Page 36

CHAPTER 36

brIAR

“N o,” I whisper hoarsely as Malachi lets go of me. My legs give out, and I land on my knees on the marble floor. Tears slip down my cheeks as I’m frozen in shock and grief.

Vale was like a dad to me, and now he’s dead when all he was trying to do was protect me. All while I stood by doing nothing. My heart feels like it was ripped out, stomped on, torn apart, and shoved back in my body a bloody, dysfunctional mess.

I’m not the only one hurting. I hear a mournful howl sound behind me, soon joined by another one. Xander and Bastian’s sorrowful song echoes in the empty fortress entrance. At their wolf cries, I swipe my hands over my cheeks and shove to my feet. While Vale was like a father to me, he was their dad.

I turn around to comfort my wolves, and I stop in my tracks when I see tears trailing down Malachi’s cheeks. I’ve never seen my strong and stoic mate cry, and it seems so wrong to witness him like this. His nighttime ocean eyes are swimming with an aching grief that I hoped none of my Wyldhart mates would ever have to experience.

Hesitantly, I walk over, wanting to comfort him but unsure if I’m welcome. His dad was only in this situation to begin with because of me, so I wouldn’t blame Malachi if he doesn’t want anything to do with me.

When I get within an arm’s length of him, one of his hands shoots out and hauls me against his chest. He wraps his arms around me and crushes me to him. He doesn’t say anything for a long moment, but I feel his shoulders shaking with silent sobs. I squeeze him as hard as I can, trying to give him what little comfort I can.

“I’m so sorry,” I breathe, feeling responsible for what happened.

At my quiet words, Malachi sucks in a breath and his shoulders still. “It’s not your fault, baby girl,” he rasps, his voice choked up. “Dad made his choice and willingly gave his life for us. So let’s go find that curse and fucking destroy it. Then we can kill every single Knight on this godforsaken island. How’s that sound?”

I let out a watery laugh at Malachi’s violent plans, which I’m honestly good with. The more stuff we have to handle, the less time I have to think about the grief that’s currently trying to choke me. Plus, I’m livid at the Knights and all the death they’ve caused. I wouldn’t mind paying them back for the lives they’ve taken.

At my nod, Malachi lets his arms drop from around me. I walk over to where Bastian and Xander are sitting on their haunches with their heads bowed. Dropping to my knees again, I sling an arm around both of their necks, my fingers digging into their surprisingly soft blond fur. Both of them lean their giant foreheads to my shoulders as we sit there for a long moment, the sadness in the air palpable.

Eventually, wolf Xander pulls away. Bastian lingers for a few seconds longer before reluctantly leaving my hug. His amber eyes are pinched in sorrow, giving his canine face a surprisingly human appearance.

Before turning away, Bastian sticks his huge tongue out to lick my face in a sloppy show of affection. I sputter as I’m covered in doggy drool. Glancing up at him in question, I see a wolfy smile on his face. Not having the heart to chastise him, I force a smile at him and shove to my feet.

“Where should we go?” Saint asks when I stand up. While he didn’t know Vale as well as the rest of us, Saint’s words are somber and his face is lined with sadness.

I shrug, not able to force any words past the lump in my throat.

“I would suggest the lower levels,” Dido whispers in my mind, her mouth set in a grim line. “Those were always the most secure parts of the castle.”

How do we get there?

“You’ll have to go to the center of the castle and descend from there. That is the only entrance to the underground sections.” Dido hesitates for a moment before telling me, “I’m sorry, Briar. Losing people you love is always a crushing experience, no matter how many times you’ve experienced it.”

Yeah , I rasp in my mind, because losing Vale hurts just as much as losing my parents. It’s a pain I never thought I’d have to feel again, yet here I am once more, thanks to the Knights.

Scrubbing my hands over my face, I pack away my grief into the most secure box in my mind and make sure to fasten it with multiple locks. Right now isn’t the time to mourn Vale. It’s the time to avenge him and make his death mean something. Later, if we make it out of this alive, I can drown in it. But, for now, I have to stuff it all away so I can function.

“Dido says we should go to the center of the castle and use the entrance there to go to the lower levels,” I relay to my mates, my voice sounding dead even to me. Malachi’s brows lower in concern. “That’s where she thinks the curse would be.”

