Chapter 20 Ivy
Ivy
My throat tightened with fear as I took in the cages. They were piled atop one another, so many it was a wonder no one knew where Dante was. How had he taken so many shifters without anyone noticing? There were dozens of wolves, even more bears. Feline shifters in the back. Winged creatures above.
Sickness twisted my stomach as I took it all in. I wouldn’t shy away from it, not as they looked back at me. Not as their fearful, pained whimpers met my ears.
I might have been trapped, but they were in the real hell.
In the cage closest to me, a large brown bear lay still. I felt the burn of his eyes on me. The giant beast breathed in, his entire body shuddering.
Was this the same bear I’d spotted in the Old World? It was too dark to be sure, but he had a lot of the same scarring. Mostly on his back, maybe from a whip, and some on his face.
Nearby, Greer’s mates sat quietly in the largest cage of all.
I couldn’t tell if I was relieved to see them alive and unharmed, or sick knowing they were here.
I’d hoped for their escape during the palace attack, but instead they’d been here for weeks, living in their own nightmare.
They watched me, even when they shouldn’t have been. Even when it got them hurt.
Theon looked like he wanted to shout something. Lazarus vibrated with rage. And Otto…
He barely looked alive anymore.
It was heartbreaking and terrifying watching these powerful men sit in their own filth, knowing they would likely die before being rescued.
And it was painful to wonder if that was my fate, too.
I looked up at the opening of the doors, tensing in preparation for the return of Dante—or any number of his little soldiers. There was a demon who walked around the cages like he owned them. The shifters were particularly afraid of him.
I glanced sharply at Greer’s mates. There was a dark look in their eyes as they sat scattered around their large cage, not communicating with one another, not even looking at anything but their own hands.
And the dark, almost dead look in their eyes had nothing to do with Dante. There was no way the false king had penetrated their minds—I had a feeling Sir Otto would have ensured their minds were all fortified. The look came from the deep despair of losing their mate.
It pushed my thoughts about death aside. Knowing my mates would have the same looks in their eyes if anything happened to me.
A shudder rolled down my spine as I took in the dark space at the top of the stairs.
I couldn’t make out who stood there, but if it was the demon, he wasn’t alone.
There were two figures looking out over the cages, and they didn’t move.
The only assurance I had that it wasn’t the demon was the fact that the shifters didn’t react.
And yet, I still held my breath as I awaited their descent into the prison.
No one else entered as they took the stairs down, but I kept my eyes on them.
Was it Hawk again, ready to drag me into a new cell?
It wasn’t Dante—I had a feeling the creatures down here would react if it were—so it had to be someone new.
When they hit the cages, a shiver rolled over my skin, the hairs on my arms prickling. A feeling I recognised but couldn’t put a name to rushed through me, but I wasn’t sure why.
I froze when they finally came into view.
It wasn’t the soldier who made my blood run cold. Not the weapons strapped to his side, or the casual cruelty playing in his eyes. He was a carbon copy of every other male I’d had the displeasure of meeting here.
It was the soldier who walked one step behind him who took my breath away.
Maybe it was because I only really knew him as his Primal beast, the towering creature that looked like he’d been pulled out of a gothic novel.
Maybe it was because here, he was actually dressed, wearing the clothes of our enemy.
Unlike Hawk, the Primal didn’t have that dead, dull look to his eyes. His dark eyes were sharp, angry. When he grew near, his nostrils flared.
The cage beside me groaned, as if the bear shifter was making himself known. I noticed the Primal’s eyes flicker to the giant beast’s cage and narrow. But they quickly flickered to meet mine.
I couldn’t tell if I was slipping into panic or even more anger and betrayal. One mate choosing the dark side was one thing, but another? One who claimed to want the enemy dead for the slaughter of his people?
My breaths quickened as they came to a stop at the cage near mine. “We need to get this one up to testing,” the soldier said, pulling something from his belt. It looked like a small pouch, one I vaguely recognised. But I wasn’t sure what it was until he opened it.
My racing heart slowed to a stop as he pulled a thin, small stick from the bag. Attached to the end was a thorn.
I never thought I would see that thing again.
I remembered it vividly now; the moment I’d pulled it out of a similar pouch to use on a female shifter who claimed she was working her way through the ranks of the organisation determined to take my throne.
A shifter who might be here, in this very prison with me.
But I also remembered the detrimental effect it had on my family.
It was how I’d learned my little sisters weren’t human, that their father was Fae—a siren from Abyss.
And the same poison that came from the tip of the thorn had also killed our mother.
On the supernatural, it was like a sedative. But on humans?
It killed.
I pressed my lips into a firm line to keep the emotions at bay. My throat tightened, and that all too familiar, overwhelming sensation that came on the cusp of a panic attack washed over me. Cold rushed through me, a chill that burrowed deep into my bones.
