Chapter 16 Maeve
Maeve
It felt like nothing we did would ever amount to the steps Dante had taken to launch his attack. Even with Cyrus in our hold, even though he himself likely held a wealth of answers to our burning questions, it would never be enough.
Nothing would, when Dante had already considered every angle.
We should never have underestimated Dante. The arrogant, deranged male knew what he’d been doing at every step, every stage of his plan. There was no doubt about it now, not when Cyrus all but confirmed Dante had been working on this for years. A century at best. Longer.
He’d planned Ivy’s return. Ensured she was found exactly when he needed her. Not just for a simple eclipse, but the lunar eclipse.
We’d walked right into his hands, given her to him without even realising it.
I paced the length of the dungeon, rage building swiftly inside of me. Bloodlust coiled deep in my chest, a hunger so deafening it pounded in my ears.
What I wanted, more than anything, was to enter one of these cells and tear someone apart.
But there was only one worth my energy. Worthy of my rage.
I stormed into Hyperion’s cell, locking eyes on the pathetic male.
As soon as the door slammed behind me, he startled awake.
Dried blood covered his chin from our last time together, and several of his teeth—which I’d initially knocked down his throat and made him swallow—now lay in a pool of blood-tinged vomit at his feet.
The other wounds were starting to heal, albeit slowly, though as I scented the air, I could tell some were starting to fester from the state of the cell.
Bleary silver eyes landed on me. As hard as he tried, he couldn’t hide his fear from me. Over the stench of his blood and vomit, I could smell it. Taste it, even. And the bloodlust enjoyed it far too much.
“Good,” I purred, stopping in front of him, the heel of my boot destroying one of his molars. “You’re awake.”
A slight shiver wracked his body as he tried to straighten. “Nothing I say will get through, and you know it,” he seethed, baring what little teeth he had left. “You might as well—”
I slammed my fist into his nose, knocking his head back. The scent of fresh blood almost made me vibrate with the need to spill more. “Shut up,” I said, watching him bow his head and spit blood onto my boot. “I have it in good authority that killing you could give me every little detail I need.”
Hyperion tensed, eyes flickering to mine. “Whose?”
“Cyrus.” The shock in his eyes made a smile pull at my lips.
“We have him in custody, and he has a lot to say about Dante’s operations.
Including details about where he might be located.
” I grabbed the male by the shoulder and dug my claws in, fingers breaking through an older wound barely healed.
Hyperion hissed, eyes watering as I leaned in.
“All those blocks Dante put in your head,” I whispered, eyes locked on his, “could be gone in an instant with your death. Just need to stop your heart long enough for his hold to disappear. How nice is that?” I cocked my head.
“Ever wanted to know what it would feel like to die?”
“I have no blocks,” he gasped, rearing back, silver eyes wide with fear—real fear, no longer hidden, no longer kept on a tight leash. “He never got into my mind.”
“Oh, you fool.” I pulled back and glanced down at my bloody fingers. “Of course you have blocks in your mind. You likely have that fun little kill switch, too. And I would bet Dante has full access to you even now. Especially now.”
Based on his reaction, I had a feeling Hyperion had no idea about the access Dante had—not just to him, but to Adrian, too.
And for some reason, that made me laugh. It wasn’t funny, and yet it burst free with no way to reel it back in. Nothing about the situation had any humour in it, but I continued to laugh even as Hyperion grew increasingly unsettled.
I wiped my hand under my eye, smearing his blood over my cheek by accident, and smiled down at him.
“Dante is probably watching us through your eyes right now, and you wouldn’t even know,” I seethed, pressing forward again.
This time he flinched, shutting his eyes like it might hide him from my wrath.
But nothing would save him from me.
“You have a chance to do something and not be a pawn in his game anymore. You know he doesn’t care about you—that’s why you’re still here when you and I both know he has rats everywhere who could release you,” I murmured, gripping him by the throat and forcing him to look at me.
“All you need to do is tell me where he is hiding in the Luna Court. We know he is there with his army. So, tell me, where in your court is he?”
Hyperion shook, every breath making his entire body tremble. The fear he released became overwhelming, the scent cloying and no longer amusing.
“You really are a weak male,” I muttered, releasing his throat.
“I knew it. Always did. There was always something about you that never sat right with me. And now I know why: you are not capable of being a Lord of Faery. You never were, if you could so easily fall for Dante’s vision.
And now, not only will you bring war to your court, but you have ensured the downfall of all of Faery.
How do you think your brethren will survive once we get our Queen back?
Do you think, after the torture she has endured, she will be lenient with you?
With your Fae? Especially after you killed her mate? ”
He might have been trembling, but I was vibrating with anger. As badly as I wanted to unleash it upon him, I knew if I did, he would die. There would be no reviving him, either. The kind of death he needed to face to break Dante’s hold on him had to be quick. Clean. Easy to revive.
