Page 10

Ivy

“ H ow are we planning on reaching Hell?” I asked carefully, crossing my arms tightly as the rest of the team formed a circle around me.

There was a tense energy about everyone, a dark vibration that tingled across my skin.

Now that the effects of the vision were finally wearing off, I was starting to feel more myself.

The anger over not being told about Rowan’s visions still simmered within me, though not nearly as fierce as it had been when they first explained them to me.

Now, exhaustion weighed me down. My bones and muscles ached with a deep tiredness.

I wanted to slip into oblivion and not wake for a century.

Part of it had to be my magic; the eternal being living within me mourned the previous Queen.

It mourned Greer in a way that felt separate from myself, though at the same time, it was also my own grief.

Now that I held all the power, I couldn’t quite tell what my own feelings were and what belonged to the magic.

Does magic even have feelings? I wondered. That would have to be a question for the Goddess. I doubted anyone around me would understand the strange disconnect happening within me.

Across from me, Hawk crossed his arms, head cocked. “We either find us a demon with enough power to take us through shadows?—”

“Or we find a ferryman,” Maeve said.

I looked between the two. “How would shadows take us there?”

“Some demons have the power to traverse the realms through shadows. It is a rare and powerful affinity, usually held by demons belonging to their version of the royal family,” Adrian explained. “My, uh…Griffon and his father, Onyx, have the ability.”

Through the bond, I felt his anguish at the memory of his mother.

He’d been thinking about her. I caught the briefest impression of a memory, similar to the way I’d seen Orion’s at the ball.

Of Greer standing by the lake at the bottom of the waterfall, wearing a long sundress while several of her mates swam in the water behind her.

She had a hand on her stomach, belly swollen with pregnancy.

Silently, I offered Adrian some of my strength, a bit of hope.

He looked at me, eyes shining, and bowed his head.

“The only problem is our group is too big to travel that way,” Elias said. “There is no demon powerful enough to take us all to the demon realm, let alone the Old World.”

The energy shifted, darkening as we plunged into tense silence. My heart crashed against my ribs. In my head, I felt the presence of the Goddess, her urgency pushing me into a deepening spiral of emotions: guilt and shame, but also perseverance and hope.

“We need a boat to the Underworld, then,” I replied finally, though a small part of me recognised that Elias was wrong. That there was someone who could do it. “We can do that, right? Without Captain Vale and the ferry?”

The Captain of the ship powerful enough to travel between the realms would be hard to find, especially considering we weren’t at a full moon. But from what I’d learned during my time at the academy, there were specialised ships for travelling between Avalon, Faery, and Hell.

We just needed to secure access.

“Captain Vale is loyal to you. He wouldn’t have access to the magic otherwise,” Maeve said. “The others, we don’t know. We have no idea who is loyal to the Nyx, and who is loyal to Dante.”

My stomach twisted. “How would we know? Dante has been planning this for years. He could have every captain on his side.”

No one could answer that question, because I was right.

We had no way of knowing who was loyal and who wasn’t.

Dante might have been arrogant and wrapped up in his own desire for power, but he wasn’t stupid.

He’d managed to remain hidden for so long because he was smart.

Whether it was his own smarts or because of someone else, that was to be debated.

“We could just…commandeer a vessel?” Rowan asked, making a face as we all turned to him. “Nothing too violent, just…hold the captain and their crew hostage temporarily.”

“We risk getting caught,” Hawk muttered. “It would draw too much attention to us. ”

Rowan shrugged. “It was an idea. Maybe not a good one, but what other choices do we have? Ivy’s right.

We don’t know who’s loyal. We can’t take any risks with her safety.

If Dante catches on to where we’re going, he will try to stop us.

With force. Deadly force. Like, he will kill us all, I’m sure. ”

My stomach bottomed out, heart racing as flashes of the vision played across my mind; of my mates dead, their bodies laid out before me like a reminder of all I had to lose.

I pressed a hand against my abdomen and sucked in a breath.

