Chapter 71 Ivy
Ivy
Igasped for breath when I woke, the darkness around me hazy, the reason for my waking unclear.
Half of me was still in the dream with Orion, locked in that moment in the field and the emotions rushing through me. I was still naked, coming down from the high of a climax, wondering how the hell I even got there.
And yet, something woke me. Something drew me out of that dream and away from Orion.
I pushed the heavy blanket off me with a shudder. The bed beside me was cold, the sheets pulled up to the pillow. I frowned and looked to my other side, searching for Thor, but even his side of the bed was flat—unused.
A sick, churning feeling twisted in my stomach as I scooted to the edge of the bed and got out. As soon as I was free of the blankets, a cold chill rushed through me, an icy breeze picking up the strands of my hair.
I shivered, grabbing one of my cardigans, and wrapped it around myself as I turned to the balcony. One of the doors hung open a crack, allowing the cold night air in. No one went out there, so why was the door open? The manor was freezing, especially at night.
Everything in me told me to run. To hide.
And yet I made my way to the balcony slowly, heart pounding.
A lump formed in my throat as my fingers brushed the doorknob. It was only then that I saw him.
The figure of my nightmares.
Dante didn’t move as he stared out over the island, keeping his back to me. My hand tightened around the handle, but I was frozen in fear. I knew I needed to run. Hide. Find my mates and…
Where were my mates? They wouldn’t leave me. The only times I got to be alone were when I needed me time in the bathroom. And even then, they tended to hover.
My breaths came faster as Dante turned. The light of the full moon highlighted his twisted features, revealing the darkness of his eyes, the cruel curve of his lips.
As soon as his gaze landed on me, he grinned. Feral. Evil.
Dante took a step, never crossing into the room.
“I’m going to find you,” he hissed, hands curling into fists.
“You know I will. I always do. You think because I don’t have Adrian or your little pets that I don’t have my ways?
You are still mine. Still my prisoner. Still my captive.
You wear my collar. You can’t escape me. You won’t ever escape me.”
I couldn’t move, frozen in place as he closed the distance between us. I felt his breath fan my face as he leaned in, the stench of his cologne as it tickled my nose. I wanted to throw up, his proximity making my skin crawl.
It took all my strength not to flinch. To not let him see my fear.
“I will get you back,” he whispered, reaching for my throat. “There is nowhere in Nyx’s realms you can hide where I won’t find you.”
I screamed. Something heavy held me down, coiled around me like chains. I thrashed against the powerful hold, shoving against the powerful binds trapping me.
I couldn’t go back to the cage. Never again.
“Ivy,” a voice growled, cutting through the buzzing in my ears, the thrum of blood as it and the sound of my racing heart drowned out everything else. “Ivy. You’re safe.”
My teeth gritted, but I felt cool hands on my cheeks, the touch immediately making the tension falter.
“That’s it,” another cooed, their voice soft—pleasant. “You’re okay.”
Every breath had my chest aching, lungs filled with ice. The chains turned into something else—something less constricting, something soft. As I settled, I felt my senses come back to me.
Smell. Pine, vanilla, spun sugar, honey. Scents I recognised, scents I found comfort in tickling my nose with each breath I drew in.
Touch. Cool fingers on my cheeks, wiping away tears I hadn’t realised were falling. Hands on my wrists, holding me against a familiar warmth I wanted to sink into. Fingers in my hair, stroking away the remnants of his fist around my throat.
And finally, sight. I pried my eyes open. At first, I saw the canopy above my bed, the white gauze hanging over the posters, always swaying despite the windows and doors being closed. But when I blinked, I realised there were faces in the periphery of my vision.
Elias on one side of me, gripping my hands, holding me tight. Maeve on the other side, wiping away my tears. Above my head, Xerxes, stroking my hair. And by my feet, Damon, close yet keeping his distance.
The hands around my wrists immediately loosened, though they didn’t release. Elias heaved a breath, dropping his head. Relief flashed across his face.
