Page 85

Ivy

M oments earlier

Shock rushed through me as Dante rose from where he crouched in the centre of the old cottage. He held the skull in his hand with a carefulness I hadn’t seen from him when he’d killed his own mother.

He looked the exact same as he had the night of the ball; his dark brown hair was slicked back from his head, shorter in the back but longer in the front, giving him that fuck boy look I’d come to know well back home. He looked almost exactly like his father, Sir Otto, and nothing like his mother.

Instead of wearing a suit like he had at the ball, he wore what I could only describe as military garb ; a pressed jacket with fine silver threading, buttons with an emblem that was unfamiliar, but I guessed had real importance to him, because the same mark was on his jacket’s breast. He also wore swords at his side, dark pants, and leather boots that went to his calves.

It was giving invasion in the absolute worst way.

His words replayed in my head as brought my magic to the surface.

“I wouldn’t do that if I were you,” he said, voice even. “You attack, I steal your power. Remember?”

I swallowed hard but let my magic play beneath my skin anyway. “How did you find it?” I asked. “You didn’t take enough of my magic to have it guide you here, Dante.”

His jaw ticked, the smile forced. “Interesting questions,” he replied. “But aren’t you at all curious about Adrian?”

“No,” I snapped. From the corner of my eye, I glanced at my mate. He looked shocked, horrified. He had his hand on his belt, right over the incomplete charm. He looked as though he wanted to use it, but couldn’t.

Turning back to Dante, I sucked in a breath and released it slowly, remaining calm. “How?”

This time, when he smiled, it wasn’t forced. A low laugh bubbled from his lips as he held the skull at his side. To anyone else, it would have looked like a normal human skull. Weathered by age, left to the elements, cracked along the top.

But to me, it was powerful. I felt it now that I was in its presence, could feel the ebb and flow of magic that was similar to mine—but not.

A shiver rolled down my spine as I took it in. Beneath the grime was markings, carvings that looked similar to the designs that appeared across my skin when my magic was at its most powerful.

“At first, I didn’t know what I’d found,” he said.

“A party in the Luna Court. A good friend had suggested it. Showed me to some ruins out in the old Titania Mountains. Said no one ever went out there. That the land was cursed during the war and blah blah blah.” He stalked towards a chest in the room, one I hadn’t noticed before.

Chains, dark and foreboding, sat on the ground beside it.

“But what we found within was life changing .” As he said that, he set the skull down within. It took all my power not to rush over there and grab it from him, but I was eerily aware that his presence wasn’t just physically in this room.

The space was barren except for us, the chest, chains, and the remnants of flowers.

I hadn’t noticed them when walking in, but there were several different bushes, all with different coloured flowers.

Silver, red, green, blue, pink, and purple; seven different types, all growing within, all emitting a soft glow.

But the silver flowers were dying, their petals wilting before my eyes.

“First, we found a letter written by some peasant Fae from the Luna Court. It was dated to around the time Pandora became Queen.” The lid of the chest shut, and he turned to me with a smug smile. “She’d been fucking the High Queen’s brother. He was trying to assume the position of High King.”

I remembered Asael talking about him. How he’d been the one to find the skull in the first place.

But Asael had also claimed he’d found every possible reference to the power and destroyed it.

I needed to keep Dante talking, to keep him busy. I hoped he liked the sound of his own voice, because the more he spoke, the more I got an idea of what the hell to do.

“Don’t bother reaching for your mates,” he said, voice darkening. “I’ve got a good little charm mage in my grasp, who is making certain the runes I’ve put on the walls are magnifying blocks to all your bonded mates.”

Damon? I thought, reaching through our marks to see if he could hear me. But there was radio silence from him. I glanced over my shoulder, only to find he hadn’t entered the cottage at all. He was outside.

The demon king sneered, but not at me. He slammed his fists against the walls either side of the old doorway. “You stupid bastard,” he growled. “Do you not think I won’t find a way to save her?”

Dante chuckled again. “You can try, but by then, it’ll be too late.”

My stomach sank, and I turned to him again. “Too late for what? If you were going to steal my powers, Dante, you would have done it by now.”

“That’s the funny thing about ancient magic.

” He winked and waved a hand over the top of the chest. Silver light danced across the surface as a thousand runes activated.

If I wanted the skull now, it would be useless unless I took the chest, too.

And it could take days to unravel all of the charms he had in place.

“It works on timelines. Like moon cycles.”

Just like the ferry, I thought. “And what moon cycle are you waiting for?”

“A full lunar eclipse. See, I always wondered why all this information was hidden in the Luna Court.” He crossed his arms, eyes boring into mine. “Take a guess.”

I rolled my own. “So, I guess that means you have to wait to steal my magic from me. Sucks to be you.”

