Page 59

Ivy

T he next jump through the shadows took us to the ruins of an old city. Ruins was said lightly.

I gazed around the buildings. “This place looks…”

It looked dystopian. I turned in a slow circle as I took in the snowy structures around me.

It looked like it could have been abandoned a few hundred years ago.

The only reason I knew it hadn’t been was the magic still imbued in the space; from the cobblestone road beneath my feet, to the three-storey high building to my right, and the short one to my left, ancient magic continued to bleed from this place.

We’d landed on a wide street, with the smell of decay and death permeating the frozen air. Elias, Maeve, and Hawk all pulled guns from their belts, clicking the safety off as a small circle formed around me .

It was like we’d entered an entirely different world. From the snow drifting like ash, to the still air and unnatural smell of death. The threat of zombie-rats was high, but I didn’t sense the creatures.

But what if there were other things? Worse things?

A shudder rolled down my spine, and without meaning to, I glanced at the buildings.

Old window ledges were dusted with snow, but there was only darkness within.

I waited for that familiar, prickling feeling that told me we were being watched, but it never came.

Stay close, Elias warned, his presence in the back of my mind comforting. If anything happens, shift and run .

I really don’t like the idea of that , I replied.

And I had no plans of abandoning my mates. Not to Dante’s forces or to the zombie-rat things.

But just in case, I summoned the enhanced senses I got from Elias and Maeve and breathed in.

My stomach turned at the smell of rotting flesh and death, which came from what I assumed was the next street over.

My hearing sharpened, too. But other than the pounding of my own heart, and the gentler heartbeats around me, I heard nothing.

No footsteps, no rustling. I remembered that sound didn’t carry as well with snow; it acted as a blocker of sorts.

But despite that, I heard nothing other than us.

“I think we’re alone,” I whispered. “I don’t hear anything.”

Hawk stiffened, yet it was Orion who turned back to me. The shadowy sword he wielded dropped. He ran his free, gloved hand through his silver-blonde hair. “My shadows see nothing but death.”

Maeve lowered her gun, though she kept her finger on the trigger. I had a feeling our enchanted bullets wouldn’t work much on the zombie-rats, anyway .

“What kind of death?” she asked, her eyes reddening as she surveyed the icy world around us.

It was kind of startling having to clarify that. In other circumstances, I might have laughed at the absurdity. But with the tension thickening between us, I kept my mouth shut and instead took Adrian’s hand.

His palm was clammy, his magic weak. Not even sleep had helped him. I knew now it was because he was working on something, but it worried me how sick he felt. The drain on his magic was too much.

But I can protect him , I reminded myself. In fact, I could protect everyone.

Later, I would make sure to enhance my previous charms on my team. Even Damon.

Speaking of the demon king, he was oddly quiet too.

His eyes were narrowed, searching the still ruins carefully, like he was seeking something in particular.

He hadn’t dropped the glamour hiding his demonic form, so he clearly didn’t feel like there was a threat close, but I still couldn’t help but wonder what he did sense.

“There are bodies nearby,” he said after a moment, eyes taking on a darker hue as they swung to meet mine. “Someone came in and slaughtered those who resided here.”

A lump formed in my throat. “What do you mean?”

“There are remnants of life. Spirits, if you will, wandering the streets. But they were killed.” Damon’s eyes shifted from red to black as he took a step back. “So much death. And it is not far.”

Without another look back, he started for one of the houses, stalking through the snow with determination, darkness and death swirling around him.

“Should we be following him?” Rowan asked, scratching the back of his neck .

“We don’t have a choice,” I replied, “no one goes out alone.”

I could tell the others weren’t too happy with that response, but they didn’t stop me from following Damon’s footsteps in the snow. I hadn’t felt the chill of the air earlier, but now a wind blew through the city, lifting my messy hair and whipping it against my cold cheeks.

I wrapped my arms around myself as I trailed him into one of the shorter buildings. If there had been a door, it was long gone, because snow crossed the threshold of the room.

Damon’s heavy footsteps could be heard going through the building, but I couldn’t help but slow.

I couldn’t tell what it was about the building that made me want to stop and take it all in.

There was nothing but snow from a hole in the roof and a pile of burnt wood in the opposite direction, but something in me needed to breathe it in.

Maybe it was my magic, recognising this place as something more. Had Pandora, the first Queen of Nyx, been in this very room? What had it been three thousand years ago? A shop? A home?

There was nothing but a few clay pots in a corner to tell what once existed here. The walls were bare of any paint or decoration.

“Let’s keep moving,” Ry said quietly, his voice startling me. I glanced up to find his violet eyes dark and not on me. He was looking at the back door Damon walked through.

Dammit . I shook myself of whatever came over me and rushed towards the door.

Again, it was more an archway, with a memory of what might’ve once been there.

Damon was already outside, leaving us behind.

There had once been a short wall separating the backyard from the road, but it had been destroyed recently.

