Chapter 52 Ivy
Ivy
My heart pounded with anticipation, each breath filled with the icy realisation that we were moments away from finally escaping.
In a few steps, we could leave what was left of Dante’s control behind. No more cages, no more isolation cells.
It hadn’t taken long to trap the hellhounds and ensure when the pain demon woke, he wouldn’t be able to get out of his binds. Theon had woven charms into the male’s clothing to keep him invisibly chained, so even when he did wake in a couple of days, the charms would remain active.
Hawk somehow remained upright beside me, though I could almost feel the draining effects from him. Fear kept my mouth shut, and although I knew I could ask him silently, for some reason, I didn’t.
It could partially be worry, or it could be due to Xerxes walking behind me with Thor over his shoulder. The male offered me a comfort I couldn’t explain, but even that wasn’t enough to calm the pounding of my heart.
Despite Otto having control over the hounds, I still shivered with fear, checking over my shoulder. The wall of ice Cato erected blocked the entire tunnel, but it was melting, and the winter Fae guard was weakening.
My arms trembled with the weight of the baby in my arms. She was asleep again, though it wasn’t because she was tired.
Sleep was better than the inevitable. Even the newborns were eerily quiet.
It didn’t matter how many times I shifted the girl in my arms, I couldn’t stop my muscles from burning, couldn’t stop the shooting pains rushing through me from the bullet wound or the weakness that still wracked my body.
At least it was a good distraction from what was happening inside of me.
The strange fluttering sensations I’d felt in my belly before started again, but this time with a renewed eagerness.
I remembered my mother explaining to me what it felt like when she was pregnant and she started to feel movement.
She’d said it felt like a fluttering. Like a tickle. A foreign yet right feeling that told her everything was okay.
Not for the first time, I wished she was here. I wished I could ask her about this feeling, ask her what I should do.
Kerry had been mean. She’d been harsh. But she was always honest with me. And at least I could always trust that she would give me the space to make my own choice about this.
I needed that harsh reality check from her now. More than ever, I wished I had my mom back.
When the tears burned my eyes this time, I let them fall freely. There was no point in hiding the relief or fear flooding me. I clamped down on the desire to sob, though. Sob with relief, with fear that this could all get taken away in a heartbeat.
My breaths became harsher, like ice filling my lungs. When the first ray of light cut through the darkness ahead, I couldn’t help but hold my breath. This time, the tears were for an entirely different reason.
Had we really made it out?
“Stop,” Otto commanded, his voice too loud in the quiet we’d wrapped ourselves in.
I stumbled when everyone else halted. It was only because Hawk grabbed me from behind that I didn’t completely fall to my knees.
He wrapped an arm around my midsection, hand splayed against my stomach.
Again, I felt that fluttering sensation I wanted to chalk up to movement but had to wonder if it was because of him.
I swallowed thickly but didn’t pull away from Hawk as Otto turned his worried stare on us from ahead. Exhaustion played across his features, making him appear older than he was. The lines of his face deepened, his eyes dark.
“There is something awaiting us beyond this tunnel,” Otto warned, voice quaking. “It is far too powerful for me to take down.”
My skin prickled with the shiver running down my spine. “What is it?” I asked, voice harder than I expected.
Otto met my stare. “A memory trap. It will wipe our memories and leave us incapacitated.”
“Meaning Dante will be able to take us back with him should he find us in the trap,” Sunniva growled. Her hand went to the comms device on her belt, our only eyes on what was going on. Somehow, Dante hadn’t cut the device off.
The shifter shook her head as she stared at the screen. “He doesn’t have a camera out there.”
“You think he would allow anyone else access to it if he did?” Cato asked. “No way. He has eyes out here, but only he can access them. He’s probably watching us now. Hiding away, waiting for us to fall into his little trap.”
I couldn’t stop myself from shuddering. “Then how do we actually get out of here?” I asked, unable to stop the desperation from filling my voice. “How do we really escape?”
