Chapter 42 Xerxes
Xerxes
Icurled an arm around my fated, half protecting her from the false king, half keeping her close in case the damage I’d done to the compound took us with it.
The ever-growing destruction forced Dante back towards the stairwell, his eyes alight with an anger that promised retribution. But he called for the removal of his soldiers from the stairs, telling them to go down.
If we went down with this floor, they would capture us there. He was always going to meet us no matter where we tried to run.
The ground trembled as more of the floor fell away. The hole was now too large to jump, too unstable. And I wouldn’t want to, especially knowing now my fated was with child.
It explained the changes happening to her body, to her scent. And to know that it had been forced upon her by the other female caused a storm of emotion to wage within me. My Primal wanted to tear the female’s head off for what she’d done.
To Primals, especially females, there was always a choice. For some Primal beasts, they could expel a pregnancy without the need for healers. For them, it was a natural process, and one that was respected for all.
To know my fated hadn’t been given that same respect made me tremble with rage. But my need to protect her, to keep her safe regardless, stopped me from returning to the isolation room and tearing the female’s heart out.
The corridor filled with the dozen other soldiers from the other hall. There were less of them, but more beasts amongst their ranks. Including the female I’d met with my handler. She appeared with a carefully hidden expression, standing apart from the others.
From what I could tell, there were four other shifters.
It wouldn’t be too difficult to take them out—between the bear and me, we were more than capable.
But there were seven other creatures I didn’t recognise.
Some of their faces were familiar, but not their power sets. I couldn’t read their magic.
Behind me, my fated made a sound in the back of her throat. I stilled, trying to keep her behind me, but she tried to move. Thankfully, the winged-male—Hawk—shifted to stop her from exposing herself to the soldiers.
Soldiers summoned their magic. I barely felt it brush my skin; not the air-wielder who made a wind rush through the crumbling hall, and certainly not the one who summoned flames in their hands.
I couldn’t see her, but Ivy’s fingers curled in the fur of my lower back as she pressed in closer to me.
Even without her power, without the magic that’d drawn me to her in the first place, she still had some sort of sway over me physically.
I knew it was the mate bond, but there was no clear connection anymore.
Hawk raised his hand, and his own power over air currents picked up. It stopped the air-wielder before they could launch an attack. I watched from the corner of my eye as Hawk closed his hand into a fist, sending the other creature flying backwards on a wind I hadn’t felt.
A creature with a big gun shouted, but I felt the cracks in the earth beneath their feet and called upon those breaks to weaken. Something clicked, the sound so slight I barely heard it, but as soon as it did, the corridor gave a warning tremble before falling apart beneath them.
Behind me, my fated gasped in horror as the floor opened. The soldiers had no time to escape it—all but one, that was.
The female from the dining room rolled out of reach. The others went down into the hall below us. The fall wouldn’t kill them, but I didn’t want to give them time to find a way to crawl back up.
I also didn’t want the other female to attack. She, I knew, was someone powerful—important.
Perhaps even a threat.
“Don’t hurt her,” my fated said, her voice coming out stronger—louder.
Across the chasm building between us, the other female cocked her head. “You remember me.”
Despite me growling, my fated pushed her way between Hawk and me. “Yeah. You made me shoot you. Said you were on our side. Is that still true?”
For a moment, the shifter remained emotionless, her eyes dark as if she were considering whether to lie to my fated or not. Was this about the attack on my fated’s home? The one where she and her family had been kidnapped and taken out several of Dante’s soldiers without being mated?
I glanced down at my fated, taking in the dark knots of her hair, the collar glinting in the flickering light above us. Despite that, she rolled her shoulders back. Despite the horror she’d been forced to face these last several weeks, she had hope.
When I looked back at the shifter female, she bowed her head. “I’ve been waiting to get pulled out of here,” she replied, taking a hesitant step forward. “I can help get you out, if you’ll have me.”
I stiffened. There was a chance she was lying. She’d claimed to be on our side, but the false king could have gotten to her. Changed her memories. Changed her allegiance.
