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CHAPTER 11

NOVA

“I ’m glad we decided to stay an extra day,” I told River. “I feel like we need to be prepared going into the God realm. I don’t know what we’re going to find there, but if I had to guess, Set is going to be a huge problem.”

River’s hand tightened on mine, his deep voice rolling over my skin. “If we didn’t feel like it was absolutely necessary to provide extra magic to our allies within that realm, I would say we shouldn’t risk it. I’m not sure if we can even trust that list fully since we don’t know half of the individuals ourselves.”

That was fair. All of them seemed untrustworthy as fuck.

“I just know we need to. They may be powerful, but not on the level we’ll need if we want to stand a chance against the dark ones,” I admitted, looking up at the sunny afternoon sky. It wasn’t particularly warm, but the light did feel good on my skin, especially considering the length of this walk.

Honestly, it was possible River had decided to take the long way to our destination. I could see his hesitation when I’d brought up the idea to begin with, but he hadn’t backed down from it. From going to see where the House used to be.

“Do we need to go sector by sector?” he suggested. We hadn’t discussed the logistics of our plans, but I had sort of already pieced it together in my head.

“I have to assume, considering everything going on, that many of the gods are already gathered in the capital city. I’d like it if they were all gathered, including the old gods. The ones that are the real fucking problem are within that group.”

River let out a deep rumble, “I really don’t like that idea, butterfly.”

“I know.” I offered him a sympathetic look of understanding. “But with our group and the Titans there, I think it may be a good time to confront them—to give them a chance to admit their wrongdoing and change course. And if they don’t do that, fine. But then the other gods will have to face the reality of what is going to happen to our world and what the old gods would have done to them.”

“Calling them out in their own home,” River mused, running his thumb along my hand. “It’s dangerous, but I agree. It will probably work.” His brow furrowed in thought. “Are you sure you’re ready to portal again? I know this last time took it out of you.”

I was unsurprised that he’d figured that out—the man was insanely in tune to my body. I also knew that was why my men hadn’t been pushing to leave just yet despite us being pretty much ready to go.

“I’ll be okay,” I promised him. “If anything, we should keep a tab on Volkan. I may be providing a lot of the power, but he’s doing the majority of the work.”

“You want me to monitor Volkan? A demi-titan?” River said, his eyes dancing with laughter.

“Listen, I’m apparently super strong and you still do it for me. Hell, you do it for the entire team.”

River let out a low rumble. “I do, but not on the same level as what I do for you.”

“Are you saying I’m special?” I teased.

River stopped and pulled me against him, dipping his head to press his forehead to mine. “So incredibly special, butterfly. You can’t blame me for being protective over you.”

“I suppose,” I admitted, keeping my tone light. “If only you didn’t love me so much, you’d get to relax more often.”

Actually, most of my men would get to relax more often, but hey! I kept stuff interesting, which totally counted for something.

The healing mage shook his head, his gaze holding mine. “I don’t want to imagine a life without you, Nova. The idea of you being harmed in any way, or worse—” He paused, his jaw tightening. “I won’t allow it to happen.”

“I know. I know you won’t. And I don’t mind you keeping tabs on me…I just wish I could do the same for you.”

“I think you do that more than you realize.” His gaze flickered past me down the long, forested road we’d been walking. In the distance I could see a black gate swinging back and forth in the wind. “I’d been planning to stop here at some point, though I didn’t know when.”

“That’s the place?”

River nodded and squeezed my hand, leading us to the orphanage where he’d spent so much of his young life. What had come before that, we didn’t know. But this place had been responsible, in part, for forming and shaping the man I loved, both good and bad.

It was also the place where his magic had been split into two sides of the same coin—the ability to heal or hurt right at the tips of his fingers.

“This was the place,” River said as we reached the black iron gate. Beyond it lay a massive piece of land that was backed by a forest. The main house, though, was essentially gone. Remnants of the first floor remained, burned almost completely to the ground. Only the front door and maybe two rooms stood, their foundation and walls made of stone.

Personal items and furniture were scattered among the rubble, and I had to imagine that before its destruction, the place had been huge. I would have been sad about the loss of such a gigantic estate, but something filled with that much evil needed to be destroyed. There hadn’t been another option.

“Come on,” River encouraged, gently pulling me alongside him. “I need to get close to really believe it’s gone.”

As we stepped onto the land, my magic stirred and broke out in front of us, recognizing that this had been a place of tension and darkness not only for River, but for others as well. I may not have been able to see dead people now that we were out of the Underworld, but I could feel them. The creak of bones and the voices, soft in my ear, called for my attention.

Inhaling sharply, I followed River through the door leading to the remaining part of the building, two small stairs taking us into a large foyer.

Cracked glass and belongings littered the floors, and a cool breeze made the hairs on my arms rise. I moved close to River in search of warmth, his hand running up and down my back.

Silently, we made our way to the next room. It was much larger than the first, a long table down the center the only piece of furniture that had survived. River stared at it for a long moment before shaking his head in disgust.

“So many years of abuse here. I don’t know how I ended up here. I assume I was left, but I can’t imagine that every single child here was in the same circumstance. And with no active war going on…”

His words clicked for me as my eyes widened. “You think they were taking kids?”

“I do,” he sighed. “It’s possible many of them were bastard children born to dark and light fae purists, but the other option is extremely viable.”

“That’s so fucked.”

Above, the sky rumbled as the sun disappeared, and I knew it was in large part my magic reacting to River’s pain. My magic was oddly quiet, simply sitting inside of my head next to River’s, their hands clasped together.

What I hadn’t expected was for my magic to search every inch of the property, sending out tendrils of energy in all directions and latching onto anything it could find of River.