All eyes were on Otto as he turned towards our freedom. I watched him roll his shoulders back, as if he were coming to some sort of decision.
“I will walk out first,” he said without looking back. “I will test the barriers of this trap. And you will have to follow.”
It sounded as though he wanted to sacrifice himself for the rest of us. Maybe he thought this was the only way to redeem himself for the actions of his son.
But it wasn’t his fault Dante turned out to be a total psychopath.
Before anyone could tell him not to, Otto handed off the child he held and started for that small sliver of light.
His fellow bond mates rushed after him; the vampire, Amais, hissed something about self-sacrifice, while the bear shifter, Hugo, snapped about stupidity.
Leith, the siren, muttered something about wanting to join Greer too soon, but not even the mention of their mate stopped him.
The smell of water and cold, fresh air overpowered the lingering stench of rot, sulphur, and blood we’d been walking through for so long. In the distance, I thought I heard the rush of water.
We moved quicker, trying to keep up with Otto. When he turned a corner, disappearing out of sight, my breath caught in my throat. But Lazarus and Onyx were behind him just as quickly, then Sunniva, and several others.
Then they stopped, a rush of cold air hitting me.
Amais glanced over his shoulder at me, silver eyes finding mine. “Otto is carefully walking out now.”
I said nothing, sucking in a breath just as the males and children ahead of us exited the tunnel.
Hawk spared me a look, one I couldn’t read, before moving to follow.
With the others gone, I could fully see what lay beyond; a dark, starlit sky and a cliff that eerily reminded me of the one Pandora’s palace sat upon.
This cliff had stairs carved into the face that led up to a forest, and between the trees were creatures and fire.
I noticed a few archers, though they hadn’t seemed to spot us.
They were too focused on something I couldn’t see.
The ground beyond was pebbles, dark shiny stones that shifted beneath my feet. I didn’t even care that they hurt; my toes curled in the stones, digging into the little round rocks, which were cold and wet, like it’d rained recently and they were cooled by the night air.
Xerxes gripped my hand tightly, keeping to my back with Thor still over his shoulder. Beside me, Hawk hugged what looked like a large piece of rock jutting from the earth. Maybe it’d once been part of the cliff, but now it stood like a sword reaching for the heavens.
“Follow me, Ivy,” he said, his voice low. “And don’t look up.”
I swallowed and nodded, pressing my back against the cold surface. I didn’t listen to him though, and looked up, turning my head towards the cliff face.
There, standing at the very edge, were more archers.
Soldiers. Even in the darkness, I recognised some of their faces.
I remembered the way they’d sneered at me when I was dragged out of my cell.
I remembered their voices in the back of the shifter prison, joking about doing unspeakable things to me and the others.
They were more focused on something else, not us. I couldn’t help but follow their line of sight, noticing what looked like an island.
I sucked in a cool breath, eyeing the opposing shore. There were people on it, and they had a shield surrounding them.
My heart raced, picking up speed as I took in the five gathered bodies.
Five.
Hope flared within me, blooming in my chest. It should be impossible. There was no way they could have known.
But they were my mates. They would always find me.
Water rushed between our beach and the one they stood on. I could tell it would be impossible to swim across, especially with the archers standing on the cliff above us. The island itself looked like it had protection; lots of forest and the ruins of a building.
No, not a building. It was a castle. Or at least, it used to be. I spied the old walls that would have once housed guards, now lost to the rushing water hitting the sides. Creeping vines hid what might have once been a tower.
Was that the old High Palace? The one the Fae lost when their Queen died?
It was no coincidence that Dante chose to build his compound so close to the ancient ruins. Not when he seemed to mimic the Fae usurper, the one who tried to end Pandora’s rule before it could even begin.
Otto and the others stopped at the edge of the water, moving completely out of sight of the archers—and me. My hold on Xerxes’s hand tightened, the beat of my heart suddenly harder as I looked over my shoulder at him, then up at the cliff.
