Chapter 79 Ivy
Ivy
“There are nearly two hundred names on this list,” Maeve said as she set down the final book.
“We need to send this to Sao and have Elara cross reference it with those we have in custody, and our records. Some of these names likely won’t appear on our master list of traitors, but I want protection on all these people. ”
It had been a trip. No one believed me about the ghosts, but if I had to guess, there were plenty down there. It wasn’t a finished basement like the one Kerry had in my childhood home. The one here was more like a creepy dungeon.
You’d think there were charms for spiders, but no. Plenty of resident ones to outnumber us.
And to my horror, there had been cells. For rabid vampires or something, but still.
We had a mini prison.
That was so up on the list to get rid of.
“I recognise one of these names,” Hawk said, staring intently at one of the books. I couldn’t help but stiffen as I watched him try and reach at the memory. “I…saw it once.”
“Before your memories were wiped?” I asked softly.
Hawk looked up at me, blinking. “Yes.” He closed the book and sat back, eyes closing.
“But I can’t catch the memory. It wasn’t important until…
” Dark eyes opened, finding mine. I couldn’t help but suck in a breath; for a moment, I wasn’t looking at the confused yet gentle half-demon who escaped Dante with me—for a moment, it was the half-Fae commander I stared at.
The one who used his body to shield me when the training rooms caved in around us and my magic was stolen, who pushed me away constantly and said he never wanted the bond with me in the first place.
Then Hawk blinked, and the male I knew too well was gone. Replaced with confusion, shame.
“A priestess’s daughter,” he murmured, shoving the tome away. “I remember a girl being attacked.”
“The Seer,” Rowan said, voice tight. “The one my mother told us about. At the attack on the temple outside of the academy.”
I remembered that; it’d been during the time I’d been healing, when Nyx first warned me of the danger Dante posed. After the attack at the academy that led me to learning Hawk was my mate.
“There was a poison witch, too,” I remembered, glancing at Rowan. “Two little girls had been attacked at the same time.”
Maeve made a sound in the back of her throat as she searched her tablet. “Both held powers Dante wanted because we’d taken them from him. The Seer because he didn’t have one, and a poison witch to replace the one we took into custody at the attack in the human world.”
My stomach churned, bile rising in my throat. “But they were saved, weren’t they?”
Maeve looked up at me, her expression carefully shielded. “The young Seer’s mother took the brunt of the attack. Was harmed in the process. She had to be placed in the care of the priestesses full time and is catatonic.”
Tears burned my eyes, tears I tried to blink away. “And the girl?”
“She’s still in hiding, as far as I can tell.” Maeve shook her head, the mask slipping for a moment, revealing I knew she wouldn’t want the others to see. “The other child, the poison witch, should be in lockdown. All our towns in the human world have been put in darkness. They should be safe.”
My belly gave another uncomfortable twist as I sat back. “There are probably a lot of children on those lists. They’re easy to manipulate. To turn into the perfect soldier.”
“As far as we can tell, all the children you guys got out were shifter children,” Adrian said gently. “Dante likely never got a chance to go after the ones he wanted.”
He would not keep them together, Thor said, hand on my wrist. He would hold them somewhere else. The shifter children were kept in cages to make them shift. Other creatures would be elsewhere.
I was going to be sick. “The children we rescued wouldn’t have been with other children—if he had them.”
“We never found any evidence that he had others in the compound,” Maeve replied, “but I can have Elara send agents back in to check again.”
Shaking my head, I pressed a hand against my churning stomach. “It’s too late now,” I said, looking between her and the others. “Dante would have moved them somewhere else. And if he has these other creatures and he’s preparing—”
A piece of paper appeared on the table, discarded by shadows. The magic sent a chill down my spine.
“Who is it from?” I asked quietly, hands trembling as I rested them over my stomach protectively.
Damon used his shadows to lift the paper into the air. “It’s from Sao.”
“And?” Adrian asked, leaning forward. “It must be important if he reached out first. We haven’t sent him anything in a while.”
Damon scanned the page silently, revealing nothing in his expression. Only once he was done did he let the paper fall to the table again, eerily calm. “Sao has located the runes we have been searching for.”
I stiffened. It took all my strength to not reach for the collar. To not get my hopes up about them finding a way to get this thing off me.