I cannot let it happen , I thought, blocking my mind from the others.

“He’s right,” I murmured. “We can’t risk Dante and his men finding us.”

“Leave it to me,” Orion stated, stepping back from the group. His gaze, dark and swimming with so much untouched emotion, lingered on mine. “I may be able to tell who is and who is not with him.”

From the other side of the circle, Elias snorted. “How are we meant to trust you? How the hell do we know you aren’t working for Dante?”

Bile rose in my throat. “Elias…”

Orion lifted his chin, jaw clenching. “Everything I have ever done was to protect Ivy. And that’s more than the rest of you,” he replied darkly. “Dante’s people know to fear me. I can find safe passage.”

“Then you take one of us.” Maeve glanced at me before crossing her arms. “From now until we get Ivy her crown, we do not go anywhere alone. After what happened at the ball, we cannot risk it.”

Tensions rose, and I wasn’t sure what to do.

Trusting Orion again after everything he’d done went against all the anger I felt towards him.

Part of me—the one tied to my magic and the boy he’d once been—wanted to trust that he wouldn’t leave again, that he wouldn’t put any of us in danger.

That part of me wanted to take him back as my mate, reclaim him, and ensure he would never do anything to harm me or my family again.

But the part of me that was hurt by his actions couldn’t look at him the same way. It wasn’t just leaving. It was everything that came after.

My heart pounded, magic rising in my chest in agreement. “I agree with Maeve,” I said, tightening my arms around myself, breathing deeply to keep the magic down. “No going alone. I don’t even like the idea of two people leaving the group.”

“Then we should make these side quests as few as possible,” Rowan replied. Through the bond, I could tell he was trying to reassure me, but my heart still raced with fear.

I swallowed hard and glanced between Maeve and Orion.

If there was anyone I trusted most to go with the Fae prince, it was her.

“No one goes out alone.” I turned my attention to Orion.

“I get that you’ve been doing things your way for a while now.

But not anymore. If you think you can secure safe passage to the Underworld, then great. But Maeve goes with you.”

Orion’s jaw ticked. In the violet of his eyes, it was clear he wanted to argue. He hesitantly reached through the bond for me, and although the part of me used to blocking him wanted to throw up a shield to keep him out of my thoughts, I let him slide into my mind.

You don’t trust me, little flower? Though he posed it as a question, I could tell it was more a statement. And the hurt that followed made my heart clench.

You haven’t given me much reason to, Ry, I replied. I still don’t know you—none of us do. And there’s a lot of time to account for .

From the other side of the circle, Orion lowered his head.

His end of the bond flickered out like a bad connection, and he glanced at Maeve.

“You and I will go out. The less people with us, the better. We don’t need Dante’s followers finding out what we’re doing, and too many of Ivy’s mates will draw attention. ”

My vampire mate nodded. “They won’t see me as a mate. They will see me as an agent.” She turned to Adrian, though her blue eyes flickered to mine. “Can you create a charm that will hide the mate bond? Very few would know I’m one of Ivy’s mates. In this instance, that should serve us well.”

Stomach bottoming out, I tried to hide how that unsettled me. My emotions were rocky at best, and I couldn’t trust myself to be logical about any of this. And my magic…

It really didn’t like the idea of our bonds being hidden.

Adrian murmured his response. Without looking at me, he took Maeve’s outstretched hand and started drawing something on the inside of her wrist with the tip of his finger. Through my bond with Maeve, I felt her own hesitancy over the command.

It makes sense to do this, I told her. The bond will put you in danger.

She stiffened, and darkening eyes found mine. No, it puts you in danger. I will not risk your safety. Never again. Dante has always been one step ahead of us. I will not let him win.

A shiver danced over my skin, lifting the hairs of my arms. I couldn’t form a response to that statement. But Adrian finished his charm, and although I couldn’t tell there was a difference, obviously there was by the way Hawk grunted.