But if I gave into the monster rising within me, the bloody beast I knew I could become if I lost control, then there would be nothing left to revive. He would just be blood splattered across these walls if I gave into what I really wanted.
Stepping away, I gave him one last once-over and shook my head. “If you truly think Dante doesn’t have your mind in his grasp, then tell me what I need to know. Or you will be forced into eternal imprisonment below. It is your choice.”
Hyperion’s mouth opened like he wanted to speak, and instead, a strangled noise fell from his bloody lips. Shock and something else, maybe betrayal, crossed his eyes, but I just shook my head.
“That’s what I thought,” I said, turning on my heel. “Eventually, you will give me what I want. Pray he doesn’t kill you first.”
I was starting to think Hyperion had nothing useful to offer us. Not now—not before, either. If anything, the male had simply been an easy tool for Dante to use, not a real ally he could rely on.
Dante never intended to have a second, at least, it was never going to be Hyperion.
And I wasn’t sure if that made this all the worse.
The darkness of Elysian called to something deep inside me. Something I couldn’t escape.
I was becoming no better than the male who turned me into this monster.
Not when Hyperion’s blood brought me some kind of delight as it dried on my fingers.
Not when I could still feel the crunch of his tooth beneath my boot.
And especially when I could scent his fear in the air, almost like it had followed me from the dungeon.
Deep within, I knew I would never be like Henrik. I would never turn unwilling humans into my own personal cult. I wouldn’t victimise young girls, barely out of their teenage years, and recruit them for something they had no way to escape.
But you did, that dark voice whispered in the back of my mind. You did it all for him.
I closed my eyes tightly and willed that voice away. I might not have done it willingly, but I had. And in some way, that made me a monster born from his control.
Now, though, he had no control over me. Had been so far removed from my life that I knew, eventually, he would barely be a whisper above all the things I would go on to do.
One day, he would be a footnote of my life, part of a history I barely remembered.
Especially once I got Ivy back. Once my heart finally returned.
But there were other parts of him I’d inherited. He loved torture. Loved the feeling of blood on his hands, loved the scent of fear. Was I too much like him now? Would he always be a dark shadow hanging over me?
That was the last thing I wanted, and yet I could almost feel his presence. The shiver of fear rolling down my spine whenever he entered a room. The command he had not just over me, but my brother, the other children he only barely Sired.
A different scent tickled my nose, the brush of someone else pulling me out of my thoughts.
My eyes opened to find Rhadamanthus standing on the balcony beside me, his gaze trained on the fields of Elysian beyond the city.
The hazy barrier between the demons and the deaths of all Nyx’s creatures appeared even brighter somehow at night.
Almost like the lights that lit up the sky during the full moon when the realms opened freely to the human world, and the ferry could pass between them.
“What are you doing here?” I asked, voice tighter than I intended.
The demon didn’t look at me, but his hands lightly gripped the railing, eyes steady on the fields. “I checked in on our friend in the dungeon after you left,” he said, tapping his fingers as he did. “He mentioned something about a pressure in his head.”
I gritted my teeth, bracing my hands on the railing in a similar way as the demon. “And?”
“I deduced he was just overreacting.” From the corner of my eye, I watched a smile form on his lips. “You had him genuinely afraid. Not of you—but of his alliance with Dante. You made him see how expendable he really is.”
“Unfortunately, I doubt that will help us,” I muttered, leaning my forearms on the railing. “Not when he knows nothing.”
I felt the demon’s eyes on me, but I took in the expanse of the Elysian city below; bonfires lit up small side streets, tents were erected in courtyards and in parks.
I’d thought Elysian to be full before, but now with war inching closer every day, and the creatures of Nyx escaping Avalon to seek refuge here, I realised just how large this realm truly was.
“Dante covers his tracks,” Rhadamanthus stated, “but not well enough. We will find where he is hiding, and we will save her.”
My heart constricted, pain unlike anything I’d felt before rearing its head.
“I am terrified of what will happen to her while we search,” I admitted quietly, finally looking at him again.
“I have faced torture from the hands of someone who believed himself more powerful than all those around him, and I barely escaped without wanting death to find me. What if she can’t survive what he is doing to her?
What if she is facing far worse than Rowan’s visions let on? ”
For a moment, fear sparked in the demon’s eyes. But just as quickly, he blinked, shoving it away. “I believe she is much, much stronger than we give her credit for,” he replied evenly. “But I am equally terrified for her.”
A pit yawned in my stomach, one I couldn’t ignore. Even if we found her, survival was something else entirely. There was no telling if she would want to survive after we got her back.
And that scared me even more.