Chapter 59 Ivy
Ivy
Bile rose in my throat the longer I stared at Orion’s grey skin and unmoving form. “What the—”
“It’s not what it looks like,” Rowan said quietly, pressing into my side, curling his other arm around me.
“Ivy—” Adrian stepped forward, almost in front of Orion’s lifeless body, but I couldn’t tear my eyes off my Fae mate.
I couldn’t muster a response to either of them. Not as my breathing came harder, faster, and not as my stomach turned threateningly with bile.
“He is not dead, wife,” Damon said, his voice booming. “He is alive.”
I blinked hard, finally pulling in a deep enough breath to ask, “What?”
Damon moved to the head of Orion’s floating bed, the King of the Elysian Fields gentle as he pushed it towards me. I stilled with terror as I took in the lifelessness of my mate’s body, the way his chest didn’t move, or how his eyes didn’t flutter with sleep.
“His soul still clings to him, my Queen,” Damon said, stopping a foot away from me. “He is alive. Hanging on to his mortal body. Your bond saved him, and I believe that is what he will need to come back to you.”
I tore my eyes from Orion’s sunken cheeks and hollow eyes to meet Damon’s stare.
“I don’t—I can’t.” If my hands weren’t trapped, my fingers would be curling around the cold metal of my collar or going to the deep scars along my back.
I’d been so lost to my grief those first few days that I hadn’t felt anything.
Not the pain of his searing knife as it moved through my flesh.
Not the agony of each bond being cut apart one by one.
Not the snapping of my lifelines as they went out.
I was grateful I didn’t remember any of it now, but they didn’t know the extent of it. None of them did. I wasn’t even sure Hawk or Xerxes were completely aware of what Dante had done to me in the isolation cell.
“Enough,” Elias snapped. “Take him to one of the rooms. She wasn’t ready to see him. Not like this.”
Maybe I was, or maybe I wasn’t. I’d been so, so fucking certain of his death in the cottage that I hadn’t…I hadn’t even tried to find out otherwise.
Damon just clenched his jaw and moved the bed towards the great double doors, which opened with the help of his shadows.
I didn’t want to let Orion out of my sight, but the others circled me, completely blocking him from my view.
“He is healed,” Maeve said, her voice thick with emotion. “We made sure all his physical wounds were taken care of. And any connection Dante would have had to him was lost, too.”
“How?” I choked out, finally looking away from the empty doorway Damon and Orion disappeared through. “How could he survive that when…? How didn’t I know?”
“We don’t know for certain,” Rowan said. “We thought…we thought he was gone. But he…healed. And Rhadamanthus said he was still alive. We just didn’t know if he would ever wake up or not.”
Then maybe…if Orion was alive this entire time, had he really been there in my dreams?
Had that really been him after I was rescued?
“And you’re sure Dante can’t hurt him?” I asked, glancing at Rowan.
“If Blythe is to be believed, then yeah,” he replied. “She can’t sense Dante at all.”
I blew out a relieved breath, eyes closing as a wave of exhaustion rushed through me. Despite the couple of hours of sleep I got, I could use about twelve more with that revelation. And a bath. A really long bath to just wash everything away.
“Let’s get you inside,” Maeve said, clearing her throat.
I couldn’t help the small rush of curiosity and excitement as we started for the doors. Each step had my heart pounding harder. I had no idea what to expect, especially not after the vague explanations Ry had given us before…
I shook my head of that memory. I just wanted to know what he’d done.
We ascended the short steps leading up to the doors and were immediately met with an empty foyer with a set of grand staircases either side of an arched walkway, with two more arches leading into adjacent rooms. The echo of thunder and our footsteps could be heard throughout the manor, but as soon as I stepped across the threshold, I felt it.
I felt that peace Orion had promised me.
Tears brimmed my eyes again, but I kept them from falling, especially as we approached the stairs.
“The rooms down here look empty,” Rowan murmured from beside me.
“There appears to be the remains of an office through there,” Maeve said, drawing my attention to the room to our right. From the foyer, I could see built-in shelves that tickled at all my dreams of a beautiful office with floor to ceiling bookcases where I could draw endless inspiration from.
Those dreams had been lost for a while, darkened by all the expectations thrown at me, lost to the last couple of weeks and the threat of war. I’d purposefully shoved them aside because they didn’t have any real purpose with what my life was shaping up to be.
Even now, I was too scared to think about what it might be like to fill those shelves with my collection of romance novels, with all my own published books. It felt like a lifetime ago. An entirely different life altogether. A life that meant everything to me.
“We can explore once you’ve had more rest,” Rowan said, a smile curving his lips when I looked back at him. “I noticed the tower and already know how badly you’ll want to see it.”
“Once I go down,” I muttered, clearing my throat, “I don’t know if I’ll be able to get up again.”