“I can’t tell you’re mated, and I’ve been around you before and after the bond,” he muttered. “It works. ”

Adrian released a shaky breath. “That charm will only work for two hours, tops. Our bonds to Ivy aren’t meant to be hidden, and I can only do so much to hide that power.” My mage glanced at me with worry before taking a step back from Maeve. “You next, Orion.”

My entire body locked up as the Fae prince stalked towards Adrian.

There was a darkness in Orion’s eyes that sent a shiver down my spine, but he said nothing as he pulled his shirt sleeve up to reveal the inside of his wrist. He didn’t move to pull the glove off, and as I stared at the pair, my chest tightened with panic.

I tried to suck in a breath, but my lungs seized. I waited for the familiar sensations that usually accompanied one of my panic attacks, but nothing else happened.

My eyes remained glued on Adrian and Orion; I dragged my eyes up to the Fae prince’s, only to find his eyes squeezed shut.

The panic wasn’t mine. It was his.

Adrian released his arm before I could say anything, and when Orion tore his arm from my mage’s grasp, I pressed my lips together. He didn’t look at anyone as he stalked towards Maeve.

Are you okay? I asked.

Orion’s jaw ticked, but he didn’t look at me as he and Maeve sorted their weapons with Hawk. I am fine, flower.

I shivered. You don’t seem fine, Orion.

Hesitation and something else filtered down the bond.

For a long moment, he didn’t respond. It was like he was simply going through the motions.

Sheathing daggers in his belt. Checking the different compartments for magical items. He and Maeve moved similarly in that way. They were focused, dedicated .

What had happened to him these past eight years? For so long, I’d buried the memories of him. Kept them hidden in a place where they could no longer hurt me.

Rowan and Adrian framed either side of me. The former wrapped an arm around my midsection, while the other grabbed my hand. I couldn’t tear my eyes off my Fae mate, so until I felt the tingle of magic against my skin, I wasn’t sure what was going on.

“Two hours, we’ll return,” Maeve said, turning from Orion and Hawk to face me, her blank mask carefully placed across her face. “In the meantime, you should find shelter. It’s too open out here.”

“There’re a few old, abandoned fisherman’s cabins down by the water,” Elias offered, crossing his arms. Even my wolf had assumed his role as soldier. He reminded me of the male I’d first met; the set of his brows and lips gave nothing away, neither did the way he widened his stance.

If it weren’t for the fact that we were being hunted, two of my mates were about to go out and risk their lives, and I was exhausted from the events of the last twenty-four-hours, I might have leapt at the fact my magic wanted me to jump Elias’s bones.

But with the knowledge that everything could either go our way or go to utter shit, I tried to ignore the pressure in my lower belly.

Elias glanced at me from the corner of his eye, though when I prodded the blocks in my mind, I knew I was cleared of him catching on to my thoughts.

But that didn’t mean he couldn’t scent what was going through my mind.

Maybe one day I’d be able to hide that, too. For now, though, I turned away from him to take in Orion and Maeve. “Be safe. And please keep the bond open.”

Maeve’s eyes softened when they met mine, a small slip in her mask. “We will, a mhuirnín . ”

I stepped away from Rowan and Adrian and stalked towards my mate. Throwing my arms around her shoulders, I held tightly to her for a moment. “Come back to me,” I whispered. I glanced over her shoulder at Orion, who watched me with dark, hooded eyes. “Both of you.”

His throat bobbed, but he bowed his head in acknowledgement. Maeve inhaled deeply before pulling away. I love you , she said, eyes finding mine. Trust that I will return to you.

I swallowed thickly and nodded. I love you, too .

Something flickered shined in her eyes when she finally stepped away from me. Maeve glanced at the rest of the team before nodding to Orion. “Let’s go.”

With that, she and Orion lifted masks to cover their faces. A small tingle of gratefulness hit me when they moved to the edge of the forest and let the shadows consume them. Their identities, I hoped, were protected, and the magic Orion held should hide them.

My heart raced, but there was nothing more I could do but wait until they either found our way out—or didn’t.