Chapter 90 Ivy
Ivy
Iwasn’t alone in the darkness. But I wasn’t with Sable or Nyx, either.
Around me, one by one, my mates appeared.
Orion first with his silver white hair and furious violet eyes searching the darkness.
Then Elias, skin rippling, eyes glowing with the proximity of his wolf as he furiously stalked towards me.
When I turned, I found Adrian, golden hair mused and confusion dark in his emerald eyes.
Maeve, claws ripping free of her nails and fangs dropping, the mask of neutrality slipping for a moment to reveal the beast of bloodlust.
Rowan appeared next, wide eyed and flushed, breathing hard like he just ran a marathon.
Damon stepped into the darkness beside him, eerily calm despite knowing they should not be here.
Out of the fog that seemed to surround us came Hawk, hand on his belt like he could pull a weapon.
My heart pounded as I spun to find Xerxes standing tall and uncertain, dark eyes flickering over a place so familiar to me, I knew it likely worried them.
And last was Thor, confused and panting, brows furrowed as he looked around.
All my mates, with me in the darkness Nyx and Sable trapped me in after I completed a bond.
There was something deeply wrong with this. They should not be here. This was a place entirely made of my connection to Nyx.
“Nyx!” I shouted, turning in a circle, panting as I searched for her. But all my mates looked confused now. “Where are you?”
“Ivy, what is going on?” Maeve asked carefully, her claws disappearing. “Where are we?”
The others stepped in around me, forming a barrier. But their presences only made my heart pound harder, air lodging in my lungs as I tried to suck in breath.
It took me too long to realise I was on the brink of a panic attack, and I couldn’t understand why. Why were they here in this place only Nyx, Sable, and I met? How could they have gotten here?
Unless completing my bond with Thor had really done it. Had really saved me.
But when my hand went to my throat, I felt the heavy, dark reminder still locked around my neck. In my dreams, I usually escaped it.
Not now. Not here.
I dropped my hand and turned again, seeking the Goddess—I’d even take Sable—over the heads of my towering mates. But as they closed in around me, trying to offer some sort of comfort, I felt only pressure building in my chest.
Panic. It flooded me. Coiled tightly around my heart like a snake, twisting until I couldn’t breathe. I clutched at my throat, wishing I could rip the collar off.
I’d been so sure that by completing my bonds, it might finally release me from its grasp. That maybe the ancient magic would finally just…disappear.
But I’d been wrong. So, so wrong.
It felt tighter somehow. Pressing into my windpipe.
Arms wrapped around my middle, a hand taking mine and prying my fingers from the collar. When I breathed in, it was spun sugar I scented.
“Breathe,” Xerxes murmured, lips brushing my ear. “You need to breathe.”
The next breath I took in was shaky, but it filled my lungs.
Spice, smoke, pine. The wind as it rolled over the ocean.
Mint tea freshly brewed. All the scents of my mates mingled together, surrounding me as I calmed part of the panic.
Just their familiar scents alone were enough to slow my racing heart.
“Where are we, Ivy?” Maeve repeated, her voice calmer—softer. “What happened?”
I drew in a sharp breath and released it slowly. “Thor and I completed the bond,” I said, glancing over at the bear shifter who still looked confused. “When we did, I passed out again. I didn’t think it would bring you here, though.”
“It?” Adrian asked warily, stepping forward.
“Nyx. Sable. My magic.” Tears burned my eyes. “I don’t know. This is where I usually go after a bond is completed. Where Nyx or Sable find me and give me vague premonitions.”
There was a beat of tense silence that followed my explanation, which only made my skin crawl.
“I don’t know why we’re here,” I whispered, looking around my mates. “I don’t know how this happened.”
“Thor says he remembers a voice right before he passed out,” Rowan said, eyeing the bear shifter before looking at me as Thor dropped his hand from Rowan’s shoulder. “He panicked. Didn’t understand what happened. Then he heard a voice tell him you’d be okay, and then he was out, too.”
A lump formed in my throat as I tried to process what he said, but it only had the panic building within me again.
What if completing the bonds had been a trap? What if Dante was coming for us now, and knew where we were? What if we weren’t safe anymore and he’d ensured this would happen?
“Dante is coming for you,” a familiar, amused voice said, echoing through the darkness, “but he’s not coming for you on the island.”
“Mom?” Rowan stared wide eyed down at his mother, who appeared behind our group. My mates parted, allowing me to see her.
She looked almost the same as she had last time. Sunken features, sallow skin, bruised eyes. Sickly, tired.
Rowan stepped forward, uncertainty crossing his eyes for a moment before he met her. Sable opened her arms for him, a sigh of relief passing her lips as he folded into her arms.
The sight of them together had the lump in my throat tightening. Based on the way she looked at me, it felt like a final goodbye.
A shudder wracked my body, but I said nothing. Not as she pulled away from Rowan and cupped his cheek fondly, pouring all her love into that single look.
“What’s going on, Sable?” Maeve questioned, crossing her arms. “Why are we here?”
Sable sighed and pulled away from Rowan. She eyed my vampire mate first before taking in the rest of them with a hard stare—before eventually landing on me. “You’ve completed all your bonds.”
It wasn’t a question, and yet I found myself nodding. “Yes, but it’s still on me.”
Something softened in her gaze, but it was only brief. “You’ve bridged the darkness between your bonds,” she explained. “They are here because your magic is still incomplete.”
