Chapter 43 Ivy
Ivy
It was getting harder trying to ignore the pain growing in my stomach. It reminded me of bad period cramps. Only the pain radiated throughout my body, not just my lower belly and back.
I was starting to think it was another bout of the twins growing, turning from what should be tiny foetuses into something bigger.
Something closer to being birthed. Whatever the spell was, it must have been kicked into overdrive, because when I pressed my hand against my stomach, which felt more bloated, firmer than earlier, I thought I felt a flutter.
It should have been impossible. But I couldn’t remember my last period. The birth control charm Marion supposedly put on me was meant to stop my periods altogether.
Obviously, that wasn’t the case anymore.
Knowing the twins belonged to Adrian and Elias gave me some perspective, at least. I had to have slept with them within a few days, so I was guessing it had to be at the safe house.
The first one specifically. Or maybe after I completed the bond with Maeve.
But then someone would have caught on, wouldn’t they?
Sable did. She’d known before anyone and made certain to hide it.
Sable. My hands fell away from my stomach, the cramps turning to a dull ache as I looked at the female shifter. “Do you know anything about Sable Archer?” I asked.
Pity filled her dark eyes. “I know she was brought here,” she replied, putting the comms device on her belt and stepping away from the metal wall. “I don’t know where she’s being kept. Dante wanted her close. Closer than you, surprisingly.”
A chill rolled down my spine, stomach twisting with fear. “Dammit,” I muttered, looking away. The storeroom wasn’t very big, barely fitting the four human-sized creatures, let alone Xerxes or Thor. The bear stood just outside the door, though he had his back to us now, keeping watch.
“I did see the chaos of the Pit and cages, though,” the shifter replied, her eyes alight as she drummed her fingers against the metal. “A lot of bodies trying to tame the feral wolves specifically. I’m pretty sure the cage with Greer’s mates was let open and they’re helping free the shifters.”
I sighed in relief, heart fluttering with the knowledge that they were out. But there was a chance none of them would escape. Not with Dante and his army focusing on them.
It was a good distraction for us, but it could mean their deaths.
Before I could ask more, the shifter grunted, unveiling a hidden rune. It was like the charms Adrian hid under his skin. The right spell or movement could activate it.
The rune lit up, giving off a faint silver glow before revealing a split in the metal. I couldn’t help but hold my breath as it opened silently, the metal sliding into the wall on either side of the tunnel beyond.
A musty smell perfumed the air. It was a stone hall, with witch lights carved into the ceiling, illuminating the way.
“Are we sure there are meant to be stairs?” I asked.
The shifter stepped forward, pulling a gun free. “Yep.”
“Then let’s get the hell out of here.”
The hallway led directly to two sets of stairs: one went up, and the other down.
My mind went back to the temple where Dante had strapped me down and done something to me. I’d been so in and out of consciousness, so desperate to find Orion in my dreams, that I hadn’t paid much attention to it. But there was one thing I was at least certain of.
We’d been above ground. Not in the compound, but somewhere else.
If we followed the first staircase, would we find ourselves in that temple? Could we be free?
But the others said we needed to go down. Xerxes claimed there were tunnels, and they could lead out of here.
“There was an escape once,” Sunniva said, aiming her gun upwards as she checked the stairs. “It was over twenty years ago. That was my in.”
I wrapped my arms around myself, skin prickling with how cold the tunnel was. We were alone, the door closing behind us. But it was a tight fit with Xerxes in his shifted form and Thor behind me. Not even the bear could keep me warm despite basically being a heater.
Once again, I wished I had my gear. Or magic. That would have been nice.
But shoes. They would help. Maybe I should have asked Hawk to steal Marion’s boots from her when he took her power.
Sunniva moved the gun down the stairs, taking one step, then another slowly. “One of the high-ranking generals, Cyrus Alderon, took out a dozen guards and stole something when he left. It’s why the underground tunnels were blocked. But the way out wasn’t completely hidden.”
I frowned. Cyrus. Why did that name sound so familiar?
“Because he’s a member of Phoenix,” Hawk said, reading my thoughts. “He mentored the orphaned agents. The ones left with the organisation and raised to become soldiers.”
“He mentored Elias,” I whispered, throat tightening with the threat of tears. Maybe it was a coincidence, but Sable made believing those impossible. “What did he steal?”
