Page 8

Ivy

I had to keep reminding myself that nothing would be the same again, as we sat quietly in the SUV, preparing ourselves for a journey that could possibly kill us—or destroy everything.

“We could use a mirror witch,” Adrian said, touching me for the first time in what felt like hours, hand gripping my knee tightly. “A powerful one could take us directly through to the Old World.”

I frowned, glancing at him. “Vanya said we’d see a glimpse into the Old World through a mirror as part of our History of Witches class.”

Adrian squeezed my knee. “She was right. You would have. But you wouldn’t have been able to enter through that mirror.”

“Mirror witches and mages create two kinds of mirrors: the ones you look into, and the ones you step into. Take your fairytale, Alice in Wonderland, for example. A reckless witch left a mirror out and the poor girl fell through it,” Rowan explained.

“Most can only make the see-through kind. We’d need someone who could do the whole step-into type. ”

I pursed my lips and sat back; the bones of the corset bit into my sides, especially where I’d been hit earlier.

The dried blood didn’t help, either. “First of all, Alice fell through a portal in the ground to Wonderland. Second: when can I change? This isn’t going to work for a cross-realm adventure. ”

“I’m pretty sure there’s a book with a looking glass,” Rowan replied. “And I think you still look great, baby.”

I gave him a thin-lipped smile and shook my head. “I look like Carrie minus the pig’s blood. I need gear.”

The immediate response was overwhelmingly negative. Half my mates considered gear a sign that I would likely fight and get hurt. The other half were only into the protection it would provide. The only one I couldn’t get a feel for was Hawk, who stared at me with dark, narrowed eyes.

It was hard, looking at him like I would my other mates. Knowing he was mine, that we were bound together by the power of Nyx, at least soothed the part of me that demanded I claim him. But I couldn’t tell if that was something he felt, too.

Even after everything we’d been through, it was difficult to tell what he wanted.

Sighing, I winced as another sharp piece of my bodice dug into my side.

“I cannot go around wearing this,” I said.

“I stand out like a crazy person. Gear will help me blend in with you guys and protect me. I’ll let Adrian put a thousand charms on me if that’s what you guys’ need for me to be safe.

But I cannot wear this dress any longer. ”

Maybe I sounded a little desperate. Other than the fact that it left bruises, I couldn’t stand the dress I’d once thought was beautiful.

The gown of starlight made me sick. It reminded me of failure; Dante with his knife, Queen Greer falling to the ground, my anger at not being able to do anything to save her.

My inability to save anyone.

“Make a request for the gear,” Elias growled, nodding to Rowan. “I think we can all agree that she’s better off safe.”

“Already done,” Rowan replied quietly, offering me a smile. “You could always sit naked if you want out of the dress.”

If I could reach him, I’d hit him. But alas, the asshole was sitting up front with Maeve. Instead, all I could do was roll my eyes. “Funny.”

The tension in the SUV lightened a bit. When I glanced around the space, my heart warmed. They were all okay, and that was what mattered most to me.

I just had to make sure Dante never found the children. They were the only ones I couldn’t protect now.

“Griffon will look after them,” Adrian murmured. “He isn’t with—” He stooped and shook his head.

“I believe you,” I whispered. “But could he guess that they’re with Griffon?”

For a moment, Adrian’s eyes darkened as he stared down at where his hand gripped my knee. His knuckles were red, bruised like he’d punched someone, but I couldn’t recall when that could have happened.

“No,” he said, shaking his head. “I have a feeling Onyx would have warned him, before?— ”

I covered his hand with mine gently. “The last time I saw them, they were alive.”

Adrian’s eyes closed and he bowed his head. “I should have known. How did I not know?” He turned his hand, entwining our fingers, but he didn’t open his eyes. “I spent so much time with him growing up. You’d think…”

“He never gave either of us the impression that he was an evil son-of-a-bitch, Adrian,” Rowan replied. “All those parties, I don’t think anyone would have guessed he was capable of this.”

