Chapter 4 Adrian
Adrian
It should have relieved me knowing there was a scout entering the Luna Court in search of my mate. It should have given me hope knowing there was someone going out to do something.
But only shame burned within me as I left the war room. An emptiness I couldn’t escape burrowed deep within me, chipping away at what strength I had left.
I let Dante take Ivy. I’d been too weak, too lost in my own desire for revenge to actually be prepared. It was my fault she was gone. I’d been there with her, in the cottage standing across from Dante. But I’d let her down.
I couldn’t even blame my power for that. The weakening of my magic had entirely been on me. They’d all warned me it was a bad idea, but I’d been too stubborn. Too focused on taking Dante down on my own to listen to the rest of my team—to my mate.
And now she was gone, and we were waiting for a stranger to go in and locate her.
Any relief I should have felt just tumbled into the emptiness and disappeared. Instead, I entered the small apartment we’d been given, heading straight to my room. From the window in the bedroom, I saw the expanding camp of Avalon’s survivors, as well as Rhadamanthus’s ever-growing army.
Somehow, in a matter of weeks, he’d rallied a legion prepared to go to war against the usurper king, summoned some of the strongest creatures in the entire Underworld, and had fortified himself as a real threat against Dante.
It felt like a sick reminder that even though we were her mates, the team and I would never have been able to do anything similar.
We never had the weight or power to do what he was doing, and he was just in this for an alliance with Ivy.
He wasn’t her mate, had no bond with her, and yet he’d done more to get her back than we had.
And it fucking burned.
I tore my eyes off the army and bowed my head, trying to ignore the pain thrumming in my chest. Goddess above, if I’d just listened—
“You could be helping me with the rune study, but instead you’re just going to, what, mope around?” a voice snapped from behind me. I stiffened as he laughed bitterly. “Get a fucking grip.”
I turned slowly to find Rowan behind me, his arms crossed. Since our return from the Old World, it hadn’t been the same between us. Although, who could blame him? I wouldn’t. Maybe I’d feel the exact same way if the roles were reversed. At some point, it had.
But he’d literally been stabbed with a poisoned blade intended to kill him. And I’d put myself in a position where I couldn’t save her.
My mind had been weak, open for Dante’s manipulations. It was me he’d used to get to Ivy. Not Rowan, not anyone else.
I released a harsh breath. “You’re right—”
“I don’t want to be right, Adrian. I want you to get a fucking grip and do something helpful, rather than sulk.” Rowan crossed his arms, jaw clenched as he looked me over. I knew my best friend all too well, and I knew exactly what he was thinking: I was pathetic. Useless.
After a moment, Rowan sighed, shaking his head.
“Look, you know Dante better than anyone. Regardless of what’s happened.
Maybe you should be using some of that knowledge to help.
I mean, come on. You spent more time with him than anyone.
He probably revealed more than you realise.
So, figure out if he actually did tell you anything useful.
Go use whatever bullshit he talked about in the cottage against him. ”
I swallowed thickly, but Rowan didn’t give me a chance to respond. He grabbed his pack filled with the research he’d already done on God Runes and left the bedroom without looking back.
My gaze darted to my nightstand and the unopened bottle of death wine hidden within. But instead of going for it like I was tempted to, I left the room entirely, Rowan’s words following me as I did.
The war room was thankfully quiet as I dredged up the moment we’d stepped into the cottage.
Our belief that he couldn’t be in there.
The wards protecting the ruins, layered over one another, some so old I knew it couldn’t have been him.
And then his voice cutting through the darkness and tension.
The thanks for helping him lead Ivy right into his trap.
My stomach twisted sharply, sickness coiling in the pit of my belly.
I ignored it as I wrote what I remembered.
Not just from the cottage, but everything.
All the long nights in random locations—ruins, mostly, which now seemed intentional—where Dante and I shared bottles of strengthened shifter liquor and he talked about the things he learned during his time in the Fae Courts.
Like the older histories of the realm; Titania and the curse on her children; the end of the High Queen line.
I’d never thought twice about his stories, but now they screamed at me for the omens they were. He hadn’t been lamenting about his studies while drunk, he’d been testing whether I’d agree with him or not. Whether I’d be weak enough to fall for his manipulations.
And obviously, in some way, I had.
My eyes closed tightly from the threat of tears.
Tiredly, I rubbed them, a breath leaving my lips.
In the darkness behind my eyes, I couldn’t escape him, though.
Not the confident smile as Ivy and I crossed the threshold of the cottage, leaving Rhadamanthus behind.
Not the delusion in his eyes as he told us his plan.
And definitely not the way he snapped the collar around her throat after Orion’s death.
It all came back in sharp, painful flashes I wanted to escape, but I allowed them to flood my mind. There was no running from what Dante had done while I stood there doing nothing.
Scrubbing a hand down my face, another shaky breath left my lips. Get a fucking grip, I told myself. In my head, I heard that in not just Rowan’s voice, but in Maeve’s. In Elias’s.