Mouth dry, I tried to swallow. “What—”
“You had a nightmare,” Maeve said, her voice gentle as she wiped away another tear. I looked at her, finding her lips pursed, uncertainty darkening her eyes. “But you’re safe.”
It hadn’t felt like a nightmare, though. The chill of the room had felt so real, and Dante’s fingers as they curled around my throat…
I brought a trembling hand to my neck, feeling the ridges of the collar and the tender flesh beneath. “It hadn’t been a nightmare,” I whispered, voice hoarse. “It’d been real.”
Xerxes’s hand stilled in my hair. “What…happened?” he asked hesitantly.
I wasn’t sure if I wanted to say it aloud. I didn’t want to speak Dante into existence, but I also had to tell them. If there was a way that he’d figure out where we were, then we weren’t safe anymore. This place, the haven it was, had been found.
I bit the inside of my cheek hard enough to draw blood and squeezed my eyes shut against the fear tightening in my chest. “Dante,” I said, voice cracking. I felt everyone tense at the mention of his name, breaths catching, waiting for me to continue.
Swallowing hard, I released a shaky breath. “I thought…I thought I was alone. That I’d been left here. And when I got up, the balcony door was open. The air was so, so cold. I thought it was strange someone would leave it open. And so, I went to it. But I found someone out there.”
When Dante’s cruel, twisted smile flashed across the darkness of my mind, I forced my eyes open, inhaling sharply. “He said he would find me. That I would never be able to escape him.” I covered the collar with my hand completely. “I am so, so scared he’s found us.”
The silence of the room became too heavy as looks were shared. My heart wanted to crash out of my chest with how badly the panic coiled within me.
Finally, after a moment, Elias pulled me completely against his chest as the others released me. “We’ll do a complete perimeter sweep, check the wards, and enhance them. He hasn’t found us.”
I shuddered, looking up into his darkening eyes.
“How can you be sure?” I asked, voice trembling.
My stomach twisted, cramping, but I barely felt it over the fear rushing through me.
“How do you know? He was right there, Elias. He was on the balcony. He could see everything. He could be rallying his army now to get us—”
“There is nothing on the horizon,” Hawk said, his voice startlingly quiet, tense. “No ships. No army. He hasn’t found us.”
I swallowed hard and sought Hawk out. He stood by the balcony door, which was closed. Outside, clouds covered the stars and moon, which only barely made a dent in the darkness. It wasn’t the same sky I’d seen in my nightmare—not even close to it.
Maybe it had just been a nightmare. But after the sweetness of my dream with Orion, it was hard to believe I was dragged into something so…dark.
“But we will go out there and make certain,” Xerxes said, glancing back at Hawk, then down at me. “We won’t let him find you, fated. The island is hidden. He has nowhere to search.”
“But for how long?” I asked quietly, sitting up. My hands wouldn’t stop trembling, and my stomach gave another warning twist, bile rising in my throat. “Are we really safe here? Are we sure this collar isn’t a beacon guiding him to us—to me?”
There was no immediate answer. We couldn’t be sure. There was no way for us to know anything.
“If there is, Rowan and I will find a way to stop it,” Adrian said, appearing behind Elias. “I promise.”
I pressed my lips together but didn’t reply. There were far too many promises being made that we couldn’t be sure would be kept. And it wasn’t their fault. We weren’t prepared for this. Not by Greer and not by the Goddess.
Morning came with a thick fog that dampened the air and hung heavily across the island.
I wrapped my arms around myself as I walked out onto the back patio, the slippers on my feet barely protecting me from the wetness covering the stone. I sidestepped an old wrought iron set of chairs covered in old, rotting leaves and moss, shivering at the wind coming off the ocean.
Footsteps sounded behind me, but I didn’t turn. I knew who it was without even looking. Thor and Xerxes were keeping watch over me while the others did their patrol around the island.
My gaze drifted to the field. There were trees and from here what looked like gardens directly below us; the patio stood on the edge of a decline, with stairs off to the side built into the hill that led down to the forest. An old path cut through the heavy foliage, though it was mostly hidden now by the fog.