“And he found a way to block Sable from having visions of him,” Maeve said from the front seat. “I have a feeling he found other ways to keep your father and Greer’s other mates away.”

Rowan cursed under his breath, and I looked up from Adrian to find my mage running a hand through his hair. “Ivy, when was the last time you saw my mother?”

My mouth popped open, eyes widening as I tried to think back to when I’d last seen Sable at the ball. Had she been there on the dais when Greer was stabbed? I couldn’t remember. Had I seen her at all when fighting Dante?

Rowan’s face dropped, panic filling his eyes. “Shit. Do you think—does he have her?”

Through the bond, fear and anger swelled within him. His thoughts shifted drastically from wanting to find his mother to being terrified that she was hurt. I tried to give him a sense of calm, to give him some reassurance that everything was alright, but he seemed to be spiralling.

“Rowan,” I said, pushing off the middle seat to kneel on the bench seat separating me from him.

I tried to ignore the deep ache in my thighs and the way my bodice seemed to tighten around my chest as I reached for him.

“Ro. I’m sure she’s okay. Your mother is one of the strongest people out there.

She probably figured out something was wrong before the attack.

She could have gotten out before it all went down. ”

He shook his head, though he didn’t stop me from taking his trembling hand. “She wouldn’t have just left us, though. No, she would have fought. She would have?—”

“Dante knows how powerful your mother is. She’s a threat,” Maeve murmured. I shot her a look; she wasn’t looking at me, but rather the ocean and the brightening sky. “He never saw you as a threat. That’s why you were able to have the visions. And I think Sable knew that.”

I frowned, glancing back at Rowan. “What visions?” I asked carefully.

The SUV went quiet at that. From my bond with Maeve, I could tell she hadn’t intended to say the words out loud. And from Rowan, I sensed shock, maybe even a little fear, as my question hung in the air.

Slowly, I pulled away from him and slid back into my spot between Elias and Adrian, who both remained eerily silent. The only two who appeared to be as confused as me were Orion and Hawk. The two not part of the original team.

My magic swelled within me, growing wilder the longer they remained silent. Heart pounding, I stared at each of my quiet mates. I tried to prod the bond for any impression of what secret they were keeping from me, but each of them had a block in place to keep those thoughts from me.

“What happened to not keeping secrets?” I snapped.

Elias was the first to reach for me, taking my hand from where it sat in my lap.

As much as I wanted to pull away from him, I didn’t.

I let him entwine our fingers, forcing myself to look at him.

I hoped he understood the desperation I felt.

Because the weight of not knowing was creating a catastrophic storm within me.

And the last thing I wanted was to be angry at any of them.

My mate didn’t take his eyes off me as he brought his free hand up to cup the side of my face. “Blame me for this secret, Angel. I didn’t want to put any more stress on your shoulders. This was something we could handle for you.”

My stomach twisted. “What secret, Elias?”

“I’ve been having visions,” Rowan said, his voice soft, a slight tremor in his words. “Since we met. That package I received when we were staying at the hotel triggered the first one.”

I remained still and quiet, though I dredged up the memories from that time.

That was months ago, within the first few days of me knowing the team—before I even knew about the supernatural world.

I’d just been simple old Ivy Wilson with a five-year plan to become a full-time writer and build my career.

I’d never even had an inkling of what might be hiding in the shadows of my world.

That there was an entirely separate, magical place I would one day call home.

“I had a vision of you,” Rowan continued finally. “It was…horrifying. It happened right before our coffee date.”

“I remember,” I whispered. “You told me at the safe house about your visions.”

“Yeah.” Rowan cleared his throat. “Well, the first one was about you being locked up by an unknown enemy. That was our first hint that someone was hunting you.”

A cold chill ran down my skin, puckering my flesh as I stiffened. “What else?”

And then he explained them all; the male with the familiar magic starring in all the visions, of the words he spoke and how I’d been stripped of my magic by ancient runes not even Rowan could identify.

