Chapter 93 Ivy
Ivy
Iawoke to the sound of thunder rumbling through the air.
It pulled me out of my dreams and had me sitting up straight, taking in the deep darkness that’d settled in around the room.
The open curtains revealed the storm raging outside; rolling black clouds and a furious rain hitting the balcony and closed door; a strong wind bending the trees beyond as lightning struck the sky.
Another crack of thunder filled the air, startling and loud, pulling Thor from his slumber at the end of the bed. He was on his feet in an instant, eyes wide and unseeing as he stumbled. I shoved off the mattress, ignoring the fact that both of us were still naked, and grabbed his hand.
You’re safe, I said, feeling a familiar heat rise in my chest. The barrier between me and my bonds was weaker than it had been before, and for the first time in weeks, I felt a hint of my mates. You’re okay.
Thor turned to me, breathing hard, but as soon as our eyes met, the tension seemed to completely disappear. I barely had a chance to move before I was in his arms, naked bodies completely flush as he buried his face in my messy hair.
The doors to the bedroom slammed open as lightning lit up the sky again. “Ah, shit,” Rowan muttered. “My eyes.”
Thor stiffened, but he didn’t let go of me, a growl rumbling through his chest in response. “We passed out once the bond completed, remember?” I asked.
With each appearance of my other mates, I could finally feel them again. Maeve’s quiet strength; Orion’s possessiveness; Elias’s determined resolve. And for the first time, I felt my new mates; like the ancient strength that came from Damon, the curious insight of Xerxes, the power of Hawk.
It both overwhelmed and relieved me to at least have some connection to them again. Weak as it was, it still brought tears to my eyes.
“Let’s get changed,” I said once the bedroom was filled. “Then we need to talk about what Sable said.”
“I think we need to talk about what Nyx said before she abandoned us in that place,” Adrian said, voice dark. “Because she was right.”
My skin prickled with a shiver as I pulled away from Thor long enough to take in my mates. “What?”
Bile rose in my throat as Maeve revealed her tablet. Red ringed her eyes as they met mine. “Dante set fire to the forest outside the academy,” she said. “They won’t last long if it’s an ever-burning spell. The wards will only hold out for so long before it destroys them.”
My stomach sank, heart pounding. “But that’s not all, is it?” I asked, taking in their grim expressions and dark eyes. “What else has he done?”
“It’s not what he’s done,” Elias said, “it’s what Nyx did to us while we were out.”
“What? What did she do?” I looked around again, eyes catching on the dark storm. On the rolling black clouds and raging winds beyond.
“The lunar eclipse is tonight,” Damon said, voice hard. “We are out of time.”
Dressed and heart pounding, I followed my mates out of the bedroom. With the storm, I couldn’t see anything; not the moon supposedly turning dark, not the red glow that would mean it was shadowed by the world, and not the magic that supposedly came from it.
The new gear felt strange against my tender skin; it didn’t feel protective enough, somehow. Especially not with the collar still sitting snuggly around my throat, still a beacon of Dante’s control over me. There was nothing strong enough to keep me safe.
When we entered the living room, there were three tablets set up; one was linked to Sylvia, her hair a mess, soot darkening her cheeks. In the background behind her face, fire raged beyond the flickering wards protecting the academy.
“We don’t think the wards will last the night,” she was saying to Adrian, her voice tight with worry.
“All the charm witches and mages have been out building new wards, but they aren’t strong enough against these flames.
Our reports say Dante has left at least six elemental mages outside the academy, and they’re going to keep fanning the flames.
Even if we survive and our wards hold, he’s going to boil these students alive. ”
Her words crashed into me, the fear so clear it made bile rise in my throat. “We’re working on it,” Adrian replied carefully, glancing back at me. “We hope.”
Sylvia’s eyes darted to me, and for a moment, they filled with relief. But then she noticed the collar, stark against the dark material covering my body, and she went pale.
“You can’t stop him,” she murmured, shaking her head. “But please try. I can’t get them out without putting them in even more danger.”
“What does that mean?” I asked, stopping in front of her tablet, wrapping my arms around myself as Adrian stiffened. “Is there a way out?”
“One.” She nodded, lips pressed together. “But Dante knows about it. Damn it, he’s the one who found it during his stint at the academy. A secret tunnel into the mountain. But we tested it, and he’s already got hellhounds down there. We can’t escape.”
I tried to keep the bile down, but it burned my throat. “We’re going to stop him,” I said, even though the words felt almost like a lie.
“The Titan’s Channel is being hit with unprecedented storms as we speak,” another voice said, a female I vaguely recognised.
She had familiar features, soft and yet hardened by the years, thick dark hair pulled back and freckles along her nose.
“Two other routes into the Underworld are being hit with attacks. Storms, mostly, making the waters unsafe. The passage into the realm is open with the full moon, and there are ships trying to break in. We know it’s Dante’s army. ”
“Thank you for the update, Elara,” Maeve said, arms crossed. “Disperse our agents. Get them out there.”
On the tablet screen, the female nodded once. “Already done.”
The third and final screen was murky, like whoever was meant to be on it was hiding in the dark. I heard heavy breathing from their end, the crunch of earth beneath their feet. Then the screen filled with the sky as it looked over the palace.
And the moon was in full, darkening light.
“One of our scouts on the ground,” Adrian murmured, his gaze locked on the third screen, too.
“Feral shifter attacks are happening in the city,” the creature on the other end whispered, turning the visual to their face.
To my shock, it was Jay. I had no idea he was even in Avalon, let alone still trapped there.
“We’ve taken out a handful, but there are still too many.
