Chapter 72 Xerxes
Xerxes
“We are no closer to finding a key to this than we were a week ago,” the demon king growled, pushing away from the table. His frustration turned the air frigid, potent with irritation.
The red-head—Rowan—slammed his hands against the wood, bowing his head. “I can’t walk away from this. We must be close—”
“But we aren’t,” Adrian replied, scrubbing a hand through his golden hair.
From the doorway, Maeve, the vampire, crossed her arms. “If that thing is helping Dante track her, then we need to find a way to pry it off her. If we do not have the runes, then perhaps we need to build our own key.”
I glanced at the female from the corner of my eye; it wasn’t the first time the idea had been shared, but it certainly had the other males in the room pausing.
The only problem was, there was no clear place on the collar for said key.
We knew the collar had to be linked to Dante himself.
Tied to his power in some way. The key would be him.
“Perhaps if the wraith could get close enough to Dante, then he could steal the bastard’s power,” the demon king said, as if considering the same thing I had. “It would only take a moment for the power to be drained.”
Adrian sighed, the sound grating. “Dante wouldn’t make it that easy,” he replied, taking a step back, eyes darting to the mural of runes painted on the wall.
It was our effort to understanding the so-called God Runes.
Seeing them laid out this way allowed those who understood runes to better recognise their patterns and possible meanings—at least, that’s what they claimed.
But they were strange, different to the old runes covering my home world.
“He’d have a rune marked on his person,” Rowan stated, pushing away from the table and turning towards the wall of runes. “Something he would know.”
“In the same way only certain soldiers were able to unlock the cell,” I murmured, remembering how only a few of his men were able to take Ivy in and out of her cage. The vampire who’d been by Hawk’s side was one of them.
Slowly, both Adrian and Rowan turned back to me, and I continued, “I could unlock the shifter cages, but didn’t have clearance to touch the prisoner cages. My handler did, though. He could unlock the cage holding your father. But neither of us could get Ivy out. Very few were capable of that.”
For a long moment, Rowan stared at me, though it didn’t take much for me—or the others—to realise he and Adrian were thinking of something.
Of course, I could be wrong, though I doubted I was. However, just because there had been soldiers with clearance to unlock the cage didn’t mean they could take off the collar.
And Adrian said just that. “If we can identify the corresponding runes,” he murmured, walking up to the wall and pointing to one I’d noted from her cage, “the lock and then key, maybe we can do the same for the collar.”
Rowan pressed his lips together as he went back to the table. He drummed his fingers against the wood, staring at the files and scrolls laid out across the surface. “The collar doesn’t have any runes from what we can see,” he murmured. “So that might be hard.”
“Let’s start with the cage. I’ll need to send word to Elara, get files on everyone she has imprisoned from Luna. With photos. Do you think you’ll be able to point out anyone with clearance to Ivy’s cage?” Maeve asked, eyeing me with little emotion.
I met her stare and nodded once. “Yes. I made certain to commit their faces to memory.”
To that, she bowed her head. “Rhadamanthus.”
The demon king growled, but he stalked out of the room behind the vampire, leaving me with the two mages.
Adrian turned away from the wall with a shake of his head. “You didn’t see him put it on her?”
I shook my head, glancing away from the desperation clouding his eyes. “No. Not this one.”
The only ones who had seen her first collar—the heavy metal one—had been him and the demon. The one around her neck now was thinner, capable of attaching to chains Dante kept separate just for her.
There’d been too much time between him capturing her and me seeing her again to really understand the difference or know when he’d swapped them.
“Thanks anyway,” Adrian murmured, returning to his position at the end of the table. “There has to be something we’re missing. He can’t just…block her powers. He hasn’t taken them yet, so we know she still has her magic. It’s just locked away.”
“She wasn’t even at full power when he put the collar on her,” Rowan added, head cocked. “And maybe he designed the collar thinking she was. Did he ever learn you were her mate?”
“I’m not sure, though I suppose he suspected it after my…outburst,” I replied with a shrug. “There would have been plenty of time for him to adjust the collar and I wouldn’t know. Thor would.”
The red-head drummed his fingers on the table again, this time eyeing the blocked window, chewing his bottom lip.
“What are you thinking?” Adrian asked.
I had to admit, even I was curious.
“My mother, your mother, literally everyone made it really clear Ivy needs to be at full power,” Rowan started, looking between us. “And she’s not. Even though your mom is dead and her power is with Ivy now, not all her bonds have been unlocked.”
“What does that have to do with anything?” I asked, crossing my arms. I’d heard them refer to her power several times now not being at full strength. Before, I hadn’t been sure what that meant—why it was important—but it appeared to mean something.
Rowan looked me in the eye, a sigh passing his lips.
“Ivy has a fuck ton of power on her own. As the Daughter of Nyx—and now, the Queen—she is flooded with Nyx’s magic.
Lots of it. But that also means it’s…unbalanced.
She’s technically human, like the first Daughter and Queen, so that much power is too much for a mortal body. ”
“Which is where we come in,” Adrian said.
“Her mates. Ivy is the vessel for all that power, and we are basically two things: batteries for when she uses too much and needs to recharge, and conduits for when she’s in overload.
When there is too much power rushing through her, she expels it through us, and our immortal bodies take that power for her.
We also give her pieces of our magic. Like she has my charms, Rowan’s visions, and Elias’s ability to shift.
I imagine she might even be able to use your earth power when you complete the bond. ”
We still shared stories about the Queens of Nyx, even now after over a thousand years of not being one of Nyx’s creatures and living outside of her Queen’s reign.
We knew the stories of Pandora and her mates.
