Page 26 of Fated In Forever (Nocturne Vampire Clan #4)

EVANGELINE

T he enormous obsidian stones pushed up out of the black sand, their black surfaces gleaming with an otherworldly sheen, covered with neatly chiseled markings I couldn’t begin to decipher.

Each step I took echoed hollowly against the stone, the sound swallowed almost immediately by the darkness pressing in from all sides.

My fingers traced over the strange markings as I walked, keeping myself oriented in this maze of shadows.

“Malachi,” I called again, the sound disappearing as soon as his name left my lips. The shadows consumed all sound, there had not been one sign of life, and still, I felt him ahead of me—drawn by that strange, inexplicable tether that bound us together, pulsing like a second heartbeat in my chest.

Really, I should be dead.

Vaporized, the moment I had hurled myself through that swirling portal of darkness. I had feared my lifeforce might drain away like water through cupped hands, the second my feet hit the ground, yet here I was, on a day hike through hell.

The Underworld was not meant for the living, and I was very much alive—or at least, I thought I was. My heart still beat a frantic rhythm against my ribs, my lungs drew in cold, acrid air tasting of sulfur and ash. Yet something had changed during that split-second crossing.

The shadows pulsed with recognition, the razor-sharp obsidian walls didn't cut my fingers when I touched them, and…I glanced back, my frown deepening.

A trail of small, glowing incorporeal blobs bobbed along behind me, like I was the fucking pied piper of lost souls.

Every time I stopped, they stopped, too, acting all innocent.

Great . If this continued, by the time I found Malachi, I’d be towing half the denizens of the Underworld along with me.

And I was definitely going to find him. The tether grew stronger with every step, as if the fabric of this realm had reinforced our connection, strengthening it into something I could almost see—if I turned my head just right.

A golden chain that shimmered at the edge of my vision, leading deeper into the labyrinth of black stone.

Malachi…if you are anywhere close, please say something.

But the Underworld gobbled up my plea as hungrily as before, leaving me with nothing but my desperation and my growing personal soul brigade.

My feet didn’t hurt, but it felt like I’d been walking for days, time stretching and distorting like everything else in this godawful place where I didn’t belong.

I wanted to go home.

Back to my world.

The thought hit me like a physical blow, and I stumbled against the obsidian wall. What was happening above? I’d gladly left Ravok bleeding and alone, but what about Blake and Riordan and Nash? What about everyone else in the tunnels?

What had Ravok done to them, while he’d trapped Malachi and me in his fucking web of delusions of grandeur?

Those questions haunted my next step and every one after as I plodded on, wondering if I was imagining this incessant tugging.

Without Malachi—without me—Ravok would go on a rampage.

My next steps became a countdown of faces—Angel and Bex, back at Crimson House. Eldric and Fiona and everyone at Laith Castle.

If Blake, Rohr and the others didn’t make it out of those tunnels, if everyone wasn’t warned, none of them would realize the danger they were in.

They wouldn’t see the threat coming, not until Ravok and Romulus were upon them, and here I was, lost in a maze of obsidian and shadow, chasing after someone who might not even want to be found.

Although that wasn't true. The demanding tug of the tether told me otherwise.

But what would I find at the other end? Malachi…or Orcus?

The male or the monster?

Whoever I was following, that incessant urge turned painful and I pushed myself off the wall and continued walking, my pace quickening.

The obsidian boulders grew bigger, the carvings scarier, the sand beneath my feet grittier, but those golden chains of our bond remained constant, a beacon in the chaos.

The cold air tasted metallic on my tongue—and up ahead, I caught strange glimpses of fire. Torches, burning red as blood, probably because there were only two colors in this place. Black and crimson…and the pale white glow of all these souls.

I wrapped my arms around myself, suddenly aware of how wet my clothes were, how inadequately they shielded me from the bone-deep chill of this place. But I didn't stop. Somehow, stopping felt the same as failure, and besides, if I stopped, this place might just eat me alive.

I dug my knuckles into my sternum, where the ache was the worst. I was close.