Was the swelling in my feet from pregnancy or the absolute crap they’d been through all day? The ache in my muscles and bones…if I were lucky, there wouldn’t be a fluffy bed here, because once I lay down, that’d be it. I’d either succumb to the nightmares or let myself get lost in dreams.
At the top of the stairs, Damon appeared, running a hand through his dishevelled hair. “I will give it to your Luna Prince, he planned for everything.”
“What do you mean?” Elias grunted, still carrying Hawk.
“There are a dozen beds up here,” Damon explained, resting his hands on the railing above us.
“Of course, he likely didn’t expect so many mates.
Some rooms are clearly for children. But he protected everything with sheets.
I’ve put him in the room closest to what I assume he designed to be your suite, wife. ”
I couldn’t bring myself to respond as I started for the stairs, everyone else trailing behind me.
Tension leaked from my mates, their uncertainty palpable.
But all I could focus on were the stairs ahead of me, taking each one slowly.
I ignored the pain flaring in the soles of my feet, the aches in my thighs and calves.
The burn in every one of my muscles didn’t slow me as I made my way up to the second floor.
The stairs were a deep honeyed brown wood, as were the banister and parquet floors. Some of the walls looked like they’d been refinished with new paint or wallpaper, but others still had water stains and peeling corners. How much time had Orion spent rebuilding this place? Especially on his own?
Damon’s eyes tracked me from the banister, but he said nothing as he turned and walked towards a room with double doors. My heart raced as my eyes strayed to a half-open door. I could just see the bed within and the figure lying atop it.
I tore my eyes from the room as Damon gently opened the doors leading into what he suspected was my room. I bit down on a gasp as he stepped aside, allowing me to take everything in.
Directly in the centre was a four-poster bed, larger than anything I’d ever seen before.
It was bigger than the one back at the palace in our suite, large enough to accommodate several of my mates—maybe all of them if they tried.
A large white sheet covered the mattress, though gauzy curtains moved in an invisible breeze when I entered.
At the end of the bed sat a large trunk, the metal embellishments shiny, as if someone recently polished them.
The hardwood continued into the room, though under the bed sat a huge, ornate rug that had to be antique. I was almost too scared to step on it considering how dirty and bloody my feet were. I stopped at the edge, taking everything else in with blurry eyes.
Beside the bed were built-in nightstands, bookshelves either side of them.
They’d been emptied, save for a few things Orion obviously placed.
A few books, a snow globe. Things that had my throat constricting, vision swimming with tears.
I blinked hard, trying to swallow past the lump building in my throat.
The hands holding mine gave me tight, reassuring squeezes, as if reminding me they were there. In the background somewhere behind me, Elias said something to Damon as a door closed. He must have put Hawk in one of the other rooms.
“You okay?” Rowan asked.
I looked at him, nodding once. “This doesn’t feel real.”
Something flared in his eyes as he motioned to the rest of the room. “Let’s find the bathroom. Surely there’s one here somewhere.”
The rest of the room felt like a blur; a large balcony was set off to one side overlooking the forest and more of the manor below, even having a view of the ocean. It looked like it connected to two other rooms, neither of which we entered.
The bed sat against a free-standing wall that hid a walk-in wardrobe and the bathroom, both of which blew the bedroom out of the water.
I couldn’t imagine owning enough clothes for the wardrobe, but there was enough space for anything I could imagine. There were even a few garment bags hidden in the shadows, bags I couldn’t bring myself to look at. Not yet.
And the bathroom…
It didn’t feel real at all.
A large soaking tub built into the floor sat in the middle, with a large wall of windows overlooking the island below.
In here, I had a full view of our field of wildflowers, the pond, and the little pavilion sitting against the tree line.
With the storm rolling in, it was hard to see more, especially with the rain now coming down harder than earlier, flooding the world in a greyish hue.
The moment we crossed into the bathroom, the tub started to fill from hidden spouts either side of the large basin. Warmth prickled my skin as steam rose from the water.
As it filled, I took in the shower hidden behind another wall set in what looked like a hallway; the door off to the side where I assumed the toilet must be; the long vanity and three sinks to my right.
Although exhaustion sank deep into me, all I wanted to do was disappear in the bath. Sink into it and just…disappear.
For the first time since escaping, I felt the weight of the collar around my neck, felt the way the metal stuck to my skin, how raw and sore my throat felt beneath it.
There would be no disappearing with this thing still trapping me to Dante.
No escaping his hold with it still being a dark reminder of his control.
Rowan released my hand hesitantly and moved towards the tub. Despite how large it was, it still filled quickly, the water lapping at the stairs leading into the water. He knelt at the edge and ran his fingers through the water.
“It’s hot,” he said, glancing up at me. “Is there anything—”
Before he could finish, I pulled the nightgown off my body. One of the last remnants of Dante’s control fell to my feet, baring me to all who stood around me.
I was glad I couldn’t see the utter destruction of my body.
The glass across from me revealed enough.
Nothing could really hide the scars.