Page 21

Ivy

S alt water filled my mouth as I spluttered and coughed, lungs burning with each heaving breath. My body ached, but as I tried to move, it screamed in warning.

I needed to cough up the water. It burned my nose, my eyes. I managed to roll on my side with a whimper and cough up what I could. Each chest-wracking cough burned, and the more I spat out, the worse the feeling got. Like I’d swallowed more than just water. But sand.

So much sand.

I pressed my forehead against something hard and cold. A shiver rolled down my spine. A small part of me welcomed the chill. Another part of me feared it.

I was terrified. If I opened my eyes, where would I find myself?

Because I wasn’t on the ship anymore. The ground beneath me wasn’t wood but rock. Cool, smooth stone. As I focused on my surroundings, I realised the ocean was nearby.

So, I’d either washed up on the shore of the Underworld, or I’d found myself stuck somewhere in the middle of the Titan’s Channel.

The storm had ended. I could tell as much. But I couldn’t feel the bite of the sun, despite there being light behind my eyes.

Squeezing my eyes shut, I steadied my breathing and reached into myself for my bonds. The five, glowing threads pulsated, but they weren’t nearby. That forced me to open my eyes and finally lift my head.

If they weren’t close, then where were they?

A lump formed in my throat as I finally took in my surroundings. All around me was dark, almost black rock. Several feet away, a calm ocean lay, waves gently cresting the edge of the stone before receding. The sky wasn’t dark like I’d expected, but red.

I’d made it to the Underworld.

It existed as a realm of its own. Clouds covered the muddy red sky, creating a thick bank over what might have been a sun.

Singular for now, because rumour had it, there were meant to be three in the Underworld, each one depicting a different season they went through.

Each one named after a previous monarch, long since dead.

I shivered, rolling onto my back with a groan.

From what I could tell, I hadn’t broken anything.

I wiggled my toes first; I hadn’t lost my boots, thankfully, and gently tested my legs.

I sighed when I brought my feet up without any pain.

The rest of my body seemed okay, but I couldn’t make myself sit up—or stand. Doing so would prove that I was alone.

Maybe I was lucky and someone from the crew had washed up with me.

But I had a feeling that wasn’t the case.

Stop being such a coward , I told myself. This was not Queenly behaviour. None of the women who came before me would be scared to sit up. They’d have done so by now. Hell, they would have probably already found their mates.

My stomach twisted. Staring at the red sky, I tested the bonds again.

Nothing screamed at me, no feeling of wrongness, and I could access all of them easily.

Though based on a quick inspection, they weren’t awake.

But they weren’t dead, and that mattered more.

I wouldn’t know about Hawk until I saw him, but he’d been with Maeve, so I had to hope he was okay.

Gently, I reached for Orion and sighed when his bond brightened at my touch. I did the same for the others, making my way through each person until I knew they were all individually okay. But not even my presence stirred them.

Tears burned my eyes, but I gritted my teeth and sat up. The ache in my bones hadn’t disappeared, but it wasn’t nearly as bad as when I’d woken. My chest hurt; I rubbed my sternum as I finally took in the rest of the landscape.

My heart almost stopped as I took everything in; from the dark shoreline all the way down to the very obvious volcano to my left. There was nothing but stone for what looked like miles. And now, I understood why the ground was so smooth. Cooled volcanic rock.

I groaned, climbing to my feet. I stood for a moment, swaying, as it all came back to me; Elias wrapping himself around me as the shadowy monster tore the ship in half. My magic exploding out of me in an effort to keep everyone together. Then darkness and water. Endless water.

Hands not belonging to my mates tearing at me, hoping to pull me under.

And then nothing.

I sucked in a breath and took a stumbling step towards what I hoped to be civilisation.

I searched my surroundings, looking for any sign of our ship, but along the coastline was only dark rock and red sky.

I made my way to the edge of the water, mouth dry, and looked for anything floating on the calm, white-capped waves.

But there was nothing. No sign our ship had even gone down, that we’d been here.

Goddess Nyx, please watch over them .

I kept my side of the bonds open as I walked. Stumbled, really. I might have been able to use my legs, but they threatened to go out from under me. Two days of trying to remain steady on a rocking ship, and now my body couldn’t handle being on land again.

For miles, there was nothing. I walked with no end in sight.

My throat was so dry, my lips burned from the lack of water.

I tried conjuring something—anything—but as soon as the water appeared in the palm of my hand, it slipped through my fingers before I could get my fill.

Despite settling my magic only hours—days?

I couldn’t tell how much time had passed—before, it churned in my chest, seeking release.

It wanted my mates; it needed to be expelled.

It required a connection, but there was no one else around.

I scrubbed a hand through my now dry hair, grimacing at the way it crunched from the ocean water. I couldn’t even bring myself to summon new gear. I could have stripped and cleaned them with magic, but the idea of getting naked, even though no one else was around, grossed me out.

And yet, internally, I complained about the sand between my thighs and under my boobs. It was all I had. If I thought about the team, then I would panic. And I had no one but myself to pull me out of an attack if it happened.

Keep a clear head , I thought, glancing around again.

I’d made it to the edge of the volcano—maybe.

I chewed my lip as I took in the dark mountain.

