Page 72

Ivy

I wasn’t in a dream.

I didn’t recognise the darkness I was plunged into. It was different from anything else I’d witnessed before. Thick, like sludge, hard to wade through. It pressed down on me, stealing each breath I tried to take.

No, it wasn’t the darkness doing that. It was something else.

“Again,” a voice said, and my breath caught in my throat, trapped in my lungs. I struggled to suck in air, but someone else kept it from me, stealing it away.

And then it came back in a whoosh , and my lungs burned from the lack of oxygen. I slumped into cold concrete, sticky with blood. My blood.

“Careful , ” another voice said. Female. “Too many times, and it’ll die. Our King doesn’t want that.”

I coughed, spluttering. Was I in a vision? It didn’t feel like the one I’d had before, when they’d finally told me what Rowan saw in his own.

This felt different, dangerous. Too real.

The first voice laughed. Male, deep and unhinged . “Don’t worry. This one won’t hurt a bit.”

He stole the breath from my lungs again. This time, when spots danced across my vision, I thought I saw the light of death waiting for me.

I awoke with a start, chest burning with the remnants of the vision.

“You’re okay,” Elias said, his arms tightening around me. “You’re safe.”

I sucked in breaths that had once been stolen from my lungs. We were in darkness. Fear pressed down on my chest, coiling around my lungs as I struggled in his arms.

“Everyone, stop,” Elias grunted. And then we were on the ground. He set me down on hard, cool earth, and all I could do was breathe him in.

I tried to focus on my mates and not the way it felt to have the air stolen from me. Elias knelt beside me, his warm hand on the back of my neck, the other on my knee. Maeve dropped to her knees in front of me, worry lining her features.

“What happened?” she asked softly, her accent thick. “Was it a nightmare?”

I shook my head slowly, seeking out Rowan. He stood beside Adrian, who somehow looked worse. “No,” I choked out, my throat dry. “I think I was in another vision.”

Rowan dropped to his knees on my other side, agony flashing across his hazel eyes. “I am so sorry.”

“Don’t be.” From behind Elias, Hawk pulled a bottle from his belt and offered it to me, his lips pursed. He didn’t say anything, and I didn’t question it as I accepted the bottle with trembling hands. “It’s not your fault that I saw what I saw.”

“What happened?” Maeve asked, her voice a little harder now.

A chill rolled down my spine as I met her darkening eyes.

“I was in darkness. Really thick darkness. But I wasn’t alone.

” I brought the bottle to my lips, and let the cool water slide down my sore throat.

It calmed the racing of my heart enough for me to continue.

“There were two people there. One was…” I shuddered again. “He was cutting off my oxygen.”

“An elemental mage,” Elias hissed, his anger palpable. “What else, Angel?”

My eyes closed, and I was plunged into that same darkness again. “There was a female there, too,” I whispered. “She was telling him not to do it too much, otherwise it would die.”

“It?” That came from Damon. My eyes opened as he appeared behind Maeve. “They were referring to you?”

I swallowed hard and nodded. “I think so.” Who else could they have been talking about? Unless there was someone else in the room with me. But I hadn’t sensed anyone, though the lack of oxygen hadn’t helped me with my bearings.

I rubbed my throat and sat the bottle on the ground. “It felt so real. But I don’t know if it was a vision.”

Rowan rubbed a hand down my calf reassuringly. “It could have been,” he murmured. “Was there anything else?”

I shook my head again, wrapping my arms around myself. “No. Just them toying with me. But they mentioned Dante. That’s why I think it was a vision and not a dream. She said our king didn’t want it dead. ”

Tension thickened around us, and when I looked up, they were all sharing looks of anger—of concern. I spied Orion in the back, and everything that had happened before came flooding back.

The death of the wolf shifter.

The realisation that if not stopped, Dante could potentially kill Orion, too.

My heart pounded as his eyes met mine. “We will figure it out,” Ry promised, though tension darkened his voice. “No one will hurt you like that.”

Why did I find that hard to believe?

For the first time since waking up, I actually looked around.

The world around us was dark, but not like the thick sludge I’d been in during the vision.

This darkness was caused by the eternal night we seemed to never escape in this world.

Tree limbs overlapped above the path we were on, creating a canopy above our heads, blocking out the sky.

And the trees…

“My nightmare,” I whispered, glancing back at the others. “We’re in the forest from my nightmares.”

There were a few surprising breaths of relief that followed my words. “Thank fuck,” Adrian muttered as he ran a hand through his hair. Everyone looked at him like he was crazy. “What? We didn’t know! We just started walking.”

I offered him a reassuring smile as I finally climbed to my feet. The panic I’d felt before falling asleep was a dull throb in my chest, but not nearly as overwhelming. My head pounded from the tears, and I probably looked like a total mess. But I was out of the worst of it.

Elias and Maeve helped me stand, the energy in the group shifting. Like I was suddenly more delicate now that I didn’t have my ass planted on the ground .

“I’m fine,” I said, voice soft. I tried to meet each concerned gaze; Elias had his jaw clenched and his hard gaze met mine; Maeve remained tense, though she forced a single nod; Rowan cocked his head like he didn’t believe me; Adrian glanced down at his hands, though I’d already noticed how drained he was; Hawk met my stare head on and didn’t even bother to hide that he thought I was lying; Damon’s red eyes met mine, though I couldn’t get a read on what he felt; and Orion simply looked… determined.

That surprised me. I thought he would be feeling some other way, but his hard eyes met mine, and he bowed his head.

“I know I freaked out back there,” I continued, crossing my arms. “But I’m not going to break. I’m a lot stronger than that.”

