Page 83

Elias

T he stench of death clung to my fur, filling my lungs. When it was over, I would have to bathe myself in Ivy’s scent to wash away the rotting flesh smell that followed me.

The thrax were doing their job. Maybe a little too well.

The mages and Fae working for the bastard king were fighting with all the magic they had against the beasts. They barely even noticed me, Grey, and the Primal as we walked by.

I breathed in, searching for Ivy’s scent.

But the smell of death was overwhelming.

Where the fuck was she? I knew she’d found the location of the skull—Maeve had said as much when Ivy touched base with her, but where was my mate now?

Her end of the bond was quiet, a block carefully constructed in her mind.

Likely out of worry that Dante could use the bonds against us, but I didn’t like that she hadn’t left a way to check in on her.

It made everything within me recoil. Especially after what happened at the ball, when Dante had so easily been able to cut us off from her—not once, but twice.

I’d gone with the plan of splitting up because it had made sense to draw the army away from Dante. He was powerful, sure, but not nearly as powerful as Ivy. He wasn’t a king—he was a mind mage with too much arrogance born of self-importance and a belief the world—no, Nyx —owed him something.

I couldn’t wait for Kingsley to trap him in his new hellish prison. To strip him of his powers, turn him human, then throw him in the worst prison our realms had to offer.

It would make my fucking day to see him powerless. Useless. Weak without the ability to mind-fuck his way out of it. Maybe that would save a whole lot of creatures here now.

The shifters mostly fought the thrax . The zombie-rats were almost the same size as their largest bear. Though the living dead weren’t smart, they were harder to kill.

Grey stopped in the middle of what used to be a courtyard of sorts. She lifted her nose to the air, eyes shifting from blue to red as she scented the area.

“She was here,” she said, glancing at me. I shifted from wolf to male, stalking to her side. “It’s faint, but she, Kingsley, and the demon were here recently.”

I scented the air, pulling in deep breaths of air. Just as Grey said, through the smoke and rotting flesh, I faintly caught the scent of coffee.

I released the breath slowly. “It wasn’t long ago, either,” I muttered, as the overgrown beast moved to stand with us. Fuck, it was weird. I shook my head and turned back to Grey. “Can you reach her?”

The vampire pressed her lips together, eyes dark. “No.” There was a deep anger in her voice as the words left her lips. “And I do not know if that is because she is blocking us, or if he has already found her.”

“What will he do when he finds her?” the creature growled, standing on all fours, rather than his hind legs. “How much danger is she in?”

He’d barely addressed her before, even after coming to understand what a fucking mate bond was. But there was a hint of worry in his voice, and his eyes kept flickering away, like he hoped to spot her somewhere in battle or through the thick smoke coming from the fires behind us.

“He’ll strip her of her magic, and probably kill her,” I muttered, looking away from him. “The only way she survives this is if she has her mates.”

I still remembered the conversation she’d briefly had with the Seer.

When Nyx told her the only way to survive was going to be finding her mates and completing all her bonds.

Nash was making that more than difficult; and he knew just how badly she needed them.

He’d been there when her magic was out of control, seeing first-hand what not having all her mate bonds could do to her—to everyone.

He’d been drained just like we had in her healing after the explosion, and he’d been right there after with Sable to know that in order for us to win, Ivy would need to have all her bonded mates.

But this male didn’t know all that. He had a reason to be hesitant. Mate bonds clearly weren’t a thing in this world anymore. He didn’t understand the severity, but he would now .

A growl rippled from the creature. “But she is safe with the males she is with?”

Grey and I shared a look. It was fucking hard leaving her with the demon king and Kingsley. The former was still an unsettling ally, and the latter weakened to the point where he might not be much help until he finished the enchantment he was working on.

“They’ll protect her,” Grey said. “But we will, too. I will not let him take my mate from me again.”

Grey already knew my stance; everything I did now was for Ivy.

She’d pulled me out of the hole I’d been in, away from the belief I would never be good enough.

I’d been a broken shell of a male before meeting her, and I’d taken out my own low self-worth on her because I’d expected her to reject me, just like everyone else had.

But she’d been the only person to see me as the male I really was. Who hadn’t been afraid of me, who had given me a new life—a new purpose.

And I knew Ivy had done the same for Grey. Had given her hope, a life beyond making up for her past mistakes.

Before we could move from the square, the roar of a bear sounded behind us.

We turned to find a large bear standing on its hind legs, blood and saliva dripping from his teeth.

Behind him stood a demon, older looking, but unfamiliar.

Grey-black hair tumbled from his head to his shoulders, curling around his ears.

Based on scent, he might have been a hybrid, part Fae, though with all the bullshit Dante and his cowardly followers spouted, born hybrids weren’t his thing.

The only creatures we’d captured were full blooded, not hybrids of two different species. It was the shifters we’d found had been experimented on, forced to age slower.

The bear shifter was no different. He, too, was a full-blooded shifter based on scent, but that didn’t mean he hadn’t been used for other things. Even from this distance, I could see scars across the beast’s belly, his eye. I had no doubt there were more along his back.

Flashes of a memory hit me then; of a life I’d worked hard to forget, a boy who had been broken by the whips of someone I could never identify. I hadn’t told Ivy the truth of the scars on my back, but that hadn’t been because I’d wanted to hide it.

It had been because I couldn’t really remember how they’d happened.

I’d always assumed it happened before I reached the Phoenix Compound orphanage. Or that it had happened there, and I couldn’t remember.

I stumbled back a step as the bear roared again. I felt the weight of Grey’s stare on me, her confusion swirling in the depths of her red eyes, but she stepped forward, pulling a gun from her belt.

“I recognise the bear,” she murmured, low enough for me and the Old World creature to hear. “We’d seen him during our assessment of the village.”