My heart hammered against my ribs with something that might have been hope or terror, and in this place, the two felt remarkably similar. The obsidian boulders grew sparser, and the shadows thinned as I reached a break in the endless maze.

“ Malachi ,” I whispered, and this time I thought I felt a response—a ripple down the bond between us.

One more step and I found myself standing at the edge of a vast cavern, obsidian walls falling away into space so enormous I couldn't see the far side, only the glow of flames beneath me—row after row of torches, burning along the walls of an enormous black castle.

Some of the little glowing blobs floated past me out into the air, lightning crackling above me in a sky that went on forever. But it wasn't the vastness of the yawning space or the castle or even the closeness of those deadly lightning strikes that stopped me cold—it was who stood before me.

My heart raced, eyes widening.

He was alive .

Relief wrapped around me…followed by a flash of fear and something close to disbelief.

Just ahead, Malachi waited on an outcropping, his massive silhouette blocking out even the looming castle.

For a second, all I could do was stare, stomach twisting as I took him in, mind scrambling to process what I was seeing.

He was massive, bigger than before…and he had…

horns . The golden chain blazed intensely, so bright I could see every link clearly, stretching between us like a bridge made of sunlight.

But there was no sunlight here.

Only shadow and that castle.

And not like any castle I had ever seen or imagined, not even Darkmore.

This one was carved from the same black obsidian as everything around us, reflecting the rolling shadows, the rows of flickering red torches.

Broken towers spiraled up into the shadows like the twisted spines of some great beast. Crumbled battlements and collapsed walkways that had once connected the towers in impossible configurations, lay in pieces in the sand, their sheer size defying any laws of architecture and physics that existed back in my realm.

Massive gates began to open, like a mouth preparing to devour whatever approached and on either side of the entrance, torches burned brighter with flames the color of fresh blood, casting their writhing shadows across the courtyard beyond.

As if they were welcoming Malachi home.

My following of lost souls swept around me like errant fireflies, swirling around Malachi, a dance of light that was breathtaking and sad and strange, glowing with soft, translucent light that grew warmer and brighter, the longer they were close to him.

Like moths around a flame, casting every angle of his powerful body into sharp relief, Malachi seemed to be forged from the shadows themselves, his horns hard and shining like the obsidian mountains, even that warm glow in his eyes—so much like the glowing light emanating from the little dancing orbs.

That was when I understood, with ice cold clarity, that he was supposed to be here .

He didn’t turn, but he knew—he had to know—I was right here.

I still hadn’t seen his face, only…those horns, rising above his head like a crown, those huge shoulders, layered in muscle, the way shadows spilled off him in waves, like a living mantle of power.

“Malachi,” I breathed, and this time he heard me.

He turned slowly, as if he couldn’t believe what he was seeing, face hidden in shadow, eyes glowing, warmer than the torches down below, a flash of white fang that might have been a half-smile.

When his eyes met mine, my heart skipped a beat.

They ignited, like the blaze of a fresh lit fire, warm and welcoming.

Not the cold, cruel gaze of a god, but the recognition of a lover.

“Evangeline,” he murmured, my name spilling from his lips, soft as a cloud. His voice sounded different in his voice down in this place, charged with power that would bring a kingdom to its knees. “You shouldn’t be here.”

“Did you really think I’d let you escape to this beautiful hideaway all by yourself?” I stepped closer, enough to see exhaustion etched in the lines of his face, the dried blood coating his side from where Ravok had stabbed him. “You should know me better than that by now.”

He almost smiled at that, a ghost of the expression I remembered from before everything had gone wrong.

“Seriously, the tour books don’t do it justice.

So much prettier in person. Although...” I gestured toward the writhing mass of souls swirling around us.

“We have to do a better job next time at scheduling. It’s a little overcrowded right now. ”

The next thing I knew, I was enveloped in a cocoon of warm, soft skin and muscle, crushed against his slab of a chest, lifted clean off my feet. He rumbled against me— no, that was definitely a purr.

“And to think, I’ve spent this entire time talking myself out of missing you.”