Fingers brushed my side before going beneath my cardigan and shirt to touch my skin. Are you okay now? Thor asked, voice coming through hesitantly.
I shivered at the contact, unable to stop myself from leaning into his touch.
“I’ll be better once this is over,” I replied honestly, eyeing the horizon.
I kept expecting to see darkness crawling across the sea coming towards us, but there was only the fog and calm waves.
Occasionally, something appeared like a blip before disappearing, and every time I saw the head of a mermaid or siren, I couldn’t help but wonder if they knew.
If they could sense us here and were reporting back to Dante while we did nothing.
I felt Xerxes move in closer, the heat of his body pressing into my other side.
“They are certain he won’t find this place, but I worry that he will,” he said honestly.
I finally tore my gaze off the ocean and looked up at the male, taking in the strong lines of his face, the deep brown of his skin.
“None of us understand the magic he wields. The control that he has.”
My stomach twisted uncomfortably. “But you saw a lot of it, right? Back there?” I asked, arms tightening around myself.
Xerxes was quiet for a moment before looking away. “I fear I didn’t learn enough. I can’t help you or my clans with what I know.”
“Your clans?” I asked, a little grateful for the distraction that was his world. It would be easy to get lost in the fear of wondering what Dante would do to an entirely new land of creatures, creatures so completely different yet similar to us, who hadn’t been touched in over a thousand years.
“There aren’t many of us left,” he said quietly, gazing off into the distance.
“Reproduction is low. Children are a rarity, and our Prima hasn’t made herself known.
Long ago, we split into clans so that there was a chance of surviving the thrax, and it worked.
We moved underground, kept to the coasts and fertile land, but we are not thriving.
Dante wiped out an entire city in his invasion into my world.
Without our Prima, we are weak—divided. And although we might fight, I am certain with his weapons, he will win. ”
A lump formed in my throat, bile burning its way into my mouth. But somehow, I swallowed it back.
“I cannot let that happen,” he finished quietly, finally meeting my stare again. I could tell he was at war with what he wanted. Maybe at war with the bond and his duty. “But I also will not let him hurt you.”
I shivered again, this time from something else. Something I wasn’t entirely sure I should touch on yet.
“What’s a Prima?” I asked instead, clearing my throat.
Xerxes released a shaky breath. “She is our Queen, to put it simply,” he replied, glancing away from me. “Somewhat like you, as she takes several males as her mates—though to better her chances at carrying a pregnancy and birthing another Prima. She unifies the clans, and is our leader.”
“So, the female we met at the palace…she isn’t your Prima, I take it?” I asked, a little confused. The female in question had certainly acted like the leader, but with the way Xerxes spoke about the Prima, it didn’t sound like they had one.
“No,” he replied, shaking his head. “Phaedra is not our Prima. She is one of the elders, knew the last Prima, and our clans chose her to lead us when a new Prima wasn’t born. Since then, despite doing everything we can to promote births, a Prima hasn’t been born.”
“I’m sorry.” I reached for his hand, letting my fingers hover over his for a moment before gently taking it. I waited for him to stop me, but he didn’t.
“We need a Prima now more than ever, but I fear war will reach us first,” he finished, entwining our fingers.
It felt like a small step towards acceptance.
Although I didn’t know what he thought about our mate bond, he didn’t appear to shove it aside like he had when we’d been in the Old World.
I thought it was just a fluke when we escaped, and he’d acted so protective.
But now I wondered if maybe there was more.
Could I accept more, though? My heart lurched as I looked away from him, his hand firmly holding mine, Thor’s touch a burning reminder of what I still had waiting for me.
Two more mates. Two males raised in entirely different worlds and circumstances. I admired them both for different reasons; Xerxes for his loyalty to his people and courage to fight for them alone, and Thor for surviving something no one should have.
But were either of them ready for what being my mate meant?
Was I?