Fae, too. A lot of Spring Court out there tearing the city apart.
The forest around the palace is filled with vamps and mages. ”
I covered my mouth with my hand as Damon stepped forward. “The Elysian demons are bringing Wrath demons into Avalon, but we won’t have enough.”
Because if we’d wanted to launch an attack on Dante, we would have needed to move the demons yesterday at the latest. Brought them through ourselves.
But whatever Nyx had done to us after I completed the bonds ruined that plan. Destroyed whatever timeline we had left.
“Shit,” Jay whispered, coming to a complete stop. “He’s—”
The screen went dark for a moment, a sound coming through that might have been a scream. I stilled as the screen shifted, and a new face appeared.
Shining eyes, slicked back hair, terrifyingly cruel smile.
“Dante,” I said, voice sounding hollow in my own ears as I stepped towards the tablet. “If you hurt him—”
He barked a laugh, the sound grating. “You don’t make the rules here, you little bitch,” he seethed, sounding unhinged—unstable.
“You and your mates with your little saviour complexes are going to meet me at the palace. I’m going to give you one chance for those little pests inside you to survive, and then I will have my power! ”
Bile rose in my throat, sickness coiling in my stomach. “There is still a chance for you to surrender. To give up this plan. You know you won’t survive this. No one will. If you try to take my power, it will destroy all the realms.”
His eye twitched as he shook his head, the screen flipping to the moon.
It was darker now, the shadow passing over it becoming thicker—redder.
“You have five minutes to make the jump here, Ivy. Otherwise, I let everything burn. And I’ll start with your little half-demon agent.
I sure as fuck have a few things I want to say to the bastard. Time’s ticking.”
The screen went dark, cutting us off from our only connection to Avalon—to Dante.
“Ivy—”
I shook my head and stepped away from Adrian, from the comfort I knew he was going to offer.
My gaze flickered to the fire burning around the academy and the students rushing to keep the wards powered despite the heat slowly cooking them alive.
I looked to Elara and the rush of agents pulling out weapons to stop Dante’s forces from infiltrating the Underworld.
And I looked at the black screen again, Jay’s scream echoing in my ears.
“We need to go,” I said, voice hollow. “We don’t have a choice.”
I always knew I would need to face him. I knew we would have to end it.
But I thought we would have more time.
Maeve appeared in front of me and gripped my shoulders roughly. “You do not have to go anywhere,” she hissed, red bleeding into the blue of her irises. “Not now. We can buy more time.”
“How?” I asked, voice breaking. “He’s going to literally cook an entire academy alive. He’ll slaughter the entire island if he has to. And he has Jay. I can’t—” I swallowed hard, trying to stop myself from vomiting. “I won’t watch the world burn when I know I can stop it.”
“You don’t have full access to your power, though,” Hawk said, appearing behind Maeve, sounding desperate. “He’ll launch whatever attacks he can on you.”
“I know,” I replied, “and I know what he’s capable of. But we literally do not have time for this.”
He’d kill Jay in minutes. He’d allow his army to slaughter anyone in their paths.
And we didn’t know how much time the academy had left.
Especially not when the wards flickered.
There were screams from the students. A rush of activity as elemental witches and mages attempted to counteract the flames.
I pulled out of Maeve’s grasp and turned to Damon. “Can you take me directly into the palace?”
The giant demon stared at me in horror, lips parted, eyes dancing with the flames of hell. “No.”
“Damon,” I pleaded, rushing to him. “Please. They won’t survive this.”
“And neither will you,” he snapped. “He’s going to cut you open first, scoop those babies out, and then he will steal your power.”
I flinched at the harshness of his words. He wanted them to knock sense into me, but I shook my head. “It won’t matter in the end. I need to go.”
“Three minutes,” Orion said darkly. “I say we go.”
Of all my mates, I never expected him to be the one to agree with me.
But I watched as he filled his belt with weapons, all sorts of daggers and even a set of swords on his back. He would go in, but by the dark look etched into his features, he believed he wouldn’t make it out.
I swallowed hard, heart pounding. “We can stop him. We just need to get the skull. If we have that, he doesn’t have what he needs to steal my magic. And then we take him out.”
My mates shared uncertain looks. There was no telling whether it would work. And it might not. Dante’s army had their orders, and they would likely continue their attacks even after Dante was incapacitated.
But he was one male against the ten of us.
“I like our odds,” Xerxes said, shifting into his Primal form. “And he cannot stop us all.”
The colour drained from Adrian’s face, but he moved around the room, handing over stones marked with runes. “Press these into your palms,” he instructed, handing me one. “It’ll stop Dante from getting into any of our heads again.”
I didn’t question it; I pressed the stone rune-side down into my hand and felt it burn briefly before settling. When I pulled it back and slid the rock into my belt, I admired the rune—sharp, thick lines that criss-crossed together—before it faded, sinking into my flesh.
“We take him out,” Elias stated. “I know the objective was to take his power, but if we can end this, then do it.”
Adrian didn’t even flinch; he’d been the one to want to take his brother into custody and strip him of his power, but my mate didn’t fight it. Instead, he checked his weapons, remaining silent.
“One minute,” Orion announced, looking around the room.
I took in all of my mates; the original team who found and saved me, the first male I ever fell in love with, to the one I thought I could never tolerate, to the demon who married me for an alliance, to the creature of the Old World who unexpectedly stole a piece of my heart, and the bear shifter who unknowingly became my anchor during our time in the cages.
As the world turned dark around us, I silently prayed that we would all survive this. That it wouldn’t end the way they feared.
I prayed Dante would regret ever turning against us at all.