They were told not in the pages of books, but as spoken stories.
Histories we no longer lived by but recognised as important aspects of our past.
Which was how I knew it was more than just the power. It was the links to different worlds, to the realms under Nyx.
“I am her mate because I’m a Primal,” I said, blinking hard. “I am the mate of the Old World, while you are her mates of Avalon. And the sleeping prince and Hawk are her mates of Faery, while the demon is her mate of the Underworld?”
Rowan nodded before giving me a look of surprise. “Rhadamanthus isn’t her mate,” he said, shaking his head.
“Are you certain?” I asked. “He calls her wife.”
“Yeah, because he made a deal with her and it included a wedding.” Adrian rolled his eyes as he crossed his arms once more. “You make a good point. We all come from different parts of Nyx’s Domain, each one of us linked to a realm. But Rhadamanthus isn’t one of us.”
I frowned, glancing towards the door he stalked out of. “I would not be so sure,” I replied quietly. “The bond might not have revealed itself yet to either of them. He is far too invested in her otherwise.”
The two mages shared a look but didn’t comment on it further. It was clear, though, they were considering the same as me. And although I knew little about the world of my mate and her bonds, I was sure of one thing: it wouldn’t be awful if he were her mate, because his power would serve her well.
My conversation with the mages, as well as my talk with Ivy, replayed in my head as I moved through the quiet manor.
Even without noticing, I was drawn towards her.
I caught her scent hanging faintly in the air and I followed it into the kitchen, where I found her perched at the island with a large knife in one hand and a tray of food set out before her.
When I entered, she looked up, and one of those soft smiles that made my heart flutter appeared on her lips. “Hey,” she said, setting the knife down. “What’s up?”
I glanced at the male sitting across from her, then at the one standing nearby before moving to her side. “I just finished working with Adrian and Rowan on the runes.”
The smile faltered for a moment as she looked down at the tray in front of her, the fruit spread out on it. “Oh?”
“Yes,” I said, stopping. Thor, sitting across from her, eyed me warily as the wolf shifter stiffened. “We are debating something. And I would like your opinion, because I think I’m right, and the other two won’t admit it.”
A pink flush tinted her cheeks as she glanced up at me. I could tell that wasn’t what she expected to hear, nor had she likely thought I would get along with her bonded.
But my fated shook her head, the smile even brighter as she looked away. “Okay. What are you debating?”
“Rhadamanthus, the demon king,” I stated.
“Damon?” She picked up her knife again and sliced through the orange on her tray, cutting it in half. “Why are you debating him?”
“Well, I believe he is one of your fated mates, but the other two refuse to believe me. And I would like to know what you think.”
At that, she dropped her knife again, the steel clattering on the tray. Thor growled, the heat of his stare a warning, and even the wolf shift pushed off the counter he’d been leaning against.
But my fated pressed her lips together, making a surprised sound in the back of her throat. “Not the debate I was expecting,” she murmured.
“What were you expecting?” I asked, cocking my head.
“Probably a contest about whose dick is bigger,” she muttered with a shrug. “Okay. So, you think Damon is my mate? I hate to tell you this, because it would be awesome to prove the other two wrong, but Damon can’t be my mate. He can’t have a mate.”
My eyes narrowed on her. “Considering how he acts, I would think him a bonded mate at least,” I replied. “He is as protective as him.” I nodded to Elias, who made a grunting noise.
“He wishes,” the wolf replied. “But like she said: he doesn’t have a mate. It has something to do with his deal as King.”
Ivy nodded at that, agreeing silently, though her eyes told me something else. Like maybe she wished that wasn’t the case.
I shrugged. “If you are certain.”
She sighed, finally looking up at me again as she picked up her knife. “I am.” She went back to her oranges, then to a piece of fruit with a pink skin and white flesh. “Why were you talking about that, anyway?”
“I wanted to know about your power,” I said, picking up a piece of the white flesh with black seeds. Before she could stop me, I popped it into my mouth. It had a pleasant flavour, one I enjoyed. “I will admit, I didn’t know much about it and how it ties to your mate bonds.”
“I guess that’s not something you would have known on your own.
It took them a dozen tries to explain it to me, and I still think it makes no sense half the time,” she replied, shaking her head.
I went to take another piece of fruit off her tray, but she smacked my hand away. “I’m making fruit salad.”
“What’s that?” I asked, frowning.
“Different fruits all cut up and mixed together,” she replied.
Understanding hit me, and I nodded slowly. “We call that something different,” I replied. “But that is a much simpler way to explain it.”
“What does her power have to do with Rhadamanthus?” the wolf asked, bracing his hands on the island.
“We have stories about the Queen and her mates,” I explained, crossing my arms. “About how her magic is tied to each of the realms. I thought it odd that our fated doesn’t have a mate solely from the Underworld.
Hawk is from two realms, not just the Underworld, and none of your other mates are from there.
So, I thought Rhadamanthus had to be a mate. ”
Ivy stared at me for a moment before shaking her head. “He doesn’t have a mate,” she reiterated, giving me a look I couldn’t read. “It’s not possible.”
Despite her words, doubt flickered in her eyes as she went back to preparing the fruit salad quietly. I glanced at the wolf, who watched me with an unreadable expression. It was when he bowed his head that I felt like I could breathe. Like I wasn’t the only one having the same thoughts.
My knowledge was little, that I couldn’t deny. But I doubted the King of the Elysian Fields would be here otherwise. He wouldn’t be reacting the way he was. Even with their marriage deal, he was far more invested than most would be.
Maybe Ivy didn’t believe it, but there was some truth there. She only had to open her eyes and see it.