Chapter 25 Ivy
Ivy
“Where are you, my flower?” a sweet voice asked me, the caress of his fingers under my chin sending bolts of electricity through my body.
For some reason, I couldn’t open my eyes. My mouth refused to form words, wouldn’t answer his question.
Where was I? I couldn’t remember. Now, my mind refused to tell me what he wanted to know. It was lost in a sea of darkness, and I went with it.
“Wake up,” he whispered, fingers moving to my cheeks, startlingly warm as they grazed my flesh. “Wake up and fight, my love. You must not let him win.”
Let who win? I wanted to ask, but no words would pass my lips. I had no idea who he was talking about, who he wanted me to fight.
I didn’t want to fight anymore. I felt that deep in my bones. It was the only certainty I knew.
Fighting meant losing. I knew that, too.
“Get up.” His voice softened, somehow clearer than before. “And win.”
Sharp, unimaginable pain coursed through my body like a thousand bolts of electricity.
A scream tore free from my lips, one that burned my throat as it filled the otherwise silent air.
The pain wrapped around every muscle, burned every bone.
I felt my entire body tense from the explosion, which gave me no way to escape—to break free.
“What the hell is wrong with her?” a familiar voice growled.
I squeezed my eyes shut against what I knew would be waiting for me once the pain subsided. I knew I wouldn’t be in my isolated cell deep below the compound where Dante first dragged me, and I knew I wasn’t in my cage with the other shifters.
I remembered being dragged from the prison, the creepy stares from the soldiers who leered at me, being taken to the waiting elevator where Dante exposed the Seer’s secret.
The thing she’d been hiding from us all.
Pregnant. The words echoed in my ears, matching the pulsing pain radiating through my body.
“I don’t know,” another voice slurred. “It might be the magic finally working.”
The male grunted. I felt his presence near me, the wrongness of his magic slithering over my flesh. Somehow, I threw up a block in my mind—as futile I knew it was. There was little use in trying to fight him if he wanted access to my thoughts, and still, I tried.
It wasn’t like I had anything left to hide. He probably knew every little dark and dirty secret I had.
He growled again, and this time, something crashed. The pain subsided only long enough for me to flinch, but it hit me harder. Claimed me entirely.
The urge to curl in on myself overwhelmed me, like if I could just escape into myself, I might be able to escape the pain.
It wasn’t an aching, thrumming pain that was easy to ignore.
This was all consuming, twisting throughout my body.
A couple of Tylenol and a hot water bottle wouldn’t save me from the agony.
It wasn’t the same pain I’d felt when I shifted, with my bones breaking and reshaping into something else. I couldn’t even begin to describe this feeling.
“There is nothing I can do,” the female said, her voice still slurred.
“Are you sure you did it right?” the male—Dante, I realised—asked.
Somewhere in the distance, a door slammed shut. “What the hell is going on in here?” a new voice asked. This one I didn’t recognise, but it almost had a familiar lilt to it. An accent I’d heard before.
“Get. Out,” Dante growled, his voice low—deadly. Now, I really wanted to open my eyes. I wanted to know who the new person was.
Needed to know if this was someone I should be afraid of.
But the pain turned to fire, spreading throughout my body. The source of it ignited in my belly, creating a new swell of fear.
Had he done something to my baby?
Was it dying?
He said in the elevator that he wanted to speed up the pregnancy before the next eclipse, but what if he made a mistake? What if he was killing the foetus?
Maybe the thought should have brought me some peace. But instead, it only made me more terrified. Angry.
This was not his choice to take from me.
And although I knew I wasn’t ready, I also didn’t want the decision to be his.
Maybe it was spite. But I would not let him take another thing from me.
“She’s useless to you,” the new voice said. “Let me go get Marion, or—”
“If you do not leave now, I will make you,” Dante said, voice somehow darker than before. There was a venom in his tone that made my stomach flip.
I’d heard him crazy. I’d heard him mad.
But who the hell was this newcomer, and why did Dante seem to hate them so much?
There was a moment of silence, where I was left to my pain, where the air was still with tension and rage. I felt a finger probe my stomach, making the pain shoot up my chest, but I still couldn’t make a sound.
“It’s the magic,” the female said. “It’s taking hold.”
No, I thought, wishing I could escape her touch. No, no, no.
