Chapter 2
Chapter
Two
It’s difficult to know the exact time in this place, but midnight and midday are easy thanks to the loud clock bell that chimes twice a day.
The key is burning in my hand as I pace up and down my room, knowing it cannot be long now until midnight.
The sun set a long time ago. It’s always so silent outside my cage, and I figure my cage can’t be in the Vian city—this is someplace new, different and likely difficult to escape from.
If he took me back to the Vian city, it meant that Severi could have got to me, or got someone to me, by now.
Rhodes, Hollis too—they know the city too well.
This place must be new to them. I can’t believe they didn’t look for me, that they might have given up on me like Georgina suggested. No, they would have been searching.
I cling to the key and Rhodes’s letter in my hours of waiting; having some connection to my mates is everything to me.
I wait, hoping that when I make my next move, I’m not too weak.
I’ve stuffed down all the remaining food I can find to give my Nexus a bit of strength, but I imagine her anger will be all the fuel she needs.
I wait. The clock finally chimes, thick, heavy bells ringing above whatever this place is.
My hands shake as I lift the key to my collar and click the key into the lock.
It falls off with a clank on the ground, and I take a deep breath.
My magic floods me instantly, and my knees slam onto the floor as my Nexus blasts into my mind—fury and anger and pain, all of it so prominent it’s enough to overwhelm me in a heartbeat.
“We need to get out. With Feyre,” I manage to pant to her, the world spinning before my eyes. I’m going to pass out. “You need to take over. I’m not strong enough to do this for us. Kill them all, Nexus.”
“With pleasure,” she murmurs into my mind.
I feel the transformation like I am welcoming an old—psychopathic—friend.
My skin drains of colour and my nails turn sharp and black.
My Nexus’s magic spreads around the room in a soft grey wave, hovering around us.
My Nexus, nothing but a storm now, heads towards the door and rips it straight off the hinges.
She turns to the cell next to ours and rips the door off, looking in at the small bundle on the bed.
Feyre looks just as awful as I do, underfed and covered in bruises, but there is a spark in her eyes as she lifts her head to look at us.
“Gwen? How—is that your Nexus?” she murmurs, her voice cracking. My Nexus turns around without a word. Feyre is smart enough to climb to her feet and follow.
My Nexus hears their heartbeats first. The guards who watched me get beaten and sometimes joined in.
I can feel her happiness surging through her blood long before we step into the light by the door.
The guards open their mouths to shout, turning to grab the door, but they are already trapped.
My Nexus doesn’t use her powers. She shifts between her human and wolf forms to rip them apart, leaving bones and blood and other disgusting body parts smeared against the walls of the blown-out doors and the corridor.
My Nexus turns around to see Feyre’s hands over her face as she waits for the silence before walking forward through the blood now dripping from all of my body and, unfortunately, hers too. “Come.”
Feyre only shakily nods, slipping in blood as she takes a step forward.
My Nexus kills the guards on the other side with her powers, leaving their orbs of life hovering in the air as she storms down the corridor and comes to a stop.
There is a dark-hooded man wearing a strange mask standing in the middle, his hands in the air.
The mask is old-fashioned, lacy, and black, covering all of his upper face.
Spikes—dangerously sharp spikes—poke out from the edges of the frilly mask.
“I am no threat, Nexus. Your mates sent me. I am an ally of Prince Severi, and you need a Vian to get out of this place.”
The walls shake with an explosion somewhere nearby as my Nexus considers whether she should trust him.
“Trust him,” I suggest, knowing we don’t have much choice.
If he betrays us, he dies anyway. One Vian in a mask is not going to stop us escaping now.
She seems to agree with me. Feyre makes it two steps at our side before she collapses on the ground.
My Nexus makes no move to help her, and I can feel her thoughts—she is not going to aid Feyre anymore.
Dammit. “Ask the masked man to carry her. Please.”
“Carry her, and we will come with you.” My Nexus huffs, looking at the ceiling.
He nods, walking over, his cloak billowing behind him.
He’s tall, well over seven feet, and easily scoops Feyre up and throws her over his shoulder.
She looks just as thin as I do, just as concerning, but she is breathing.
In this place, breathing is all that matters.
We were both there when her father died.
They beat him to death outside the cage to make us talk, to make both of us reveal where any of the hideouts were, where the city was.
Neither of us spoke. I don’t ever want to tell Finn how his dad died.
In pain, crying out for his dead wife and children.
Feyre didn’t say a word, but it broke her.
This masked man takes us from room to room. Each one is laden with dead bodies. My Nexus is beginning to get annoyed that he took all the fun out of escaping this place. The closer we get to the door on the other side of the room, the more I feel that pang in my chest. One of my mates is nearby.
Another explosion shakes the walls, leaving my ears ringing, but the masked man does not stop.
It has to be part of the plan. He opens the door to a balcony, and I suck in a deep breath of the cold night air.
The stars are beautiful, twinkling and shining above us as my Nexus stares up for a long moment.
The masked man drops Feyre at my feet. “We are not alone,” he warns. I step over her and look down at the twenty Vian guards waiting. One of them I know—one who used to torture me, and he really enjoyed it. “Stand back while I—”
“No mortal tells me what to do. Get in my way and you are dead,” my Nexus snarls at him. “Mine.”
My Nexus throws herself over the railing and explodes in grey magic, darkness and power. Twenty men are soon turned into nothing but dust. Her grey magic waves through them, killing all but one within seconds as they scream, the sound fading like an echo.
The commander steps back when he sees he is left alone.
She takes a step forward, only for the commander’s head to fall off his shoulders, dropping to the ground with a thud.
Severi stands behind him, two daggers embedded in his stomach, blood pouring down his face, over his chest, his clothes tattered to pieces.
Even then, he is stunning. His black hair is a mess around his forehead, and his dark brown eyes lock onto mine.
I take him in like a craving—a desperation I feel deep in my chest. Severi came for me.
Severi saved me. His eyes shatter as he looks at me, at whatever he is seeing.
“We failed you. Gods above, Tulip, what has he done to you?”
My Nexus lets go, bringing me back. I don’t have time to warn her that I’m not strong enough. The minute I shift back, I feel myself falling forward, straight into my mate’s bloodied hands.