Malachi tilts his head in confusion. “I thought the curse was supposed to be where Dido was buried and the location of her funeral pyre. I doubt she did that in the basement.”

Dido nods at Malachi’s point. “I am guessing that the curse is directly underneath where my pyre was. That is still technically in the same spot, just further underground.”

I tell Malachi what Dido said, and he shrugs. “It doesn’t hurt to check it out. Dido is the one who knows this fortress best, so I’ll trust her instincts.”

With that, Malachi turns and stalks down the long hallway, which is the only way forward from the castle entrance. I rush to follow him, with Saint, Xander, and Bastian hot on my heels. None of us talk as we wind our way through the maze of hallways, all of us lost to our thoughts.

Under any other circumstances, I’d be admiring the Carthaginian architecture that looks perfectly preserved, for the most part, with the odd damage here or there from the Knights. But I don’t have it in me to feel anything even resembling joy right now, so I just keep my gaze on Malachi’s tense back, ignoring the beauty surrounding us.

It takes probably ten minutes to trek through the castle to the center. It would’ve been faster if we knew where we were going and didn’t have to retrace our steps after hitting dead ends. But the weirdest part is that we don’t encounter a single Knight the entire time. In fact, the only sound in the castle is the quiet tapping of our shoes and the clacking of claws on the marble floor.

I’m pretty sure this just confirms that we’re walking into a trap. The Knights want us to find the curse so they can ambush us and kill us. Even though I know it’s probably a trap, I don’t really see any other option than doing what they want us to, hopefully without the whole “getting murdered” thing.

When Malachi walks through an archway with elaborate Corinthian columns into a peaceful open-air courtyard with a garden, I realize why the castle is so quiet. There’s some sort of sound-dampening spell over the whole thing that blocks out the sounds from outside.

I can see the faint shimmer of lavender magic arcing above us. It’s not the same color as the brown protection domes outside, so I wonder who cast it.

“Anna did.” Dido gives me a bittersweet smile as she remembers her sister. “She had lavender magic, which delighted her because that was her favorite color. She put up a sound barrier that could be switched on or off for me. I would imagine that it has been up since her death, with no one remembering how to remove it.”

I return her smile but don’t say anything as I slowly walk through the courtyard. I marvel at the beautiful cypress trees, stone pines, and the flowers blooming even in winter. There’s a calm reflecting pool I’m wandering to when something that looks a lot like scorch marks catches my eye.

Walking toward the corner opposite where we came in, I see that a huge area of the sandy cobblestone is black and charred. This area certainly seems large enough for a pyre, and the open-air courtyard would allow the smoke to vent without burning down the whole castle. If I had to guess, I think this is where Dido took her life.

Since I don’t see Knights or any enchanted object, Dido’s likely right that the curse is in one of the underground levels. It’s probably right under where I’m standing. It’s strange to think we’re this close to something that my family has been chasing for the past thousand years.

Before I can get too excited, I need to find the entrance Dido was talking about. As I’m searching all around the scorch marks, a bark sounds from the fountain in the very center of the courtyard.

Turning around, I see Bastian’s wolf jumping around by the fountain and yipping, while Xander’s wolf rolls his eyes at his twin. I let out a soft snort at their interaction before heading over to check out whatever they found. Malachi and Saint beat me there and are intently looking into the dry fountain when I reach them.

“Pretty sure Bastian found the entrance.” Malachi points at what looks like a trapdoor in the bottom on the water feature. I can’t see much, other than the top of a ladder when I peer into the square black hole.

While I watch, Bastian presses his paw into a stone, and a white plate slides over the hole. Once it closes, you can hardly even tell that it’s there. With water in the fountain, it’d be almost impossible to spot it.

When I look up at Bastian, he stomps on whatever activates it to open the entrance again. “Good job, Bastian.” When Xander lets out a disgruntled yip, I hurry to tack on, “And Xander. You both did great work.”

Wolf Xander huffs but doesn’t bark at me, so I assume he’s satisfied with my praise. “So I’m guessing we’re going down the sketchy hole we found in the ancient fortress.”