It was only then that I noticed the stench of death was thicker out here.

In the centre of the old road was a pile of bodies. Some were shifted into their more monstrous forms, while others were non-shifted. There was a mix of young and old people amongst them, blood clinging to them from obvious bullet wounds.

Someone cursed behind me, and it took all my strength not to puke. I covered my mouth with my arm, but that didn’t help much. I couldn’t believe how strong the smell was; the cold should have preserved them.

But it looked like they’d been sitting under full sun for days.

Bile rose in my throat, but I couldn’t make myself move. Damon stood over the pile, his arms at his sides. But now his full form was unleashed. Horns rose from his dark hair, and he’d grown a couple of inches. Shadows surrounded him, and the few tattoos that I could make out on his neck moved.

His anger was palpable. Surprising, even.

Maeve stepped out from behind me, Hawk by her side. Both had their guns up, but I couldn’t make myself follow them.

My eyes locked onto the small body of a child lying atop an adult. She had brown ringlets and full cheeks.

That could have been Maisie. She couldn’t have been any older than my baby sister. A doll lay beside her, raggedy and old, precious to her even in death.

My breath caught in my throat as tears burned behind my eyes. Arms wound around me, forcing my gaze off the scene .

“It’s not her,” Elias murmured, holding me tight to his chest. “Maisie is safe.”

I nodded, though the visual was burned into my brain. “I know,” I whispered. “I know it isn’t her. And I feel awful even thinking it. That poor baby?—”

I couldn’t hold back as bile turned to vomit. Elias held my hair back as I leaned over and puked up the remnants of my last meal. It felt like acid in my mouth, burning its way up my throat. At least it blocked out the death.

Oh, God . Who would have done that?

Dante, of course. I knew it was him. That he and his army had already come through here and paved a path of destruction. Maybe my magic had sensed it and that was why it’d brought me here. It wanted me to see what was at stake.

These people weren’t a threat to him. They wouldn’t have done anything to him.

And yet he’d slaughtered them, like they meant nothing. Like their lives were meaningless.

Puking turned to dry heaving once there was nothing left. My stomach tightened uncomfortably, throat burning, but I couldn’t stop.

“It’s alright,” Elias said as he rubbed a soothing hand down my back. “It’s okay.”

I shook my head, wiping my mouth with the back of my hand as I rose. “No, it isn’t,” I said, my voice hoarse. “He did this.”

Elias sighed, but he didn’t respond. My eyes strayed to the bodies again, but this time, I found myself staring at what looked like bullets in the snow.

If I had anything else to vomit, I would have doubled over again. “He executed them. ”

“It appears that way,” Elias said. He kept one arm around me as he tried to move me back into the building, but I planted my feet in the snow. “Angel…”

“I can’t run from this, Elias,” I whispered, staring at the death. “I can’t turn away. He did this because of me. He executed them and left them here for me to find.”

Elias made a sound in the back of his throat that was part growl, part whine. “Ivy. I love you, but this is not your fault.”

“He wants to be king,” I replied. “And I am the only thing standing in his way. Of course, it’s my fault.”

Elias had no way to respond to that, but I didn’t expect him to.

Even if he wanted to deny it, there was no way he could.

Dante wanted to send a message. And he’d done so perfectly.

He would slaughter everyone in this world for my crown.

Smoke, thick and dark, billowed into the sky, turning the clouds a deep, unforgiving grey. The smell of it clogged my lungs, but it was better than the smell of rotting flesh and decay.

He’d used magic to make the corpses rot. I wasn’t sure why. Maybe he’d hoped the rabid, zombie beasts would find them. Maybe he’d planned for it to be some kind of trap.

I didn’t care anymore.

Fire leapt at the sky, red and angry, fuelled by my own emotions—my own rage.

“They have moved on to the Elysian Fields,” Damon declared, his voice disrupting the mournful silence. “They are at peace. ”

I shook my head without looking at him. “They won’t be at rest until Dante has been stopped,” I replied, my voice thick with emotion.

Worry flooded through the bonds. It even radiated from Hawk. They were concerned about my state of mind. My resolve. I couldn’t blame them.

There was a numbness now from all the death.

All the unnecessary destruction. I hadn’t truly felt it before, but now, the casualties caused by my own hands weighed heavily on my heart.

The woman with the blond hair who had kicked me down after kidnapping me back in Forthampton.

The male with blood spurting from his throat after I stabbed him.

How many others had I killed? Maybe, after it was all over, I would learn their names. I would make amends.

But I would never know the names of the creatures burning before me. Dante wouldn’t even care to know who they were. They were casualties in a war they never knew about.

I scrubbed a hand over my face as I took a step away from the flames. The warmth was too much. Their concerned stares too heavy. A small part of me resented how they could be so much more worried about me, when there were others dealing with so much worse.

But it strengthened my resolve—my determination to finally put an end to Dante and his bid for power, once and for all.