Chapter 11 Ivy
Ivy
The taste of ash filled my mouth, my eyelids heavy as awareness came back to me in pieces. Like fog settling over a hill, rolling down the green landscape to never really cover it.
Here, in the fog, I felt weightless. Nothing. I knew I had to be somewhere, but I couldn’t quite remember where.
Until it all came crashing back, like the quick disappearance of mist once the sun rose.
I sucked in a sharp breath and peeled my eyes open. I wasn’t in the infirmary—or wherever Dante had taken me after knocking me out. Instead, I was in my cell again.
Only this time, I wasn’t in my gear.
The long night gown looked like it’d come from Thea’s grandmother’s closet. It was frumpy in a way old lady—and well, plus size—clothing was. Had Dante put me in this to embarrass me?
I grimaced as I sat up. My vision turned hazy for a moment, swimming from the movement, but cleared after a few deep breaths.
What did he do to me? I tried to recall anything after passing out, but unsurprisingly, I remembered nothing.
Whatever they’d used had me out cold. How much time had passed?
I hadn’t been taken to the safety of my dreamscape, but there hadn’t been any nightmares, either.
Unless Dante finally figured out how to fuck with my mind.
I touched my temple lightly. How would I even know if he did? No one else had. And Adrian…
Just the thought of him made me close my eyes. Whatever Dante did, he’d claimed it was because of Adrian. But what? A new kind of fear shuddered through me, coiling tight around my abdomen and squeezing my heart.
I forced my eyes open and searched my cell for any sign of…
I wasn’t sure what. There was nothing different about the space; it was still the same dark stone cell I’d been in before the trip to the bitchy doctor.
At least, it didn’t feel any different. I still couldn’t sense the magic of the runes.
And I still couldn’t reach my own magic.
My hands went to my throat, to the collar still wrapped around my neck. I was used to the weight of it now, the pressure of it on my shoulders.
I didn’t bother trying to stand and instead took stock of myself.
Other than the weird nightgown I now wore, I had no other clear sign of injuries.
No broken feet or legs. No weird puncture wounds in my arms. I ran my hands all over my body, searching for anything that might explain what they’d done to me in that room but came up empty.
I doubted they just wanted to get me undressed. I couldn’t even make myself feel gross about it. I was more unsettled by the whole ordeal.
What the fuck did Dante want?
I leaned my head back against the cool stone wall and closed my eyes.
My mind wandered back to the moments before the female drugged me.
To Dante’s words about Adrian. What the hell had that meant?
The only thing I could think of was that he’d knocked me out to enter my mind, but cutting me off from my magic should have lowered all my blocks… or at least, that’s what I suspected.
He wanted something else, I thought. And it had to do with Adrian.
Panic swelled within me at the idea that maybe he’d used me to get through to Adrian again. To break into his mind. If my prince was smart, he’d have found a way to get Blythe to reinforce his blocks—to put blocks on everyone.
Goddess above, I still didn’t know enough about this world to know if that was even possible. Could Dante use me to get through to him? Use our bond to break into Adrian’s mind?
I rubbed a hand over my face. The quiet of the cell settled in around me, the silence so thick it pressed down on me. If Dante didn’t send me crazy with his secrets, then this place would.
Part of me wanted to escape into the dreamscape again and find Orion. To spend what time I had left with him; to pretend I wasn’t locked away in some secret compound in the Luna Court. But the essence of the dreamscape evaded me. My mind was awake, and it wanted my body to remain vigilant.
Like it wanted to do something about this.
But I’m stuck in chains in a cell locked with runes designed to weaken me.
I wasn’t getting out of this without help.
Help from my mates, who had no idea where I was, with a timeline none of us knew about.
The lunar eclipse. I wasn’t even sure when it happened in the Luna Court—hell, I never even knew they were that frequent here.
Even worse, I had no idea how much time had passed since Dante knocked me out.
It could have been hours, or it could have been days, pushing me closer to the moment he intended to steal my power and destroy Nyx’s realms.
A shiver rolled down my spine, forcing me to open my eyes, a strange kind of awareness washing over me. Like I was being watched. The feeling had the hairs on my arms prickling, my skin suddenly chilled. I planted my hands on the cement ground, which turned almost icy.
Slowly, I released a breath that turned to fog before me. Another shiver rushed through me, this one more violent.
Maybe this was why he’d taken the gear and put me in a nightgown.
Because he wanted me to freeze to death?
The vision where the air mage stole the air from my lungs hit me, the words of the female like a bucket of ice water. He doesn’t want it dead, she’d said. We thought it had been me.
But what if it was something else?
And that something else no longer mattered to Dante?
Surely, he wouldn’t kill me before taking my power. Wouldn’t it just move on to another potential Daughter? The cycle happened every five hundred years, but maybe Nyx had a plan for this. And that plan included letting me die, so another could take my place.
The cold settled in further, forcing me to wrap my arms around myself.
Maybe that wouldn’t be a terrible sacrifice, dying so another could rise in my place.
It would suck, but then at least my mates would have nearly twenty-three years to find a way to stop Dante and protect the next Queen of Nyx.
It would just mean there would be instability for as long as Dante remained in a position of power.
Shivers wracked my body, the cold curling around my lungs with each breath I took. It became almost painful to breathe, burning my throat and lungs. And yet, I couldn’t bring myself to feel fear. Was that what Dante wanted? My tears? To hear me beg for my life?
I glanced up at the door, where I was certain he watched me. There was no glass to see out of, but I had a feeling he was there. Maybe even my traitorous mate stood with him.
The numbness washed over me like the armour it became. The icy air couldn’t penetrate something that didn’t even feel anymore. As badly as I wanted to focus on anything else, I embraced it. Welcomed the nothingness it offered me.
Dante wouldn’t get to see me beg. He would never get to see me cry or scream again. I wasn’t entirely sure I had it in me to care.
He had me right where he wanted me, but that meant nothing if I died.
Death wouldn’t be so bad if it put a kink in his plans.
The runes around the doorframe lit up before going out one by one. It didn’t take long for the door to swing open. This time, though, I was greeted by not just Dante, but a small army.
A smile twisted his lips. “Good. You’re awake. Looks like Sable did a number on you,” he said, crossing his arms. Soldiers flooded the cell, all wearing the same grey gear. None of them had weapons. Maybe Dante heard my thoughts about stealing his gun, because not even he had anything on him.
I stared up at him, feeling nothing but the bite of cold. “I don’t know what you think Sable did, but she hasn’t done anything to me.”
The smile warped into something dark and sinister.
“Oh, you have no idea.” He crouched in front of me like I was some kind of child he needed to get on the same level with.
That summoned a flicker of rage. “But don’t worry.
I’ll make sure to undo all those charms on you.
See if we can unlock what she’s hidden.”
I didn’t get a chance to respond. Two guards stepped forward, and these ones…they didn’t appear to be brainwashed. No, these ones looked cruel. It darkened their eyes as they ripped me from the cold ground, and it shaped the smiles twisting their lips.
“The fun starts now,” Dante mused.
I knew it was useless fighting. I wouldn’t give him the satisfaction.
My first ever vision flashed in my mind, a dark, terrifying reminder of what I had to look forward to under Dante’s control.
Nine dead mates. A cage built to hold me prisoner. Not a cell, but like an animal.
And pain.