess’s pet and, unfortunately for you, it will be hungry.
I often bring down people who betray the throne for it to eat.
Like that cook who talked to you. My guards listen everywhere, Meredith.
Even your winged man’s shadows could not hide everything.
” She tilts her head. “I believe you might find him screaming around here somewhere.”
As if on cue, a scream echoes through the air, followed by a thud and a roar that rattles the very dirt walls around me. Nope. I want to leave.
“Orion’s going to find me. Blackfire, Reed and Zyran will find me too.” I don’t know if I’m saying that because I desperately need them to find me or if it’s to warn her.
Gaia laughs. “Not if you’re already dead.
They can find your bones, in time.” She smiles pleasantly.
“It’s been interesting knowing you, Princess Meredith.
This year has been more eventful than many in my time.
I will enjoy the theatrics I’ll have to put on for being so terribly upset when your brother comes to call and asks where you’ve gone.
I will enjoy finally breaking my son and shaping him into what I need. Or killing him.”
The roar echoes again, the thudding getting louder. Closer. “He’s your son! Why? Why hate him so much?”
She pauses in her pacing and stares at me. “Because he is like me…and yet because he is a male, he gets to be free. I never got freedom.”
I step forward. “Gaia, there is still time to change this. Take me back to Orion and fix this. He is the only son you have left, and despite it all, he does love you.”
The roaring is growing closer, but I keep my eyes on Gaia. Everyone can change, find a way to make a better choice. Even her. A coldness spreads across her face, and I know right away that she won’t be helping me leave this place, and Orion is in danger. “I would run, if I were you.”
She disappears into the earth, leaving nothing but a brush of dirt waving across the floor. I finally lift my head and face the noise, the thumping of heavy feet that is swiftly coming my way. Oh, fuck no. I’m still a virgin and I can’t die like this. Tannith would be embarrassed…hell, I would be.
A creature of something horrid faces me.
I don’t even know what I would call it. It has huge wings on its sides, but the wings have holes and rips through them.
A chain wraps around its neck, the end of it cut, dragging across the floor.
It’s covered in scales of a sort, with a long head and sharp, jagged teeth that are bright green and dripping with blood.
The rest of it is just as gruesome. It lowers its head, sniffing the air, then lifts its glowing black eyes to look at me.
There is a desperation in its eyes, for food I’d bet, and this creature has gone mad.
Oblivion whispers grow into a shout, a female shout that I can’t block out and don’t want to. Even now, as I reach for it, nothing happens. It just echoes around me like someone is standing right there. “RUN!”
For the first time, I listen to oblivion. I turn around and run as fast as I can, knowing that if this creature catches me, I’m dead.