I swallowed hard, my eyes drawn to the demon. I’d thought him unfamiliar before, but now a spark of recognition hit me like the force of an explosion. I recognised his black eyes. The hatred, the dead look in them as he stood over me.

It was only a flash, but it was enough to have my hands trembling.

Fuck. Fuck . I didn’t recognise the pressure building within me.

I’d felt it before from Ivy, when she’d spiralled into a panic attack, or during one of her nightmares.

But never on my own. I knew this was from me and not her.

This was all my own anxiety; born from the flashes of a memory that I wasn’t even sure was real .

Because if it was real, that meant that at some point in my life, I hadn’t just been at the orphanage. I’d been where Dante held his army. I’d been in one of those cages, had been experimented on. Had been hurt by the hand of the male standing only feet from us.

The Old World creature stalked forward, as if sensing my spiral, putting himself between me and the bear.

“Your bitch of a Queen is in for a real surprise,” the demon shouted, a dark smile curling his lips. I hated that I recognised it. I hated that it made my chest tighten with unfounded fear. “You handed her right over, and you didn’t even realise it.”

No, not Ivy. She can’t be with him . She would have said she was going into the cottage. She would have told us that she was worried he might be there. But Grey said, when they’d last spoken, Ivy and Kingsley both believed Dante to be in his tents. That his magical signature was coming from there.

The bear lowered himself onto all fours and shook his large head.

“Will say, though,” the demon continued, “we should have expected the Elysian King to turn on us. Loyal for over three thousand years. But we really hadn’t expected him to join you here.”

Grey cocked her head. “He would die for her,” she said, voice laced with venom. “I doubt you expected that.” What she didn’t say was that he would kill for her, too. He had the power to wipe everyone out, if he wanted to.

“So, she has a magic pussy.” The demon barked a laugh, which only sparked rage within me.

That was enough to drag me out of my spiralling thoughts and force me back to the present.

To him and the bear that he was going to use to fight us.

“I bet it must piss you off. That your mate would spread her legs for him. For someone more powerful.”

Grey didn’t react to his foul words, and I tried not to, either. But it was the creature who growled, rising on his back feet. “Your heart will be torn from your chest and fed to the thrax for what you have done.”

The demon blinked in surprise. “What the fuck are you?” was all he could manage as he took a step back. With a shake of his head, he growled, “Attack, Thor. You kill them, you get your reward.”

The bear roared. His thundering footsteps shook the earth beneath us as he barrelled towards us.

I cursed under my breath and dove to the side, Grey doing the same. But not the Primal. He threw himself at the bear, and they hit the ground hard, rolling. The earth rumbled, shifting beneath us. Grey and I shared a look, but rage darkened her features as she made for the demon.

Fuck.

I glanced at the Old World shifter, who had the bear mostly pinned, and then to Grey, who circled the demon. He had a gun pointed at her. She could take a hit and take it well. She didn’t even flinch.

But I didn’t know what kind of bullets he had loaded. He could have dipped them in the same poison that killed Ivy’s mother. Or worse.

They could have runes carved into them designed to kill a Queen’s mate.

The Old World shifter was handling himself pretty well, and even if I tried to help him, I would get in his way.

Plus, he had magic. I could sense it coming off him now, just like I had when he’d first made his way to us.

I didn’t know what he was capable of. What power he had from living in this world.

Grey, though. I could help her.

I shifted and ran. The ground shifted between earth and stone, thick grass and man-laid pavers. The stench of smoke and wet stone met my nose as I reached them, the male’s scent confusing yet familiar. I quickly shook my head before the panic could claim me again.

I moved behind him and shifted again. Over his shoulder, I met Grey’s eye briefly before pulling out my own weapon, aiming it at his head. “You will either surrender,” I growled, “or die. I don’t care which.”

The demon chuckled. “I remember you,” he mused, holding his gun up in one hand, raising the other as if in defeat. Slowly, he turned to face me, giving Grey his back.

“Bad move,” I muttered. She had him disarmed and on his knees in an instant. I heard the crack of his kneecaps when he hit the ground. His shout of pain turned to a hiss.

He chuckled darkly. “You didn’t think it’d be that easy, did you?”

I kept the gun level on his head. “It won’t take me long to put a bullet in your brain. Now, we aren’t stupid enough for Grey to feed on you and access your memories. We have no doubt that there are safeguards in place. Orion let us know you’d been hoping to pull her into your ranks.”

A snarl lifted his lips. “The little bastard is going to regret ever defying his father. Hyperion will see to that.”

Behind the mage, Grey stiffened. I tried not to meet her eye, keeping my gaze steady on the mage.

“Or Orion will finally kill his father for everything he’s done.

Killing his fated mates, torturing his son, you know.

All the crimes that would normally put him in prison with the worst offenders in our world. ”

Better for the asshole to know we didn’t have Kingsley building a charm to drain their magic entirely.

From the corner of my eye, I checked in with the Primal and the bear. Both were still fighting, completely in their own world as they circled one another. The Primal had gotten a few good hits in; blood poured from the bear’s matted brown fur, turning it a deep shade of red.

But the bear had managed to inflict a few wounds on the other shifter, too. It was less obvious because of his black fur and skin, but there were gouges around his abdomen from being clawed at. He was already healing, but so was the bear.

“Just shoot him,” Grey deadpanned. “He isn’t worth keeping alive.”

I shrugged, clicking the safety off. “Whatever you say, boss,” I replied, keeping my gaze on the mages.

His eyes widened in shock. “Wait!” He held up his hands, panic souring his scent. “He has it! He has that thing ,” he whispered. “And he’s going to use it on her.”

I sucked in a deep breath, tearing my eyes off the male for only a moment. “Fuck.”

But that was enough time for him to summon shadows to take him away.