Page 73 of Wings of Darkness (Daughter of the Seven Circles #2)

Chapter

Forty-Eight

LUCILLE

A fter a lot of pissy comments, arguing, and planning as best we could with almost nothing, we stepped through the portal.

It was different from all the others I’d traveled through.

We didn’t fall or twist around in a light show.

We moved slowly through what felt like sticky, translucent slime that stole our breath, until it felt like we were about to suffocate.

Then we popped out, all of us falling to the ground and gasping for air.

“That sucked,” Oliver wheezed.

“ That is what happens when portals are created by someone who doesn’t have enough power to sustain them,” Ronen said, helping me up.

There was no Lilith. No Aspen. No one else. Instead, we found ourselves in a stone tunnel lined with flaming torches. I turned, looking back at the mirror portal, then ahead. The dim path stretched away, then hooked to the right.

“Well, this is anticlimactic,” Oliver muttered.

“Someone lit the torches.” Alexei kept his daggers raised and attention locked on the turn, much like Ronen.

“They could be runed to stay lit,” MJ countered.

“And what Archangel or Seraphim would have the ability to do that in this kingdom?”

“Alexei’s right,” Ronen confirmed. “MJ, fall back. Alexei, up front with me. Let’s see where this leads.”

We all fell into formation and continued.

MJ’s heels echoed through the damp tunnel, setting my nerves on edge.

I squeezed the hilt of my daggers, approaching each new turn, expecting to see a demon, Lilith—even Aspen.

But no one was there. She had to be toying with us.

That was the only explanation for why we weren’t already being attacked.

And once we were… then what? I almost hoped we’d be fighting Aspen.

At least then we’d have found him. But that would only solve one of our three problems.

Something caressed the back of my neck and tickled the inside of my nose. My anxiety eased.

I glanced at Ronen, assuming it was his shadows, but he shouldn’t have any power here. He turned to me.

“We’ll find him.”

It was strange to hear the earnestness in his voice, stranger still that he refrained from using the degrading name pet . His feelings couldn’t have changed in a matter of days, yet he was putting aside his hatred for me.

Why ?

I focused back on the path and frowned. “Is that?—”

“A dead end.” Ronen stopped.

How did that even make sense? “The portal can’t lead to nowhere.”

“It didn’t.” Oliver pointed at the stone ceiling to a trapdoor.

“Great. A tiny door where only one of us can fit through at a time. Easy pickings,” Alexei drawled.

“There better be something on the other side he can kill,” I muttered.

MJ patted him on the back. “Does our Bowel babe want to go first?”

Alexei pushed her away. “We should’ve left you at home.”

“Give me your knee,” Ronen demanded.

Alexei knelt and cupped his hands.

“Wait. We don’t know what’s up there. Let me go first, I have my powers.”

Ronen brushed a piece of hair from my face. “No way in Hell or Heaven.”

A stubborn resolve took hold in my bones, and I stepped closer, about to shove him off Alexei’s knee, when Ronen’s eyes went pitch-black.

He had his powers. So earlier, I hadn’t imagined the brush.

Mirth danced at his lips, along with a smugness that made me want to push him off Alexei for an entirely new reason.

“Be careful.”

His smile dropped. “For you, always.”

I swallowed. I had no words for what that phrase did to me.

The severity of his tone, the fervent way he held my gaze—it struck a chord in my chest. My fingers twitched, aching to trace his cheek, maybe his lips.

I wanted to feel his warmth for just a moment.

His gorgeous, otherworldly eyes beckoned me.

I took a deep breath, filled my lungs with his scent, and stepped back.

He gave me one last long look before stepping on Alexei.

My Infernus sent itches along my skin and practically screamed in my ear to act.

They hovered at the surface, ready to explode, while Ronen eased open the creaking trapdoor and pulled himself up, his back an easy target.

All someone had to do was shove a blade in his spine, and he’d be dead. I didn’t take my eyes off him.

He made it through the trapdoor without issue, and we all collectively exhaled. A wayward shadow caressed my face, almost in reassurance, and helped ease the purple flames skimming the surface of my hands.

“Lucille, you’re going to want to see this.”

Something in his tone made my heart pick up again. He held out his hand, and I stepped onto Alexei.

My head popped through the trapdoor, and I frowned. A large chandelier hung from a gold-inlaid ceiling. Something about it was familiar.

Ronen pulled me up, and more of the luxurious bedroom came into view.

Moonlight deepened the mauve of the gossamer drapery surrounding the floor-to-ceiling arched window. Without looking, I knew that to my left there should be one velvet chaise lounge and a dark wooden coffee table. I swallowed and looked. Dread stole the warmth from my hands. Which meant…

“Is this the prince?”

I knew what I’d see when I turned toward Ronen’s voice.

Steeling myself, I twisted.

Aspen lay chained on the velvet bed with his eyes closed.

“Yes.”

His greasy, limp waves rested against the pillow, the same length they were in our dream-walks. He even had the full beard and mustache. I approached slowly, taking in his gaunt face and the way his tunic and pants hung loosely on his frame.