“Does it though?” He uncrossed his arms. “I have you right where I want you. And did you know, Luna Court has a lunar eclipse almost every month? ”

The sinking feeling in my stomach grew worse. “Do you have any idea what you will do to every single world if you go through with this?”

“Scared?” He grinned like a maniac and laughed.

“You aren’t built to be Queen. If you were, you would have known you were never going to win.

I’ve had Adrian in my grasp since he was a fucking child .

I’ve had all of them within reach. My brother has been unknowingly feeding me information.

Of course, he made it hard when he fucked you and completed the bond.

But nothing a good visit couldn’t solve. ”

“I never saw you,” Adrian muttered, appearing beside me. “I never saw you when I returned to Avalon. And I never felt you…”

“I’m a master at what I do, little brother. No one did.” He could have at least tried to look guilty over invading Adrian’s thoughts, but he only looked proud of himself.

What a fucking psycho. It only made the rage boil over.

“Enough bullshit,” I snapped. “Clearly, you’re too far up your own ass to really understand what the hell is going to happen.

But if you go through with this, everyone—you included, Dante, because you aren’t a fucking God—is going to die.

This world will fall, and so will all the others. ”

“We lived hundreds of years without you and your power,” he hissed, the arrogance falling away. He was a deranged fool, too drunk on power to understand the gravity of his actions. “The creatures do not need you .”

“Yeah?” I laughed. “And how long did that last?”

He gritted his teeth and shook his head. “Everything you know is a lie .”

“And you think you know the truth?” Fuck, I hadn’t realised he would be this ridiculous. The history was written, but there were people who could go back and see it for themselves. Hell, Damon was standing right there . He’d witnessed it all. “Dante, I don’t know what convinced you?—”

“ Nothing convinced me more than understanding the lies that came out after she became Queen.” He pulled one of his swords from his belt and slammed it into the bush of flowers that were red. “I’ll make you understand, too. I’ll make you all understand.”

We were walking a dangerous path with him. He wasn’t a cold, calculated kind of person. That was clear. He’d only found the letter, by chance , because he’d been looking for a place to party.

But it was a friend who had shown him. “Dante, who took you to the temple?” I asked.

His dark blue eyes swung to mine, crinkling at the corners from confusion. “Why?”

“Curious. I mean, I’m trapped in here with you and Adrian. We can’t walk out, because as soon as we do, Damon will shadow jump Adrian and I right out of this world. And last I checked, you can’t shadow jump. So, trapped. You might as well answer the question.”

“It doesn’t matter who showed me!” he shouted, pulling the sword free and slamming it into the earth again. I couldn’t help but flinch as his rage poured out in a burst of magic.

He was unhinged, coming apart.

“Magic sickness,” Adrian whispered, grabbing my hand. “Too much power makes certain people mad.”

He didn’t even need to explain it for me to understand. When my power had been out of control, I hadn’t felt stable, either. And that had been because I needed mate bonds to settle the power and redirect it.

But he didn’t have that. Or at least, he didn’t have anchors .

“All that matters is that in a matter of moments, you’ll be mine to do what I please with.” He smiled to himself, the words making my heart clench. “Don’t worry, Adrian, I won’t make you watch as she dies. I care about you too much for that.”

“Care about me?” Adrian made a move to run at Dante, but I held him back. He was still too weak, and the charm wasn’t done. “You only care about yourself, Dante. You killed our fucking mother!”

“Because she betrayed me!” Dante ran his hands through his dark hair, mussing it.

“She fucked me over, time and time again. And when I needed her most, you want to know where she was?” Dante’s crazed eyes turned to Adrian.

“She was screwing your father. Said that completing her bond with him was more important than helping me.” He shook his head, the pain evident in his blue eyes.

“She left me, and now, she can’t leave us again. ”

I wasn’t entirely sure how to feel about that. I could tell, even with the runes around us muting the bonds, that even Adrain struggled with Dante’s reasoning.

Because it was the same struggles Adrian had faced with her. A fear that the separation of bonds would hurt our future children.

And here was Dante, proving him right.

Proving his fears had justification.

“That didn’t mean you had to kill her,” Adrian whispered, a tear sliding down his cheek. I wanted to reach for him, but I was frozen in place. “Despite her faults, and there were a few, she still loved you. Loved all of us.”

Dante took a step back, almost backing into the chest. “She had an interesting way of showing it,” he snapped .

A chill rolled down my spine, but not because of Dante or his revelation. The hairs on the back of my neck prickled, electricity filling the air. The smell of sulphur tickled my nose, wrong and dark.

The knowledge that something bad was coming didn’t prepare me enough for what I saw.

Dante’s face contorted with anger as the air crackled, and someone appeared behind us. I turned in time to see a tall male with silver-white hair, bloodied and messy, standing with a sneering female. Both were Fae, and at their feet…

I bit down on a cry.

Orion .