“Well, you can stop arguing with yourself, because here I am.”

Malachi kept me banded tightly in his arms and I reached out tentatively, my fingers brushing over the harsh planes of his face, his cut jaw, then up along one of those horns. He was solid, real, warm. Still connected to me by this strange tether. “Okay. I’m here, you’re here. Now what?”

His gaze shifted back to the castle, and something hardened in his expression. “We're going to make a bargain,” he said quietly and the word sent chills down my spine. “Right now, Evangeline, or we don’t take another step.”

I didn’t like it when he used my real name. That meant he was serious, and was going to force me into some bullshit deal I wanted no part of. But for now, I nodded.

“What kind of bargain?”

“We are going to find our way out of here. Something tells me it could be down there.” He jerked his head to what lay beneath us.

“In the super scary castle of death?” I leaned to the side to peer around him. “Yup. That seems about right.”

“We find our way out of here, and you are going back to where you belong. No arguments, no tricks, no fingers crossed behind your back.” He snagged my wrist and pulled my hand between us, holding up the proof between us.

“Okay, so, crossing my fingers is more like insurance.” I pleaded.

He did not look impressed. “You will give me your solemn promise that when it is time, you will go home.” I looked down, expecting to see his long fingers wrapped around my entire arm, then tried to yank away.

“What the fuck… is that a …” My eyes flew to his, and that smile turned embarrassed. “You have a tail? Is this your tail?” I ran my fingers along a rope of smooth, supple skin and his entire body shuddered beneath my touch, his skin growing rougher, almost like goosebumps. He dipped his head.

“I didn’t want you to see me like this.”

“Oh, so you did hear me calling your name? I was talking to you, Malachi.” I poked him in the chest and my finger bent backwards. “And you flat out ignored me.”

“I really didn’t want you to see me like this. Hence the shadows. But I need you to promise me, Evangeline, that when we find our way out of here, you will go home, where you belong.”

“And you?” Those eyes slid away into the darkness. “Oh, I see, you’ll stay here and be a martyr. A monster martyr, wasting away in the shadows. Well, just so you know, that is bullshit, if I’ve ever heard it. So no, I will not honor your request, your eminence.”

“You really piss me off sometimes.”

“Well, right back at you.” I snapped, and his tail slowly uncoiled from my arm.

“I’m doing this for your own good.”

“You’re doing this because you think the only way you can keep me safe is by keeping your distance, like somehow, if you stay away, so will our enemies.

” I pressed my hand over my heart. “But we both know that’s not true, Malachi.

You can’t pretend there isn’t something inside us, something connecting…

hey, where are you going? I’m making a speech here. ”

But he was already moving, stepping from the outcropping onto a narrow path I didn’t even notice, one that led to the valley floor. To the creepy as fuck castle with its burning torches and open gates.

“Well, are you coming?” He called, his voice carrying. “Or do you want to spend more time speechifying?”

I glanced at the souls circling overhead, then Malachi's retreating form. The path looked treacherous, carved out of the same glassy black stone as everything else in this realm, winding down into shadows that reached toward us with eager, grasping fingers.

“Sure. Let’s head down to the creepy death castle. I’m sure it’s fine. Of course, it’s fine . What the hell, Malachi? Haven’t you ever watched a horror movie in your life?”

Taking a deep breath of cold, sulfurous air, I stepped onto the path and began my descent toward the castle of shadows, toward whatever waited for us inside those open gates.

“You do know this is a trap, right? I mean, it’s like textbook trap, with those open gates and torches.

There’s probably some hideous monster inside there, just waiting to gobble us up. ”

Malachi grinned—not the reassuring smile he imagined it to be—then something brushed my shoulder. His tail. I shivered, and I wasn’t exactly sure it was from fear.

“I’m pretty terrible, too, and whatever’s inside that castle, I won’t let it touch you, Vicious.”

Somehow, that did actually make me feel better.

But off in the distance, echoing off the walls of the monstrous castle, I could have sworn I heard Riordan, screaming my name.