I heard it in Hawk’s, despite him being missing. In the Primal’s, who had been taken with all the others.
Eyes opening, I stared at the pages of information I had on Dante.
It wouldn’t be enough, but it was a start.
I pulled a blank page of paper from the stack on the table and started a list of all the locations he’d dragged me to.
Dante used to say he preferred the ruins because no one would care if anything happened.
Most were abandoned for obvious reasons; migration, accidents that made them unsafe, shifts in worship.
But as I wrote the names of areas I knew, the older temples really stood out. Temples long abandoned despite being built around the time of Avalon’s formation, mostly just ruins by the time he ever found them. But what if they’d been hiding something? What if he found out about God Runes from them?
“What are you doing?” Elias asked, his voice cutting through the haze I’d been working through. I barely looked up from my list, blinking hard as he came to stand across the table from me. “I thought you’d be down recording the creatures entering the Underworld.”
Shaking my head, I sat up a bit straighter.
“No, I got the idea from Rowan to go back through what I remembered about Dante. How he managed to…” Use me for his own work, I thought, but didn’t say aloud.
Clearing my throat, I pushed the list of locations towards him.
“Dante held most of his parties at ruins, old temples. I think he had a purpose for it.”
Elias took the list, glancing it over. “Not surprised,” he murmured. “We could have a few scouts in Avalon check them.”
“Good,” I replied, nodding once. Elias’s dark green eyes flickered to mine, like he could tell what was really going on. Like he could sense my shame.
Slowly, he pushed the list back towards me and crossed his arms. “You good?”
It was probably the only concern he’d shown anyone other than Ivy.
And it was concern I didn’t feel I deserved.
“Yeah. Fine. Good,” I said. There were probably more locations I could add, even if I never went to those parties.
By the time I stopped entertaining him, his parties had shifted into something else, anyway. Something darker.
But that hadn’t meant he still didn’t try to get me back to his side. He’d invited me along to more parties, desperate to have me rejoin him. I couldn’t remember the number of times he’d tried to get me back.
“Your heart is racing, and your scent turned bitter,” Elias said, taking me by surprise. “You aren’t fine. You’re falling apart.”
The pen in my hand clattered to the table. “Wouldn’t you, if you were responsible for our mate being kidnapped?” I asked honestly, glaring up at him.
Elias was quiet for a moment before taking a step back. “We all played a part in what happened to Ivy. All we can do now is find her. And wallowing in shame and guilt won’t do that. You’re taking a step towards helping her but focus now on what will actually help. We can all do better.”
I swallowed the lump forming in my throat and watched as his gaze dropped to the list again. “Think about whether he ever specifically brought up Luna. Then get that list to the Wrath Generals and have them send scouts to check there specifically. It might be a good start for their search.”
With that, he turned sharply on his heel and stalked out of the room.
I didn’t bother watching him leave, instead refocusing on the list. He had a point, even if I hated to admit it.
It probably wouldn’t mean much now to locate the ruins Dante had been to years ago—he’d probably stripped them of anything useful by now.
But with Elias’s departure, I couldn’t help but feel unsettled. Adrift. His words replayed through my mind as I dropped my head into my hands, a growl of frustration bursting free. In the back of my head, I felt a brief, sharp pain. Like a nail entering my brain, only to be removed a moment later.
The suddenness of it had me gasping for breath. My eyes flew open, hand moving to the back of my head. But the pain hadn’t been physical. Probably not even real.
And yet, I felt the dull reminder of it thrumming in the back of my skull, as well as the tickle of something else. Something wrong.
Shaking my head, I grabbed my lists, spared a look around the war room, and left. The halls of the Elysian Palace were eerily quiet, though that wasn’t surprising anymore. Rhadamanthus had ordered anyone unnecessary to leave, and only those fully vetted and trusted remained.
A short walk down the dark hallway brought me to a locked room, one I opened with a small wave of my magic. A different kind of guilt washed through me as I entered.
The only light came from a small window above the bed, the room otherwise bare except for it and a trunk. No other doors lined the walls except for the one I’d entered through.
But asleep in the centre of the bed was Orion Black, body unmoving, unchanged. Weaker, though. Not quite whole without Ivy.
I stopped at the trunk and sat slowly, my eyes locked on his still form. If it weren’t for Rhadamanthus’s claims, we would have thought him dead. He’d be with a necromancer now being prepared for burial. But the demon king said Orion’s soul was still there, only his body wasn’t quite alive.
The only thing we could think of was somehow—in some way—Ivy’s magic kept his body alive, and soul tethered to it.
Nothing else could explain the male lying like death in the centre of the bed.
Even now, I sensed no sign of his magic.
Not a hint of Luna or Dream, the two courts he belonged to, in this room.
It was hard to believe he was alive, but it was a hope I held tight to.
In the silence his room offered, I went back to my lists. I did what Elias instructed and focused my energy on the Luna Court. Listed whatever I knew that could tie into Dante’s plans. And prayed to Nyx that maybe, just maybe, we would rescue our mate before Dante destroyed us all.