The Primal male looked back at me with concern in his dark eyes. It was the only acknowledgement he gave me, the only sign that he was there, that he wasn’t under Dante’s spell. But if he weren’t under any mind-fuckery, then why was he working with our enemy? Why was he dressed like one of them?
His hand shifted to his belt. I stilled, waiting for him to touch his weapon or grab the same pouch the soldier had. But instead, his fingers pulled at something else.
A piece of twine.
I didn’t know him well enough to be able to read anything more in his expression, but he quickly averted his eyes to the soldier and the shifter they’d been sent to retrieve. The wolf within barely moved, likely used to whatever tests Dante and his men were running.
But my heart still raced with that little acknowledgement of something so inconsequential.
That piece of twine told me he was here.
The soldier stepped into the cage. I held my breath, watching as he pressed the tip of the thorn into the wolf’s throat.
It took only a moment for the poison to take hold; the beast’s eyes fluttered before closing, and any tension that’d been coiled around the creature disappeared as it slumped into the icy metal of his cage.
I swallowed against the lump in my throat as the soldier and Primal dragged the wolf out. My mate was strong; he could manoeuvre the shifter onto his shoulders without making a sound, but as he did it, I noticed the care he took. He wasn’t treating the wolf badly.
It felt like confirmation he hadn’t betrayed me.
The soldier pulled a small device, not a tablet but maybe a modified cell phone, from his pocket. It beeped as he punched something into it. They must have been logging which shifters they were taking.
The Primal grunted, though not from strain. That didn’t seem to bother the soldier, who put the device back into his pocket. Instead, he started for the stairs leading back up into the main facility, and my mate followed with the unconscious shifter without looking back.
As soon as the pair were far enough away, I felt the tightening in my chest ease. I let my eyes close as I released a breath, feeling the familiar burn of tears make their presence known.
I leaned back against the bars. They were cold as ice against my back, the rods biting through the thin material of the stupid nightgown.
The ice was like a shock to the system, exactly what I needed to keep my thoughts from spiralling.
And it was nice against the dull, throbbing pain I was starting to get used to.
There were more guards now than when I’d been dragged down here.
Before, there had been maybe a handful around the walls, making themselves shadows as they kept the shifters in line.
But since being locked down here, more trickled in.
The only sign it wasn’t normal was the reactions from the shifters.
They were uncomfortable, terrified by the increased guard activity. Some curled in on themselves, making themselves small to not attract attention to themselves. Bigger beasts like the bear beside me remained eerily calm. And then there were the others, their fear taking over.
I flinched at the sound of a whip. It took all my control not to snap. I had to remind myself there was nothing I could do while trapped in a cage of my own.
And yet my resolve disappeared as I let myself seek out the beast.
It was a wolf, small. Either the creature hadn’t been experimented on like the bear beside me and the wolf I’d fought in the Old World, or it was young.
Too young to be in a cage. Bile rose in my throat as I watched one of the soldiers stalk the perimeter of the cage, the end of the whip coiled around his other hand, trying to bait the small creature into reacting. Into fighting back.
The wolf and I locked eyes. They were a light brown, more amber than anything.
Pretty against the dark brown of their fur.
There was blood everywhere, dotting the wolf’s snout, darkening the fur of its chest, pooling on the cold metal floor of the cage.
My heart rate picked up as the soldier reared back with the whip.
“Stop it!” I screamed.
The soldier froze, arm still raised. He cocked his head, eyes locked on the wolf, before slowly turning to me. “What did you say?” he snarled.
It felt like my magic had returned to me for a split moment. I felt that rush of familiar electricity, that explosion of fire within me. For a second, the world brightened and everything became clearer.
And then the soldier let the whip fly. It cracked as it landed against the back of the wolf, slicing through fur and flesh with enough force it could break bones.
I stared in horror as the small wolf fell with a whimper.
That single moment of power disappeared.
The soldier turned from the wolf and sneered at me, revealing fangs and blood-red eyes. “You silly little bitch. You have no power here,” he growled. “You are nothing.”
My heart pounded, racing faster, harder, in my chest. The sound of blood rushing in my ears didn’t drown him out.
“The King might have decided you couldn’t be touched, but you ever do that again, your punishment will be dealt on these weak fucks. Understood?”
My stomach turned with the threat of emptying itself from staring at the cruel male. There was nothing but darkness in his eyes. A wickedness that couldn’t have been born from the influence of Dante.
I tried to swallow, but the lump in my throat only thickened.
Before I could respond, he brought the whip down on another beast, this one a lion. The creature tried to scramble away from the force of the hit, but the male cracked the whip again, bringing it down with more force.
“Okay!” I screamed, tears spilling from my eyes before I could stop it. “I understand.”
The male chuckled, dragging the whip behind him as he moved down the cages. He gave me no response, just the sound of his dark laugh as he disappeared.