Maeve stepped towards me and cupped my cheek, her expression softening. “We know that,” she said, offering me an uncertain smile. “We just worry about you. That is our job.”

I gave her a smile in return, covering her hand with my own. “I know. And I love you for it.”

My chest warmed with my bonded mates’ own expressions of their love for me.

Elias was so protective because he thought that was all he had to offer me; Maeve maintained the role of leader because she thought that was what I needed; Adrian and Rowan were both my support when things got tough, especially now; and Orion…

From his end of the bond, I got the impression that he would do anything in his power to protect me. Even if that meant risking his own life.

And I feared that most of all.

“We’d been walking an hour before you woke up,” Rowan said, hand wrapped around mine. He nudged my shoulder with his own. “Creepy as hell.”

I shuddered, glancing around the path. Just like in my dreams, there were cart tacks, but no clue which way we were headed. I was certain we were heading towards the cottage, and the village Asael told us about. But I also couldn’t be one-hundred percent sure.

And there was something different about this forest. The one from my nightmares had always been dark, eery. The shadow-creatures who always tormented me in my nightmares were nowhere to be seen, though I hadn’t expected them to actually show up in reality.

Instead, there were little blue, glowing orbs dotting the darkened forest. They weren’t lining the path, but rather were hidden in the tree line, just out of reach.

I frowned as I glanced back at Rowan, who walked one side of me, and Orion, the other. Adrian and Damon were two steps behind us, with Elias, Maeve, and Hawk leading our party.

“Does anyone know what the glowing orbs are?” I asked, brows furrowing.

Rowan squeezed my hand. “Not a clue. So, not from your dreams then?”

I shook my head. “Absolutely not. It’s weird.”

Behind me, Damon snorted. “I knew it.”

I shot him a look over my shoulder. “You did not.”

“I knew they were not normal ,” he countered. “And you never mentioned them.”

My cheeks warmed as I turned away. “Well, I’ve never seen them before,” I muttered. Beside me, Rowan chuckled, his voice a lot lighter than before. There was still a clear, palpable tension between all of us, but it was slowly settling the longer we walked.

Ahead of us, Maeve stopped completely, her shoulders stiffening, back going straight. “We need to run,” she murmured, her head swinging back, eyes red like blood. “We are being followed.”

My stomach bottomed out. I chanced a look over my shoulder into the darkness, but there was nothing but the gnarled, twisted trees and the stupid blue orbs.

Orbs that were flickering out, one by one.

No one said a word as we ran. Elias shifted into his wolf, and without hesitation, I did, too.

His great beast matched my stride, but we moved to the back of the group to keep everyone in our sight, and to ensure the others didn’t fall behind.

Hawk couldn’t take to the skies; the canopy of leaves and branches was too thick and low.

Even if he did try to fly ahead, he wouldn’t make it.

Adrian ran slower, so I moved to run beside him. His exhaustion was clear down the bond. Would it be weird if I told him to get on my back?

I barely finished the thought before something roared behind us. Whatever it was made a tingle run down my spine. I didn’t recognise the sound as being anything from our world—not shifter or creature from Avalon—so whatever it was had to be from here.

There was a small huff of relief from my wolf at the thought. And yet, despite the reassurance, my belly still tightened with worry.

My wolf looked back, only to see total darkness behind us.

Whatever beast was chasing us, I couldn’t see it.

The branches of the trees beside us rattled, like the forest itself was reacting to the monster following us .

Another roar sounded, so much closer this time. It actually sounded almost like a howl, like one a werewolf in a movie might make. Before, it echoed through the trees, but now that it was closer, it became clearer.

Shit . I wanted to run faster, but I was terrified that Adrian would fall behind.

He was a runner; I’d caught him more than once going out with Rowan and running laps—at the palace and at the academy.

Before I blew up the training hall, there had been an awesome running track that my mates utilised on their weeks with me.

And the palace not only had the grounds, but had their own massive hall that the onsite guards used for training.

But that didn’t matter, not when he was draining himself of power to make a weapon against Dante.

My wolf wouldn’t leave him behind, and neither would I.

The beast howled again, and somewhere behind us, feet—no, paws—hit the hard earth. Somehow, whatever it was made the ground rumble with each earth-shattering step.

Each step made my heart race harder. Made my stomach twist.

With its sudden proximity, my wolf breathed in deeply and caught a familiar scent. Not one I could recall, but I knew I’d scented before.

It was sweet, like spun sugar or cotton candy. In this world, it was so entirely out of place, I almost stumbled to a halt right there to identify it. And there was something else about the scent that made my wolf’s heart race and want to breathe it in even more.

Mate, my wolf thought.

And came to a complete stop .

I screamed inside my own head for the beast to keep running, but the damned creature just planted her ass and waited.

It took only moments for the others to realise I no longer ran with them. Adrian shouted, Rowan yelled, Elias growled.

But she would not move.

The blue orbs stopped about a foot away from where I sat, hovering between going out, and remaining lit. And what came next made my hackles rise.

Oh, so the fucking monster freaks you out , I thought, directing that at the wolf. So, why do you keep sitting there?

The same claiming words filled my head as I took in the familiar beast. It stood over seven feet tall, with the frame of a classical werewolf—half man, half wolf.

It had the head of a wolf, but with wiry black fur that covered its back, legs, and arms. The belly and chest were leather by the looks of it, not covered in fur but maybe a thick skin.

It had a tail, flattened ears, and earrings.

The beast had been standing on its hind legs, but quickly dropped onto all fours. A growl left its lips, but still, my stupid wolf didn’t move.

Again, I breathed in, and the smell of cotton candy filled my lungs.

Mate. Mine. Claim .