Sunniva looked back at me and shrugged. “I don’t know. That was kept under wraps. I just know he was working with the children here.”
The children. Bile rose in my throat. “Are there…are there any children still here?”
Goddess, please tell me there weren’t. I couldn’t leave if there were. I wouldn’t be able to live with myself. Because I wasn’t the only one being forced into a pregnancy that wasn’t wanted.
The isolation cell we’d found Hawk in wasn’t used just for erasing memories.
They were used to artificially inseminate female shifters, too.
We were still in the breeding wing, as Cato called it.
Sunniva took the stairs down without a word, forcing us to follow. But it was Cato who replied, looking almost ashamed as he met my stare. “Yeah, there are a few. There are at least three rooms that I know of, but I don’t have access to them.”
I swallowed past the lump in my throat. “And that was the king you wanted to follow? A king who forced women to breed? Who used children in this army? One of my babies was going to end up in those rooms, Cato.”
The male flinched, shame clear in his bright eyes. “I have no excuses there. I only pray for redemption now.”
I blinked hard against the tears welling in my eyes and shook my head.
I wasn’t sure there was redemption for him, but that wasn’t up to me to decide.
It wasn’t his, either. It would be what he did from now going forward that would determine if he could ever make up for siding with someone as horrifying as Dante.
Maybe the Goddess would know, but even then, it wasn’t really something he’d done to her.
The choices he’d made affected individual creatures. Creatures Dante had taken choice away from.
Cato lowered his gaze and said nothing as he followed Sunniva down to the next level. Xerxes was directly behind him, then Hawk and me, with Thor taking up the rear. I felt his nose against my free hand every so often. Like he wasn’t too sure about the stairs, though he took them well.
There was no door or hallway on this floor. For some reason that had my heart pounding.
“Where are we now?” I asked no one in particular.
“The other medical rooms, usually for incidents in training or battle,” Hawk replied, hand tightening around mine. “I’m not sure what else, though.”
“So, nothing Dante needs to secretly access. Not like the breeding or isolation rooms,” I replied, blinking hard at the blank wall.
“Exactly,” Sunniva said. “Let’s keep moving. We have two more floors to clear before we get to the cages. I don’t know if this goes any lower.”
I had no doubt it did. “Dante would have ensured he had plenty of ways out if anything went wrong,” I replied.
We took the next set of stairs down silently. Every so often, I looked upwards as if I might catch sight of something—or someone—following us, but we were alone. That had me terrified of what might be waiting for us at the bottom.
The next floor went by with no hidden door or hallway, so we kept going.
When we hit the second last floor before the Pit, I noticed two long hallways disappearing into darkness.
One would lead to the mezzanine around the Pit, the outer corridor, and whatever else was on that floor with the elevator Dante used to parade me in front of his soldiers.
But the other hallway, I wasn’t so sure. “Which way do you think the children are?” I asked Hawk quietly. He hadn’t seemed to know anything about the kids locked away, though then again, I wasn’t entirely sure what he—or even Xerxes—were exposed to down here.
Hawk’s dark eyes met mine briefly before searching the darkened hallway ahead of us. “Not sure,” he replied, giving my hand a quick squeeze. “Never knew there were children here.”
You’re not lying, are you? I asked him, knowing damned well he was reading my thoughts.
The corner of his lips quirked. I’m telling you the truth. If I did know, then I’ve forgotten.
That had me sighing. Ahead, Sunniva came to a stop at the top of the final set of stairs. “There’s a chance he’s already moved them.”
“Does he even care about them enough to do that?” I asked.
The tiger shifter pressed her lips together before shaking her head. “No. They’re just more soldiers for him to turn. I don’t know which hall they’d be down, though.”
“Check the cameras for this floor,” Cato said, pointing to the device on her belt. “Wherever he’s set the cameras for the stairs, that should tell us where we are.”
Before Sunniva could holster her gun and pull the device out, slow claps started from the darkness. Immediately, they formed a protective barrier around me, with Hawk pulling me behind him and Xerxes having my back.
“Well, that’s certainly one way to do things,” Dante said, appearing in the darkness. “And to think, if you had kept moving, I wouldn’t have caught you. But Ivy, you are far too motherly for your own good.”
I gritted my teeth. “No, not motherly,” I snapped. “I just fucking care about my people, you asshole.”