“Heavenly Hell,” I whispered, brushing his long bangs off his forehead. “What has she done to you?”

Ronen backed away, giving us space and helping the rest of the crew up. I focused on Aspen. Ember Metal wrapped around his wrists and ankles. I twisted his palm over, and the chains clanked. His Hell Rune glowed the terrible dark red of control.

The energy pounding beneath my skin wanted the chains off. It demanded it. But I had to be smart. We didn’t have Ronen’s feather. If we unchained Aspen and he woke up, things could get ugly fast. I sighed, lifting his wrist to examine the lock, and the chain clattered to the bed.

What the…

“The princeling looks like shit,” Oliver commented, stepping closer. “Least he was an easy find.”

I ignored him, scanning Aspen’s ankles and finding chains loosely wrapped around them, but no locks. That didn’t make sense. In my nightmare, the chains were always locked. If Lilith wanted control, she’d keep him secured to the bed. My muscles tensed.

Aspen was the trap .

His eyes flew open. He lunged from the bed, seized my waist and yanked me toward him.

Cries of outrage rang out as I struggled to break free.

A dome of blue flame erupted, engulfing the bed.

I tried to punch him, to reach for a dagger and hold it to his neck, but my hands wouldn’t cooperate.

They refused to attack him. I knew what I had to do, but the very thought of it filled me with crushing dread.

It made no sense.

Instead, I ended up in a headlock, choking on air, facing Oliver while the rest of the group attacked Aspen’s barrier.

We all knew this was coming. I practically gave Lilith and Aspen a calling card for my arrival. I just hadn’t expected my nightmare to be real.

Had the female in my nightmares set me up? Was she Lilith, taunting me with reality, urging me to act?

I should’ve known better.

But even if I had… it wouldn’t have changed anything. I still would’ve come. I still would’ve tried to help him. Now I just needed a plan.

Oliver’s inched closer. “Let her go, princeling, or I’ll shove this knife into your stomach.”

Aspen stole one of my daggers and held it to my cheek. “Stay back, Nephilim, unless you want to add to our pretty princess’s scars.”

“You fucking spill a drop of her blood, and I’ll destroy you.

” Ronen didn’t raise his voice. He didn’t erupt in fury.

He spoke with certainty, his words a cold, lethal promise.

He seemed calm, while his shadows slammed against the barrier.

The force shook the room. Plaster rained down from the ceiling.

Rune paced back in front of the flames, snarling and snapping her jaws .

“Interesting tricks, shadow-wielder. Your powers must not register as angelic to the Ember Metal. What does that make you? Too dark? A demon? Did Lilith give you her blood too?” Aspen taunted. “Maybe you belong here with us.”

Was that why they worked? Because they were too dark? It made a twisted kind of sense. Ember Metal suppressed angelic power, but Ronen’s weren’t typical. He was a Dark Seraphim. Could the metal not distinguish what he was?

Oliver moved closer while Aspen was distracted.

“Nu uh,” Aspen chided, flicking his gaze back to Oliver and digging the knife in. I hissed, and Ronen surrounded the barrier in shadow. Alexei, MJ, Rune, and Ronen all vanished into the dark. They pressed in, and the dome shifted slightly, the grip on my neck loosening enough for me to breathe.

“Aspen,” I rasped. “You don’t want to do this.”

“Sorry, sweetheart. I gave you a chance, and you didn’t listen. You should probably give your friends some parting words to remember you by. The queen’s waiting for us down the hall.”

Fuck that.

I pulled at my Infernus, demanding anything it could give. Most of their whispers were silent, except hallucination and seduction. I called to my hallucination melody, thought about fear, and slammed into Aspen’s mind.

I thought it’d be hard. I expected thick, unyielding barriers.

But instead, I pierced his mind effortlessly—yet my hallucination didn’t take.

The emptiness swallowed my attempt. I tried to weave images into his head and recreate the scene so I could manipulate him, but the void consumed that too.

His mind was hollow, and it hungered for anything, devouring everything. My powers didn’t work.

Desperate, I reached for his wrists, wrapping my hands around them—bolts of searing heat shot through my body.

I screamed, nearly letting go, when I felt just a hint of his emotions.

It was hardly anything, but it was something.

If only I could reach him. If we could get Aspen on our side, just long enough to betray Lilith and take her feather, maybe we’d have a chance. Maybe we could end her.

“Remember my fear, Nephilim,” Aspen groaned, his arm tightening around my neck.

Black specks blurred Oliver. The pain of the runes dulled with my weakening hands, Aspen’s emotions slowly becoming numbed again.

Oliver looked like he was about to ram his knife into Aspen.

“Don’t,” I wheezed. I wouldn’t let Oliver hurt him. But more than that, we needed to get to Lilith and her feather, and this was the only way. I could be the Trojan horse. “Let me go.”

Oliver stared at me like I was out of my mind. But so far, this was the best plan I could come up with.

“Trust me,” I breathed, my hands falling from Aspen’s runes, my eyes closing.

The last sound I heard was an eruption of rage that felt like it could tear the world apart.