I jolted as a sensation of dread rolled over my skin, and I turned my head to the left, finding the faint outline of a square glowing purple on the floor. I moved forward, not giving River a heads up. He was focused on something on the other side of the room anyway.

“Shit,” I murmured, pushing debris out of the way to reveal a trap door. I had ashes on my hands and the floor was filthy, but I was able to pull the trap door open with a hard tug, releasing a puff of warm air.

“River! Found something.”

A long ladder led down into a stone paved hallway or room below. Clearly a place that had been used up until the recent destruction of this place. Also a place that could be dangerous if the assholes responsible for the continuation of this shit wanted to rebuild eventually. Not that Gray would allow it, but it was better to make sure there was nothing useful left.

“I didn’t even know a place like this existed.” River frowned as he shifted me out of the way protectively and began climbing down. I scowled at his move but followed, the warm air from the chamber running over my skin as I landed on the stone floor and let my magic consolidate into a glowing orb of light.

“Oh, it’s storage,” I said in relief.

I honestly hadn’t known what we would find, but I’d been worried it would be a dungeon or storage for dead bodies. I’d had enough of that exact shit from my own past, thank you very much.

“Records,” River said, curiously examining the rows of bookcases that lined the walls of the small room. Among the shelves was a vault that stood open and empty. The owners must have cleared it out before the place was destroyed or they were caught by the guards that Gray sent.

Gray had emphasized that none of the individuals in charge had been allowed to escape, and that all the kids had been put into the protective custody of the crown until they could either be reunited with their parents or adopted. Of course, there were still monsters that could have escaped, but the large-scale threat was massively diminished.

I did find it odd that they didn’t take any of the records down here, but maybe the royal guard had never found this entrance, and the people trying to flee would’ve had no use for them. I let my magic out to explore the texts left behind, and it immediately began rushing and crowding a book to the left of the room.

I plucked the book off the shelf and dropped it onto the table, a cloud of dust blowing up in my face. Gross.

“Want to open it? My magic seems to think it has something about you.” I tilted my head up at River, who stared at the book before emitting a long sigh.

“Yeah, we better.”

Holding my breath in anticipation, I opened the book to find…print so tiny I couldn’t see it. I needed more light. Increasing my magic, I allowed it to flip to the page it seemed to think was important. Each page held the names of two to three kids, followed by information about them—their age of arrival, assumed birthday, and even their magic type.

When River’s name appeared, I leaned closer, taking in every detail. Everything matched up to what we knew about him in terms of his power and age, but the part I was interested in was the section labeled History .

River shifted back before rounding the table and sitting down in the closest chair.

“Don’t want to read it?” I asked knowingly. I didn’t blame him.

“Don’t want to know why I was abandoned,” he said frankly. “It doesn’t matter anymore. I have a family and I have you.”

That was sweet, but I still felt like it was essential to know.

My gaze darted down as I took in the words scripted there: Child orphaned at age five following the passing of his parents. Both killed in line of Supernatural Enforcement duty on a mission to the Elven realm. He was surrendered to our care after no family or blood lineage was discovered within the Horde or Fae realms.

“What does it say?” he asked softly.

I blinked up at him and offered a small, sad smile. “Your parents were killed while on a SE mission to the Elven realm—you were only five. There were no other blood relatives in the Fae realm, so you were brought here.”

River schooled his expression, but I could feel his surprise through our bond. “My parents were in the military? I didn’t realize that.”

I moved to sit on his lap, and he pulled me close and buried his head against my shoulder. There was anger surging through him, some grief as well, but more than anything? Relief. He felt exorbitant amounts of relief to know that he hadn’t been handed over to this monstrous place on purpose—that there hadn’t been another choice. Especially because, at the time, this was no doubt considered a reputable orphanage.

Hell, it seemed that all the shady shit they’d done behind closed doors hadn’t been discovered until recently. It was insane that atrocities and conditions like these could be kept quiet.

I spoke softly after a long moment. “They didn’t want to leave you; they were killed. I don’t understand why they couldn’t have left you with whoever was watching you, though?”

“It was probably another family who served. Probably one that already had kids and limited resources. The military pay, especially back then, wasn’t substantial.” He took a deep breath. “I’m just relieved to know that I wasn’t left here. That it wasn’t that they didn’t want me.”

“Of course,” I said, looking around the space. “We should tell Gray about these before we leave. Maybe these records can help other people locate their past or families. Especially with all the children that were taken from here recently.”

“I agree.” River grazed his lips against my cheek. “When we’re done with all of this, I wouldn’t mind looking at SE files and finding out more about my parents either.”

“I think that would be amazing. Then you can see which of your parents was a healing mage, too.” Curiosity broke through our bond, and I could tell the idea interested him.

Thunder rumbled from above and I moved to stand, watching as he carefully tore out the sheet with his information and folded it into his pocket. Taking his hand, we made our way to the ladder, and I felt thankful that something truly good had come out of this trip.

“I’ll send word to the castle about the files,” he said as he climbed up the ladder behind me. The door shut with a loud bang before River turned and tugged me up into his arms, lifting me off the ground and searing his lips against mine in a surprising and very welcome kiss. River and I had come a long way when it came to dealing with and talking about his past—it was sort of amazing to consider.

“Thank you, butterfly. I didn’t realize I fucking needed that, but I did.”

“I love you.”

“I love you so much,” he rumbled, kissing me again.

I hadn’t known what we would find in this house of horrors that had tormented River for so long—but I had expected pain as well as maybe some type of closure at its destruction.

But discovery? For River to realize that he had been loved and not abandoned? That was more than either of us could have asked for.