I’m sure absolutely nothing will go wrong with that plan.

Saint huffs a laugh. “You would be correct, little shadow. Malachi will go first and let the wolves know if it’s safe to leap down. Then you can go, and I’ll follow.”

I nod because it sounds fine to me. I’d rather be going into the spooky hole in the floor first, but it’s not worth wasting time to argue with Malachi.

At my agreement, Malachi vaults over the fountain edge and stares into the dark abyss. He cautiously steps onto the squeaky ladder and slowly disappears. I wait with my heart in my throat, listening for any screams of pain or surprise, but there’s no other sound besides the creak of the metal and the clanging of Malachi’s footsteps on the rungs.

Several minutes later, we hear a loud thump. As I rush to climb over the edge of the fountain, Malachi calls up, “It’s too far for you to jump, Bastian and Xander. You guys need to shift back.”

Saint sighs. “I’ll go grab you guys some clothes. I’ll be right back.” He opens a portal into the Wyldhart house and disappears before reappearing less than a minute later with a bundle of fabric and shoes.

Bastian’s the first one to shift back, and Saint shoves the pile at him before turning around.

Laughing, Bastian tells Saint, “You’re gonna have to get used to seeing us buck-ass naked, bro. Our girl likes group activities, and there’s not much room for modesty then.”

My face turns bright red at Bastian’s comments. I mean, he’s not wrong that I liked having both him and Xander at the same time, but I’d never pressure Saint to join.

Saint twists to look at me with his eyebrows raised. Instead of the disgust I expect to see on his face, there’s intrigue that makes a flare of arousal burn in my core. He doesn’t say anything but looks at me expectantly. I shrug and look away, not knowing what to say.

Letting the subject drop, Saint doesn’t speak. Instead, he gently turns me back toward the fountain. Bastian and Xander are dressed in jeans, sneakers, and tees. Xander’s already starting to climb down, his blond head disappearing quickly.

Bastian holds out his hand to help me over the fountain ledge once Xander calls up that he’s down. “Your turn, pretty girl.”

“Thanks,” I mumble as I steady myself with my hand in his.

Taking a deep breath, I brace my hands on the side of the hole and stick one leg in. After my foot lands on a rung, I cautiously put my other leg down. When my hands touch the ladder, I’m surprised by how smooth and cold it is. I guess I expected it to be rough and primitive for a multi-thousand-year-old hunk of metal, but it’s not. It feels almost like new.

The climb down seems to stretch on forever. I’m so focused on my rhythm of moving my hands and feet that I yelp when I touch solid ground. I reflexively let go of the ladder and stumble backward, almost falling on my ass. Strong arms catch me and hold me until I’m steady.

“Careful there, sweetheart,” Xander rumbles, holding onto me even when I’m no longer in danger of falling. I soak up his ocean pines scent and the comfort he’s offering that we both need right now.

When Bastian starts clanging down the ladder, Xander lets his arms fall away. I walk to stand between the two of them and shove my hands in my pockets to keep from fidgeting.

Looking around at the space, I can’t see much in the dark other than the gray stone walls and matching floor and ceiling. Calling my magic to me, I envision it forming a ball in my hand that works as a floating torch.

My magic illuminates the space somewhat, and when I see what’s around us, I wish it hadn’t. There are spiders. Everywhere. Gigantic spiders, small spiders, baby spiders, and pretty much every type imaginable are crawling all over the ceiling.

I resist the urge to scream, but just barely because I hate spiders with a fiery, burning passion. The thought of them and their creepy eyes and millions of legs makes my skin crawl. The fact that I’m surrounded by hundreds of them is enough to almost make me throw up.

Malachi sees my ashen face and terrified eyes and rushes over to me. “What’s wrong, baby girl?”

“Spiders,” I whisper as I close my eyes and pretend they aren’t here. I guess I’ve never mentioned my phobia of the worst bug known to man before. I usually try to forget the fact that spiders exist, so I don’t really talk about them much.

I hear Malachi choke on a laugh. Opening one eye, I glare at him for finding my predicament funny.

“Sorry,” he tells me while fighting a smile. “I just never expected spiders to be what terrified you. You seem so impervious to most things that scare people, but I’ll protect you. Don’t worry.”