“Don’t tell me I have another mate out there,” I murmured, exhausted. “Sable, we’re out of time.”
She nodded, lips pressed together. “Not another mate,” she said, which should have brought me some relief—but it didn’t. “The completion of the bonds should have cleared those pesky runes on your back, though.”
Behind me, Xerxes stilled before pulling back. Without a word, he lifted my shirt and drew in a sharp breath. “They’re healed,” he said, the words tense.
“Healed, but not gone?” I asked, looking over my shoulder. I couldn’t see anything, and unfortunately his expression was guarded.
Both Thor and Elias moved to stand with Xerxes, examining my back. “They’re silver, like they’re old,” my wolf mate said, brushing his fingers over my skin. “Raised.”
A shiver ran through me. “But can you see my mate marks?” There would be four new ones. Four for the mates I’d recently bonded.
I felt Thor’s hand on the small of my back, his voice coming through clearly. Yes, he murmured. I see my bear.
I wished I could see them, but instead I looked to Sable again. “What happens now, then? If they aren’t fully complete, then what do we need to do?”
“You need to get the collar off,” she said, as if it were the simplest thing in the world. “Dante is going to launch a full-scale attack on the Underworld and the rest of Avalon to draw you out.”
“How do you know that?” Damon asked, voice dark.
“I’ve come to know a lot,” she replied, glancing at him. “And he’s going to use me as bait. But do not fall for it.”
“Why?” Rowan stiffened, reaching for her like he wanted to embrace her again, but was frozen in place. “You’re still with him.”
“Oh, my sweet boy.” She softened again, this time tears shining in her eyes. “I’m already dead.”
It felt like the air had been knocked out of my lungs, pain crashing through my chest as I watched Rowan fall to his knees. “What?” he whispered.
I stumbled out of Xerxes’s hold and moved towards my mate, but his eyes were on his mother, who moved to cup his cheek again. “I’ve been dead for a while now, my boy. That’s how I was able to reach Ivy in the first place.”
Rowan pulled out of her hold, staring at her in horror. When I reached him, all I could do was rest my hand on his shoulder as he trembled. “What? How?”
Sable looked from him to me, and for the first time I could really see it.
Death hanging over her, like the reaper himself was waiting.
“Well,” she murmured, “I couldn’t let him have me or my connection to Nyx.
It was the only way to protect it—and you.
And it means he cannot use me against you.
Do not worry about my body. It will return to Nyx just as she planned, and he will have no leverage.
He might have it, but my soul is with you.
” She looked down at her son again, tears welling in her violet eyes.
“Just know, I didn’t want to leave you like this. But I knew you would survive.”
My mate shook his head, leaning into me as he sucked in shaky, uneven breaths. “You can’t be dead.”
“But I am,” she said, lips pulling into a tired smile. “And it was a sacrifice I would make a thousand times over if it meant you would survive.”
“Sable…” I murmured, but she shook her head, not letting me finish.
“I want you all to live safe and happy lives together,” she said, tearing her eyes from Rowan to look around the circle of mates closing in around us.
“And if that means my own long life must come to an end, then so be it.” She looked back at me and Rowan, her gaze softening again.
“We all know death doesn’t mean the end, anyway.
One day, when you need me, I’ll be a summon away. ”
Tears lodged in the back of my throat, burning my eyes as I watched her.
Everything she’d done flashed through my mind; the vague warnings I used to hate, the constant amusement—like despite being a Seer, there were still surprises awaiting her.
Had she known this would be her destiny?
That she would end up in Dante’s hands and die?
“War is here,” she continued, her voice darkening. “Dante is ready to take what he thinks belongs to him. And a choice needs to be made, Ivy.”
A shiver rolled down my spine as her darkening eyes found mine. “What choice?”
“The future is in your hands,” she said. “You’ll know what needs to be done when you enter the battlefield.”
“Ivy should not be entering any battlefield,” Orion hissed, his anger potent. His magic filled the air like he was trying to take control of the dream, but he couldn’t. “Not only is she pregnant, but she has no magic. The collar is still on her.”
Sable didn’t look at him as she shook her head.
“You’ll find the key to the collar soon,” she said, a knowing glint entering her eyes.
“All it takes is a good trick. A moment of weakness and desperation. You’ll know it when you see it.
But your magic needs to be strengthened through connection.
Reclaim your bonds. He will fight you for everything you have. And Ivy, you must win.”
A weight settled in my chest, the pressure crushing. The vagueness wasn’t even the problem anymore: it was the fact I would be going into this fight with nothing.
“My father,” Rowan said, climbing to his feet. “What about him? He worked with Dante. Can’t he get it off?”
“Unfortunately not,” Sable replied, dropping her stare to the ground. “Don’t hold too much of a grudge, though, alright?”
Rowan made a sound in the back of his throat. “You mean against the male who helped trap my mate in a cage and in that collar in the first place? Why the fuck not?”
“Because we put him there.” Nyx appeared in the fog, floating towards us. The sight of her had me stiffening. “Because he is a piece to a much larger puzzle. He served his purpose with Dante, and now he is free of his promise.”
Something about those words left a bad taste in my mouth. “But he can’t take the collar off?”
“He has the tools to help you in other ways,” was all Nyx said.
Behind me, Adrian growled, the sound startling me. “We don’t have time for this. In two days, the eclipse will hit, and we’ll be at war.”
Nyx stopped in front of us, the cowl still covering her face. “The time for war is now, son of Greer. Your time has run out.”