Rowan, sitting across from me, leaned forward. “What is it?”
Damon finally looked up from the table, shaking his head. “He will be sending through all images as instructed. But a boat made it through the Underworld carrying five supposed agents of Dante. Amongst them was the brother of your ally, Cato.”
Brother. I hadn’t even realised they could have been relationships. The one I’d called Jack Frost was still with Dante? Or was he a prisoner?
I shuddered, crossing my arms. “There has to be more, Damon. Spit it out.”
The demon looked conflicted, but eventually he sighed. “The one they call the Charm is also there. And he demands a meeting with his son.”
“Son?” I frowned. “Who? And who is the Charm?”
“He’s a powerful charm mage working with Dante,” Rowan explained, running a hand through his hair. “But why would he be asking for a meeting with some random person? Why not you?”
“Because the son he seeks is not random,” Damon replied, pushing the paper towards my mate. “You are the son, Rowan Archer.”
The room fell silent as Rowan read the letter himself. My heart pounded. I remembered Rowan telling me he had no clue who his biological father was. It was something we’d bonded over—Kerry never revealed who mine was, either.
Maybe, like me, he thought his father was dead. Missing. Gone.
But this was somehow worse. Knowing he was tied to Dante was one thing, but knowing he was one of Dante’s greatest allies?
I couldn’t imagine what was going through his mind.
Only anger appeared in Rowan’s hazel eyes as he set the paper down. “Have a healer compare his signature and DNA to mine. He’s not coming anywhere near me or us until we know he’s telling the truth.”
If I could reach across the table and take his hand, I would. They sat fisted either side of the letter. “Are you okay?” I asked gently. “Ro?”
My mate didn’t look at me as he shook his head. “Not really,” he replied, voice strained. And then he laughed.
Laughed like this was the funniest, most painful thing in the world. The room fell silent, though I heard the pain in each cackle, in the way he tried to keep himself from breaking.
“Of course, my mother would breed with someone working with our enemy,” he said, wiping his eyes. Rising, I moved around the table, barely holding back a flinch as he slammed his fist against the table. “If this is true, then my mother would have known. She would have had to know.”
Gently, I ran my fingers through his dark red hair and cupped the back of his neck. “Maybe she didn’t,” I murmured. “He could have been hiding himself the same way Dante was. You never know.”
Rowan stiffened, glancing up at me with dark eyes. “And yet, he still helped put you in a cage.”
I flinched, breath catching in my throat. “He did,” I replied, nodding once. “But that has nothing to do with you or Sable. He chose to do that. And now, he might be the only one who can get this thing off.”
A tick formed in his jaw as he stared at me. I wished I had access to his thoughts, his emotions. Wished I could give him more comfort through the turmoil of emotions he was probably experiencing.
Slowly, he wrapped an arm around my waist and guided me into his lap. As soon as I was seated, his head fell to my shoulder. “If he really is my father, I want nothing to do with him. I want him to rot with Dante.”
A shiver prickled my skin. “Let’s cross that bridge when we get to it,” I murmured, arm going around his shoulders. “He’s with Cato’s brother, and three others. Do we have anything on them?”
The letter drifted to the air to Maeve, who skimmed it while Damon shook his head. “They were the only important ones of note.”
“It is possible the others were working with Sunniva,” I said. “She told me there were others like her in the compound, and they’re the reason why so many were able to escape in the first place.”
“Did she tell you anything else?” Maeve asked, setting the letter down with a frown.
I shook my head, breathing a sigh of irritation. “I don’t think she was working with Sable. That was the only impression I got from her. Otherwise, surely Sable and Nyx would have known about Dante sooner.”
Beneath me, Rowan stiffened. “You think someone else is helping?” he asked carefully as he pulled back.
“I don’t know,” I replied honestly. The thought of another player in this twisted game of power made my skin crawl.
“If there is another team at play, then this is so much bigger than just runes and skulls,” Elias said from the other end of the table. “We’re talking conspiracies not even Nyx or the Seer know about.”
Tension hung heavily in the air, silence settling over us.
Nyx and Sable had been working together, likely for years, so Dante wouldn’t get my power.
They’d been making changes to everything around me to ensure I survived.
They’d been moving us around like pieces on a chess board, and we always assumed Dante was the other player.