I had no choice now. I needed to find a way out before Dante not only stole my magic, but also my child. I would not let him have both.
I couldn’t let him take yet another thing away from me.
When I woke, the pain was an ember that burned through my body. But I wasn’t in the medical room, lying on a bed.
I was back in my cage, the cool metal like a balm against my burning flesh.
For the first time in what felt like hours, I was finally able to move again. I had control over my limbs; my hands moved to my stomach, which didn’t feel any different than before, except maybe a little firmer. Bloated, almost.
The collar somehow felt heavier than it did before. Tighter, making it difficult to breathe. And now, it felt like a pressure I needed to escape.
It took me a little longer to pry my eyes open. I was met with murky darkness. It appeared they’d turned all the lights off in the prison, but I could still make out the familiar cages around me.
To my left, the giant bear, Thor, lay with his eyes half-lidded. I knew he was watching me without even really looking. I felt a small bit of relief knowing he was there, that he hadn’t disappeared.
Nearby, I spied the cage where Greer’s mates were kept. Out of habit, I counted them but came up one short.
Where the hell is he? I let my gaze dance over the figures. It was too dark to tell who was missing, but I knew for a fact there were only eight males in the cage, not nine.
Had Dante taken one of them? My first thought was Sir Otto, his father, but I couldn’t be sure. Not until the lights came back on.
I tried to sit up, but as soon as I lifted my head, the pain turned from a burning ember into a small flame. It licked at my insides, centred in my stomach. I fell onto my side again, sucking in cool, deep breaths as I waited for it to subside.
Fuck, I wondered if the healer had been wrong, that the magic wasn’t really taking hold but killing me slowly instead. That would make far more sense.
But then again, I checked my stomach. It was still firm, the bloating feeling refusing to subside.
Maybe it was working.
I blew out a shaky breath and tried to sit up again. My eyes slowly adjusted to the darkness, though my vision swam as I finally pulled myself into a seated position. I leaned against the bars of my cage, eyes closing for a moment as I let the pain wash over me.
How was it that this situation could keep getting worse? Worrying about myself and my mates was one thing, but this?
This changed…a lot.
And yet, I wasn’t sure if it changed anything at all.
I scrubbed a hand down my face, feeling the familiar burn of tears behind my eyes as I leaned my head against the bars.
The only thing I knew for certain now was that I would not let Dante have this child. No matter what happened, he was not taking this baby from me, and he would never get the chance to use it against my mates.
Because they would stop everything if they knew about this. They would do anything for me, but I had no idea what they’d do with our child involved. It would change the game, and Dante knew that.
Adrian would struggle with it the most. He’d readily go to war for us, but he’d gamble with a deal, too.
Elias…I wasn’t sure. He wanted children with me, but I was certain he’d put me first. Except he’d also assume I would put the baby first, so he’d do anything to get us both out, risking his own life in the process.
I’d never had a chance to discuss what it would mean with the others. Maeve and Rowan were wildcards, and both had their own traumas to deal with. This would rock the boat with them.
This was so not needed now. I still had no idea how—
Marion. Hadn’t the other person mentioned her name?
My stomach dropped, heart racing as I peeled my eyes open. Each breath I took burned as I stared into the murky darkness around me.
Maybe I was wrong. Maybe there was another healer by the name.
Maybe she’d been taken during the attack on the palace, because I had no idea if she’d been accounted for.
But she hadn’t shown her face since Kerry’s death. Not before we arrived in Avalon…and not after. The healer all but disappeared, and I thought that was because she was laying my mother to rest and moving on to another job. But was it possible she’d been working for Dante the entire time?
A tear slipped free, soon followed by more. I didn’t even try to stop them. Not anymore.
If Marion had been working for Dante the entire time, then I’d let her take care of my sisters. She’d bathed them, read to them, cared for them when I couldn’t. She’d been a nurse to Kerry, helped us through the grief of losing her.
Had she killed my mother?
I covered my mouth in the hopes of hiding my sobs. Everything came pouring out, an emotional explosion of every fear I now had. What if she’d done something to the children? What if she’d done this to me?
We’d trusted her completely. Everyone—me, my mates, Jay’s team—and now…now I had no idea who to trust anymore.
Maybe I never knew who I could trust.