Chapter 2
Raven
Male voices murmured in the background. I tried to move, but a heavy arm rested across my hip, locking me in place. The pain in my chest had subsided, but every bit of me ached.
I desperately needed a drink of water to soothe my raw throat, but when I tried to speak, I could barely manage a whisper.
What was wrong with me?
Why did I feel so weak?
The warm body wrapped around me shifted, and a hand pushed a few damp strands of hair away from my mouth.
“Little mate?” I forced my eyes open and then winced as a sharp, stabbing pain ricocheted through my skull. At least the room was dark. No sunlight. Thank the goddess for small mercies. I wasn’t sure I could cope with bright light. Not with the way my head hurt.
“I need a drink,” I croaked. Someone lifted me into a more upright position. Cool water trickled between my lips. It helped ease the pain in my throat but did very little for the ache in my chest.
Damn Starfall Academy for not teaching first-years healing magic. I could really use some magical healing about now. Had I accidentally ingested something poisonous?
“We need a healer.” Zane must have read my mind. No doubt my shields were down, as per usual.
“My blood will heal her.”
“No!” Maverick’s angry growl suggested Rasmus offering me his blood was a terrible idea, but for the life of me, I couldn’t figure out why.
“Where’s the fucking vanilla popsicle? He has healing magic.”
“Fuck knows.” Maverick didn’t sound happy about that. “He slunk off last night and hasn’t returned.”
“Sparky’s dead the next time I see the fucker.” Issuing death threats against Alaric had become an almost daily occurrence. None of my mates liked the mage. At best they tolerated him, but mostly they wanted to kill the asshole.
Relatable.
“Do we have any idea what’s causing this?” Rasmus was the only calm voice in the room.
“No.” Zane seemed worried, and he rarely worried about anything. “Unless you gave her a sexually transmitted disease.” The thump of a fist on flesh followed by a crash told me Maverick hadn’t reacted well to such a slur.
I almost smiled, but that would have cost me too much energy. My eyes drifted shut as the males carried on arguing.
“Idiots,” Kenji muttered in my mind before I passed out.
“Kai?” I opened my eyes to see my merman lying on a cave floor, his wrists shackled with a set of glowing cuffs. I’d seen cuffs like that before but couldn’t recall where.
Kai didn’t move. His blue skin had faded to a ghostly gray. Was he dead?
I stumbled forward. Kai couldn’t die. I refused to accept that fate. Thankfully when I reached out and touched him, he stirred.
“Raven?” Confusion furrowed his brow as he stared up at me. “Goddess, I must be hallucinating. Fucking sea witch.”
Sea witch?
“Kai!” He blinked at the sound of my voice then tried to shake his head before wincing in pain.
“Kai! What’s happening? Why are you locked in here?”
I could see no way out of the cave. The door glowed with enchantments, and the small pool in the corner wasn’t deep enough to swim in.
Was this some sort of prison?
That made no sense. Why would the queen lock up her only son?
Kai scrubbed his eyes as he stared up at me. Dried vomit caked his chest, and the stench of death clung to his skin. When I checked his aura, it hung in the air like smoke, dark and malignant.
“You’re really here?” The words were barely more than a rasp, and from the way he grimaced, it pained him to talk.
“Yes.” I wasn’t sure how I’d reached him, but I suspected it was the same way I’d first found Rasmus. Zane had told me I could dream walk, which meant my physical body was still back with my other mates.
But the how wasn’t important right now.
“Tell me what’s happening.” I needed to understand. “Who’s hurt you?”
Someone had caused him great pain. So much so that it had affected me via our bond. My gaze snagged on the gold mate mark on Kai’s pectoral. It, too, had faded to a muted gray color, and when I looked down at my mate mark, it was barely visible.
“My mother refuses to accept our soul-bond,” Kai whispered between coughing fits. Then his eyes closed. I waited for him to explain more, but his breathing grew shallower. It wasn’t until I reached for his hand that he rallied.
“You should go,” he said eventually, but his eyes remained shut. “I’m trying to resist, but it’s so hard.”
“I love you,” I blurted. “I won’t let you go!” The words rang true. Kai was my soul-bonded mate, no matter what his mother wanted. I refused to cast him aside. I’d sooner tear out my heart with my bare hands than allow the queen to sever our bond.
Magic welled up inside me and threatened to burst free from the box in my chest. The amulet heated against my skin, glowing brightly in the muted green light of the cave. Small tendrils of smoke drifted upward while burning embers sizzled when they hit the still surface of the pool.
“I love you too,” Kai whispered before he stiffened. “You must go! The sea witch is almost here! She can’t see you.”
How was I supposed to leave when I had no clue how I ended up here? Kai’s panic made my heart rate go crazy. The door enchantments flared. I leaped to my feet, but there was nowhere to go. No shadowy alcove or convenient rocky plinth to hide behind.
I shot to the back of the cave, certain I was about to be discovered. When a stooped old woman with stringy hair shuffled in, she didn’t acknowledge my presence. Was I somehow invisible? If so, I prayed to the goddess to continue hiding me.
This had to be the sea witch. I could sense her magic: malevolent and powerful, a sign she dabbled in dark magic. Adam had warned me many times that dark magic was dangerous. It sucked the life force from a witch, aging them prematurely.
Was this why the witch looked at least two centuries old? Or did her skincare routine suck serious ass?
I crouched in the corner as she approached Kai. He’d closed his eyes and curled into the fetal position, with his back to the witch. Whether that was to protect himself from further magic attacks or because he’d passed out again was unclear.
The witch tutted and sucked her yellow teeth as she stood over him. She muttered something about stubborn males and then pulled a small potion bottle from a pocket in her gown.
I held back a gasp when she forced Kai’s mouth open and tipped the black, viscous liquid down his throat. He tried to spit it out, but the witch flicked her wrist, sealing his mouth shut until he had no choice but to swallow the cursed potion.
Once Kai stopped writhing in pain, she raised her hands and muttered an incantation. Magic filled the cave, coating my skin in oily darkness. The tether linking me to Kai burned and twisted. Kai screamed in agony, his body contorting as white-hot pain threatened to cleave my chest apart.
Shadows consumed me, but before the cave faded, the sea witch spun around. Her obsidian eyes found me a second before I woke in bed, screaming as something evil carved away at the glowing cord binding my soul with Kai’s.