For a moment, I thought I spied Dante amongst the archers. For a second, it was like he was up there, watching. Waiting for something.
But when I blinked, he wasn’t there.
Why would he let us out? Why allow us to get this far?
Why the hell weren’t the archers shooting at us?
Too many questions rushed through my head. An arm wrapped around my waist, pulling me into a familiar hard chest—and taking me out of the archer’s range.
Xerxes was beside me a second later, ducking low with Thor on his shoulder.
I tore my eyes from the cliff, taking stock of everyone.
Greer’s nine mates were all accounted for, with the children they were protecting huddled close by.
Sunniva and Cato were at the very edge of the water, both looking back towards the cliff like they were considering the same thing I had: swim or wait.
Either could mean their deaths and my recapture.
The figures on the opposing beach turned towards us, suddenly much clearer than they had been when leaving the tunnel.
I knew each of them immediately, from the golden blond hair of Adrian, down to the lithe form that belonged to Rowan.
Maeve’s black hair, dark like the shadows with the silver strand glinting in the waning moonlight.
Elias, standing tall and strong, eyes glowing with the presence of his wolf.
And even Damon, fully relinquishing his glamour to show the horns curling above his head, standing over seven feet tall.
For a moment, I expected Orion to step out of the shadows and reveal he never died, that it’d been a ruse.
A trick for his father and Dante, a lie he’d been forced to spin and not tell me about.
I would accept that. Even if I could still feel that earth shattering pain, I would rush into his arms in a heartbeat if he walked out now.
But he didn’t. No silver-white hair appeared, no eyes the colour of violet. No Luna Fae prince who could walk through my dreams to pull me out of my nightmares.
My heart plummeted, though it had nothing to do with the five figures, standing shocked on the other beach.
It was my own fault for getting hopeful, for not believing what I saw with my own eyes.
I’d watched the light disappear from his eyes.
Heard his last heartbeat. Felt the bond between us break.
Orion was dead.
I swallowed hard, pushing down the anguish threatening to consume me, and focused on my mates across the water. “Damon could shadow himself over here, but he isn’t,” I murmured, keeping my voice low so only Hawk, Xerxes, and those closest to me could hear. “Why hasn’t he?”
“Is that Rhadamanthus?” Onyx asked, glancing back at me. “King of Elysian?”
I nodded once. Right, Onyx was a demon of Elysian, too. Or at least, I thought he was. Hadn’t Adrian said as much?
The demon stared at me for a long moment before looking to the beach again. “He can probably tell there is something wrong with the beach.”
“But we’re right here,” I replied. “He could jump here.”
Onyx shook his head. “The shadows don’t work like that.”
Right. Damon had explained that. The shadows liked to act of their own will. He might try and land as close to us as possible, but instead of doing that, he could land in the middle of the beach and right into Dante’s trap.
That was the last thing we needed, especially because he was the only one powerful enough to help us escape.
“Watch out!” Magnus shouted, pointing to the area above us. I turned in time to see three dark figures running towards us, leaping off the cliff to jump along the towering, unstable rocks leading towards us.
A shield from the mage went up, but it wouldn’t last long, and it wouldn’t stop the attack. The three were completely covered, with black masks over the bottom halves of their faces, hoods covering their heads. They looked like assassins sent from a video game, nothing like the soldiers Dante kept.
Either he had a whole other side of his army we hadn’t seen, or these weren’t his men.
I wasn’t really interested in finding out either way.
They hit the barrier, which wavered, before rebounding off it and landing in the water.
Behind us, growls started, the sound of paws on pebbles meeting my ears. I didn’t even have to look over my shoulder to know the hellhounds had escaped, and those that’d survived were now blocking the only way out.
Assassins, hellhounds, or a mind trap?
It appeared the choice was ours. And I wasn’t sure which we would survive.