Rowan outlined everything he remembered from the visions, until all I heard was the pounding of blood in my ears when he was finally done.

I swallowed hard, heart thundering against my ribs, as I finally pulled away from Elias.“How could you keep something like that from me? You all talk about me keeping Ry from you, but this?—”

“It was for your safety,” Maeve said, the pain in her voice almost cracking through my shields. “ A mhuirnín , please…”

I shook my head. Their explanation hadn’t done anything to calm the raging storm within me. No, it was worse now. It was heading for total destruction, and I needed to get out before it took everyone I loved with it.

“Let me out of the car,” I bit out, reaching for the door.

Elias was there in an instant, blocking my access, his sorrow-filled face filling my vision. “Ivy, listen to us, please?—”

“Move. I don’t want to hurt you.” He flinched, but for a moment, I couldn’t bring myself to care. I needed to get out, to breathe fresh air and pray to Nyx my magic didn’t try to take control of me.

But my shifter mate remained there, chest heaving while my magic threatened to explode within me. “Please,” I said, voice cracking as electricity lifted the hairs of my arms, “let me out. I love you, but you need to let me out of this car, now.”

His jaw clenched. The tension in the car thickened, the air suddenly warmer, making it harder to breathe.

But after another long moment, he reached behind him and opened the door, stepping out first before offering me a hand.

His eyes pleaded with me to accept his offer of help.

I could feel the same from everyone else. But no one spoke .

My body trembled as I took Elias’s hand and let him help me out of the SUV. As soon as the briny, cool ocean air hit me, I felt like I could finally breathe again. The thundering of my heart slowed, and a faint buzzing filled my ears as the world around me turned fuzzy.

When darkness closed in, I didn’t fight it. I let it swallow me whole.

Chains rattled as the smell of blood tickled my nose.

Cold stone pressed into the palms of my hands, which were sticky with some unknown substance.

I tried to push myself into a sitting position, but it felt as though someone was holding me down, a pressure heavy against my shoulders, trapping me to the ground. It was so heavy I could barely breathe.

No sound escaped my lips, not even as I tried to turn my head and search for the sound of the rattling chains. I wasn’t sure why I knew it was chains. But I knew I was right. The prickling of my skin, the lump in my throat, the fear that tightening in my chest, made me fear it was.

I turned my head, something catching the dim light filtering through the room.

I couldn’t really call it a room, not as tears burned the corners of my eyes.

It was more a cage. Metal bars filled my vision, darkened with the same substance coating my hands.

My fingers dug into the stone as a strangled sound finally left my dry mouth.

There were bodies across from me, beyond the bars and my reach.

Nine bodies.

A tear slid down my cheek as I met the dead eyes of my mates. First Rowan, then Maeve, and Elias. Adrian with his golden hair matted with blood. Orion’s bloodied hands reaching for me. Hawk without his wings. The other bodies were shrouded in darkness, but it didn’t matter.

They were dead.

The rattling of chains died, and finally, the pressure on my body ceased. I wanted to go to my mates, but something urged me to turn towards the dark corner of the cage where the sound came from. My skin prickled, the lump in my throat hardening, but I did as the feeling commanded.

I dropped to the ground again, heart stopping, as I took in the person sitting across from me. Something about her was wrong , but I couldn’t figure out why. She wasn’t dead, but I could see by the darkness in her eyes, she wished she was.

I wished she were, too.

Because she was me .

The cage fell away like a rainy scene, only to be replaced with something familiar.

The forest of my nightmares.

Nyx appeared with her cowl-covered head bowed. She held no skull or crown in her hands.

“What was that?” I asked, voice unsteady. I could barely hold myself up, not with how badly my body trembled. “Was that…was that what Rowan saw in his visions?”

The Goddess didn’t move, didn’t lift her head or give any indication that she’d heard me. But when I opened my mouth to ask more, she spoke. “That is the future in store if you fail, Ivy.”

And like that, the dream world I’d come to know so well, disappeared, leaving me in total darkness.