It was almost surreal, the way it looked.

Like it’d come straight out of Iceland, with the blackened earth leading up to it.

There was nothing tropical about it, but rather cold. Icy.

I shivered, crossing my arms over my chest. I had two options: travel inland and pray a demon found me or stick to the coast. Once, before Eloise was born, Andrew had attempted to take me camping in order to connect with me as Kerry’s new boyfriend.

It hadn’t ended well, with me getting bitten by a huge fucking spider and him freaking out.

It’d seemed like the most basic thing. Now, as the memory replayed in my head, I realised two things.

One, I had no good survival instincts when it came to the wilderness. Sure, I could survive in social settings. Wallflower power and all. But I’d watched every season of Lost , and this was way worse.

Two, and probably the most obvious, I was not built physically for wilderness survival. The enhanced senses helped some, but I was a creature of comfort—not this .

It was far too easy, blaming this on Dante. We wouldn’t have taken the stupid dangerous channel if it weren’t for him. I couldn’t even bring myself to blame the monster .

What the fuck had that thing been? I tried to wrack my brain for any mention of sea dwelling shadow monsters from my time at the academy, but came back empty. I felt like that was something someone would have brought up during our Communications Between Realms class.

I sighed. Choice: coast or volcano? I glanced between both before groaning. What would the team do? Well, Maeve likely wouldn't get herself into this sort of position, but if I had to guess, she’d be using some sort of vampire power by now.

Vampire power . During the aftermath of the attack, I’d been able to summon parts of Elias’s shifting ability, and I thought, part of Maeve’s vampirism.

It’d been brief and subconscious, just pulling at those threads that had been buried within me since bonding them, but now I could summon them to aid me.

And if all else failed, I would have to find somewhere safe to sleep. Because if I couldn’t reach my mates in their waking thoughts, then I would need to test my connection to Orion and enter their dreams.

I turned my gaze to the sky, like Nyx herself was watching over me and laughing at the circumstances I’d found myself in.

If you can hear me , I thought, eyes narrowing, then your help would be greatly appreciated.

A warm breeze picked up, lifting stands of my hair. But nothing more came of it. I waited to hear her in my head, whispering another warning about my certain doom if I failed.

I turned back to my two options. Follow the shore or venture into the valley of the volcano.

Both seemed daunting, but I rolled my shoulders back and closed my eyes.

Hesitantly, I sought out the two bonds that would help me most. Both glowed with a soft, pulsing light, safe and unharmed, but unconscious.

Maeve’s had a slight pink tinge to hers, like it’d been dipped in blood, while Elias’s was a mossy green.

I reached for Elias’s first. I knew more about shifting and his abilities, so there was a little more confidence in actually using his power.

It had an entirely different feel to it compared to using Adrian’s.

Charm magic came naturally and hadn’t required as much hesitation or testing.

Creating charms felt like second nature.

But Elias’s wolf…beyond the bond, I felt for that well of magic. That small part of him that now existed within me. It warmed the closer I got, and then…

I felt it. Something else . Something that was part of me, but not.

I shivered, but I was in too deep now. I couldn’t back away. There was a living, breathing other side of me. Not just the creature of ancient magic gifted to me by Nyx. This was the part of me eternally tied to Elias.

My own wolf.

And she was…beautiful. Wild.

A beast born to survive.

But she was mine. A part of me. A part that I needed now more than ever.

There was no more time to be scared. I reached for my wolf, pressing my hand against the fur atop her head. She was so soft, almost like silk. Though I couldn’t quite see her, I felt her. The power within this creature pulsated and burned, commanding and deadly.

I need you , I told her, running my hand down her neck. I need your help .

The wolf nudged me with her wet nose, as if to tell me she would. That she accepted me.

The shift hit me with a force that brought me to my knees.

My eyes flew open. I was on the beach, but the tether to Elias’s magic brightened until it burned.

But it wasn’t fire in my veins. It was in my bones.

I cried out at the first crack of bone. The pain rippled through me, bringing tears to my eyes. The second and third had me delirious.

Every bone in my body snapped and reshaped. Thickened to that of the wolf I turned into. I couldn’t make a sound as the bone and muscle in my face moved.

Goddess above, was this what Elias felt every shift? He transformed so easily that it was hard to believe it was meant to be this painful. It seemed so easy for him to move between his different forms.

The cries leaving my lips turned into howls of pain. I collapsed to the cold stone, no longer in my own body. Where my hands should have been were paws.

White paws.

Claws extended as I flexed them, the thick nails digging into the smooth rock beneath me. I rested my head on the cool earth as the waves of aching pain slowly dissipated. Exhaustion played in the back of my mind. My eyelids drooped as the magic that’d helped me shift receded.

Somehow, that was the easy part. I had no idea how I was going to turn back.

My wolf made a whimpering sound as we stood.

For a moment, I swayed on my feet—paws. Subconsciously, I knew I had to relinquish my own control to the wolf.

Wasn’t that something Elias did? He usually spoke about his wolf as a separate entity within him, and although I felt the same, I still had control over this body.

Fear held me tight in its grip, constricting around my chest. The wolf clawed at me for control, and when I relented, I was pushed back in my mind.

And all I could do was watch as the wolf ran.