I turned to Hawk, who met my stare. His eyes were dark again, like they had been when he stole the magic of the mind mage and the healer. “She’s telling the truth,” he stated, looking to the shifter. “She can help. But I can tell she doesn’t know a safe way out.”
The shifter—Storm—stepped back. “How do you know that?”
“Because he stole power from a mind mage,” my fated replied. “So, he’s likely hearing your thoughts right now.”
Rather than looking angered by the revelation, or even surprised, Storm blinked hard. “Well, that explains why you were targeted. I thought it was because of Lark Zephyr and his weird little crush.”
My fated crossed her arms. “That’s what I thought, too.”
Hawk, though, looked surprised—perhaps even betrayed. “He didn’t—”
“Sorry.” He looked down at our fated mate, who pressed her lips together. “But it’s true.”
“Of course, Dante had to have his own reason. It makes sense if you were a wraith.” Storm looked down into the hole, where the rubble shifted. The fall hadn’t kept the other soldiers down for long. “I’m coming to you.”
“But there is no way out,” Cato replied, speaking up for the first time. He motioned to the other hole in the ground, blocking us from the stairwell that was now too damaged to go down. “There are only doors here.”
That didn’t stop Storm from shifting and leaping over the damage. Her form, an orange and black striped feline, hit the ground in front of us without a sound, and she shifted back almost immediately.
“There are ways out through these halls. How do you think Dante gets around most days? He only likes to show his face when he wants everyone to see him.” Storm looked at the device my fated still held. “Where did you get that?”
“From the mind mage wiping Hawk’s memories,” she replied, holding it up. “Why?”
Storm looked to Cato, who had a frown darkening his features. “Was it Ivor or the other one?”
“Ivor,” Cato said, brows furrowing. “Why?”
“He’s Dante’s cousin. The son of Sir Otto’s sister,” Storm said, taking the device from Ivy. “He has a whole lot of access to these areas. Not total access like the High Council, but he gets to do whatever he wants.”
“Then let’s walk and talk,” Hawk growled. “We’re too out in the open.”
Storm nodded once before pulling something up on the device. “Down this hall, let’s go.”
We formed a barrier around our Queen once more, this time with Storm taking the lead. As much as I wanted to trust her, I couldn’t fully, not even with Hawk’s assurance that she was on our side.
I touched his arm briefly and sent him a single thought. Keep our mate in your line of sight. I will walk with the female shifter. We are the only ones we can truly trust with our mate’s safety.
The male looked up and gave me a single nod without responding. He took our fated’s hand and must have relayed the message to her, because she gave me a look of concern.
But she didn’t stop me as I walked ahead. At least the bear was at her back. He was large enough that he covered her completely, forming a safe barrier between her and anyone who might try and attack from behind. And I knew Hawk would protect her now, even without his memories.
Storm didn’t look up at me as she opened one of the locked doors.
“There are secret stairwells and elevators all over the compound,” she said.
It appeared to be a storeroom of sorts; one filled with basic medical necessities.
I’d seen some of these things in the room they’d had my fated strapped down in.
“There’s a camera in here. He wouldn’t have one in a storeroom if it weren’t important. ”
I looked over my shoulder, meeting Cato’s eye. The male shrugged, though he entered behind the female, fitting better than I could. The room was small, but in the back the walls were made of metal rather than stone.
“She has a point. There were whispers that he had his own way around, but I never believed them,” the male said, joining Storm in moving equipment and shelves out of the way to reveal the back wall.
I helped after a moment, moving the shelves so at least we could get Ivy into the room where she was protected.
But my heart raced with fear. “What if he knows we’ve found his stairwell?” I asked, staring at the metal wall ahead of us. “What if he’s waiting on the other side?”
Storm looked back at me with an uneasy expression. “This is our only way out.” Her eyes went behind me to my fated. “He could be waiting, but he could also be hiding. I don’t know if he’ll risk letting anyone else know about these. He doesn’t want them questioning him.”
“Open it up,” my fated replied, her voice stronger than before. “And if he’s waiting, then we fight.”