I scoff. There’s no way he can protect me from the devils on eight legs, but we have so many other things to worry about. Once Saint is safely down the ladder, I book it in the opposite direction of the spiders. Like the entrance to the fortress, there’s only one route we can go, which is down a long hallway.

I’m practically running down the hallway when I feel something click under my foot. I freeze as I remember the warning about booby traps. A hand yanks me backward right as flames shoot from one wall to the other in front of me. If Xander hadn’t hauled me back, I would’ve been chargrilled.

“Well, that’s new,” Dido comments dryly.

I huff out a laugh. Any chance you can tell us where the traps are?

She shakes her head. “No. These underground levels weren’t lined with deterrents like they are now. You’ll be pleased to know that the space was remarkably free of spiders when I was alive.”

Snorting at how proud Dido sounds of that fact, I tell the guys, “Dido has no idea where the traps are, so we’re kinda on our own for this.”

“No way in hell are you walking first into this,” Malachi growls. He raises an eyebrow like he expects me to argue. I’m not planning on it because I am so not equipped to deal with booby traps.

When I don’t protest, Malachi nods and strides ahead of me, his head on a constant swivel as he looks for any clues to the defensive measures.

“Not to worry, pretty girl. We’ve got this.” Bastian flashes me a smile that doesn’t reach his emerald eyes as he walks in front of me. I follow him with Saint and Xander trailing behind.

I feel like I’m in an Indiana Jones movie as spikes shoot out of the ground, rocks come flying at our heads, snake pits open underneath us, and more crazy traps straight out of fiction slow our progress down.

As we navigate the various obstacles, I can tell we’re descending steadily, which hopefully means we’re going in the right direction—not that we really have any option because there are no doors or hallways branching off the main path. The only option is to move straight ahead.

After what feels like years of navigating the traps, the hallway dead ends at an intricately inscribed door with what I can now recognize as Phoenician, even though I still can’t really understand it.

All that separates us from the door is a pit filled with eels, water snakes, and literal alligators. I have so many questions. Mainly, why is this necessary? And how do all of them survive? Is there a caretaker that makes sure to feed this particular trap routinely? What a wild job to have.

I shake my head because none of that really matters now. Saint goes to open a portal so we can cross without getting eaten or shocked or bitten, but nothing happens. “Fuck. My magic isn’t working here for some reason.”

Groaning internally, I try opening a portal, praying to any god that exists that we don’t have to leap over the waters roiling with things that want to snap us up. To my surprise, a portal forms right in front of me.

I look at Saint wide-eyed, and he shrugs. “This was Dido’s home. It makes sense that your magic works places that mine doesn’t.”

Nodding because he’s probably right, I move toward the portal. Malachi steps through first, and the rest of us follow. I stare at the door, having no idea how to open it. By the confused looks on the guys’ faces, they don’t know either.

Do you know how I’m supposed to open this?

Dido dips her chin, and her eyes glaze over as she looks at it through my gaze. After a few moments, she shakes herself out of it. “The inscription says it requires a sacrifice of your blood and your magic to open it.”

Awesome.

I just love hearing the words “sacrifice” and “required.”

Sighing because there’s not much else I can do, I walk up to the door and prepare to slice my palm. Remembering how well that went last time, I turn around. “I have to give the door my blood and magic to open it, so no one freak out when I start bleeding, okay?”

Malachi huffs a laugh. “Thanks for the warning, baby girl. I’ll do my best not to ‘freak out.’”

Giving him a half smile, I shift one of my fingers into a claw and slash my palm. I wince as the skin splits and my blood starts to drip onto the gray stone ground. Moving over to the door, I press my bloody palm to the rough, swirling surface. At the same time, I put my other hand against it and let my magic funnel through me.

Nothing happens for a beat. Then my magic and blood races through the circles starting at the center of the door and expanding outward. It’s kind of cool to watch, in a slightly gross way.

Once the blood and magic work their way through all the circles, I step back. The door lets out a clicking noise before it ever so slowly inches toward the ceiling. I throw up a defensive dome and hold my breath as we wait to see what’s on the other side of the door.