Chapter 98 Ivy
Ivy
Pressure built inside my skull, a painful kind of pounding that threatened to make my head explode.
I knew it was Dante trying to break into my mind.
I threw up wall after wall to keep him from delving into my thoughts.
He would crush me if he could, but with my power back and the explosion of my bonds finally reigniting my magic, it strengthened into the only weapon I needed against him.
You aren’t strong enough to stop me, Ivy, Dante said, his voice a whisper inside my head. He pounded endlessly at the walls, creating cracks in my mental fortifications with each hard blow. Each one was powered by the darkness swarming him, the bastardisation of Nyx’s magic slamming into me.
You might have your magic back, but I am still the most powerful mind mage there is, he continued, voice dripping with rage. And I have already seen inside your head. All it takes is one little doorway, and I will have you in my grasp again. Soon, you will be mine.
I gritted my teeth against his shoving, but it was painful.
Each crack inside my mind could be felt throughout my entire body.
The flood of magic, that access I suddenly had to all my mates’ powers, swelled within me, but it wasn’t enough.
My magic, that living, breathing beast that was mine, thundered in my chest. It bubbled free of the well once closed off to me, and it wanted to overflow.
My power was alive, and it tried desperately to battle against Dante and the pull of the skull trapped between us. Because it knew, even if we won against him, the skull could still take us.
Still destroy us.
I squeezed my eyes shut against the onslaught of power. Over the pounding in my skull, I heard it.
Screams. Crying. My name being called out, but not by my mates.
You’ve shown me every weakness you have, Ivy, Dante whispered, chuckling. I know all your fears. I know you better than your own mates do.
It was a flash of a moment, a memory I tried so hard to escape.
My mother, lying unconscious on a bed as the healer removed the magic keeping her alive. That last breath, the slow beating of her heart as it came to a stuttering halt, the moment her soul left her body entirely.
I tried to push the memory aside as Dante chuckled.
You should blame yourself for her death, he said.
I could almost imagine his smile; that dark, deranged twist of his lips that made my stomach churn just from thinking about it.
In the back of my mind, I felt the chilling tickle of his power as he scraped at the walls, almost a caress—and it made me sick.
If you hadn’t fought me the first time, your sisters would still have a mother. The sound of children’s screams returned, this time tenfold. If it weren’t for the skull, I would clutch my hands over my ears to block out the sound, but I couldn’t move.
I was frozen, lost to each taunting vision, to what he shoved into my mind. I couldn’t run—couldn’t escape it.
If you hadn’t tried to run from me, perhaps they could have been spared. But instead, you hid behind your mates. You are the true coward, Ivy. You have escaped every fight. You think you can lead, but you shy away from it. You hide from it. You are not capable of being Queen.
There was a part of me that believed him, that recognised what he said had some kernel of truth to his words.
Around us, the world cracked and rumbled. I pried my eyes open for a moment to catch the moment the sky opened, rain cascading from the clouds. In the distance, thunder clapped so loud it made my ears ring; lighting struck the sky so brightly I had to blink away the imprint behind my eyelids.
On the wind, I caught the scent of smoke, blood, and terror. The smell of upturned earth made my nose crinkle. But more than anything, Dante invaded every one of my senses.
His rotten scent burned my nostrils. The dark twist of his lips made bile rise in my throat. Then there was the darkness in his eyes, so black I knew I would get lost in them if I spent too long trying to figure out why.
Why he hated Nyx and his mother so much.
Why he hated me.
Blood built like tears in Dante’s eyes. A deep red flush covered his sunken cheeks, and his veins looked bruised, or like they were burning. The madness that I’d noticed during my imprisonment seemed to be more visible now.
You aren’t nearly as powerful as you think you are, I replied, heart racing. You’re going mad, Dante. And your followers won’t settle for a king without a mind.
Dante bared his teeth, already tinted pink with his blood, and used the cracks in my mind to slam into me.
My breath caught in my throat as the battle around us disappeared. Instead of being in the palace courtyard, we were now standing in a familiar prison, but there were far more cages than I ever could have imagined.
The cries of the shifters were too much, too loud. The smell was acrid, overpowering. It was so much worse than what I was used to. The rattling of bars rang in my ears, and when I looked around, tears formed in my eyes.
The same shifters I’d tried to free were now forced three to a cage. There were leopards with bears, wolves and tigers crammed together. Greer’s mates were again forced into a cage of their own, only this time they’d been cut apart, hanging dead where all could see.
Bile rose in my throat as I turned to find a naked female forced into one of the tiny cages used for the small prey shifters. Her hair was bloody, skin broken and not healing, but even from here, I knew who sat huddled in that cage.
“Thea!” I cried, lurching forward. But as I did, the image bled, and Dante thrust me into another dark nightmare.
This time when the darkness cleared, I stared through a window into a room filled with smaller cages and children. Infants and toddlers crammed into a pen, while the ones who could stand were thrust into cages like the one Elias had been raised in.
I tasted vomit in my mouth. My body reacted despite me knowing it wasn’t real, that none of it was happening. Thea wasn’t in a cage—she would never be in a cage. She was safe and far away from Dante.
You really think she’ll stay that way? Dante hissed. Be honest with yourself, Ivy. I can have all of this, and it is within my grasp.
I wanted to scream, but I couldn’t. A sob tore free as I watched my sister get thrown into a tank and forced to take her future siren form.
A tail replaced her legs as she struggled to break the surface of the water, but any time she got close, electricity rippled across the top, forcing her back down into the pool’s depths.
Maisie and Ginny were trapped in cages, too young to be put in their own tanks. So, like the child shifters, they were trapped behind bars, naked and afraid, already bruised and bleeding.
The sight of them had me falling to my knees, but Dante was there to hold me up, to force the vision upon me as the demon punisher walked through the cages with a twisted smile and his whip in hand. I couldn’t scream, couldn’t break through the glass to get to them. I couldn’t save them.
Dante laughed and we went through the darkness again into a new kind of hell.
Every dark, twisted vision he revealed to me crashed against the walls I so desperately tried to build against him.
And every time I felt the crack, my magic fractured within me, dimming with each dark reality I knew would befall upon the realms if he won.
Thea in her cage being bred to raise a new kind of army—an army only Dante had control over, an army of beasts no one had seen in a thousand years.
My sisters, trapped in prisons of their own, never to escape, forced to serve Dante and his enforcers.
Greer’s mates, flayed and left to rot as a reminder of their escape and the freedom they’d gifted the shifters of the cages.
My own mates, dead for being mine. For choosing to accept our bond and love me.
And the realms, torn apart by magic that was never meant to be released like this, that was never meant to be wielded by Dante, or anyone like him.