“He was in the cell with the others when Jude took me.”
Pain flashes across Kael’s face, but before anyone can say another word, the sound of the front door of the dormitoryswinging open echoes up the stairs and Thorne bursts into the dorm room a few moments later.
Ocean manages to step out of the way before he hurries into his bedroom, reaching for me immediately as he drags me into his embrace, and I cling to him.
What startles me is how real it feels, hugging him in the dream, just like it does here. “This feels as real as it did in the dream,” I murmur against his ear, and he tightens his hold on me.
“That's because it's not really a dream,” he explains, leaving me confused as he rears back enough to meet my stare. “That's the Shadowlands. We're just transported there in our sleep,” he states, and I stare at him, bewildered.
“That doesn't make any sense.”
“It only makes sense if you're a shadow fae, because you can only gain access to it as or with a shadow fae,” he adds, and I glance around the room at the other three people staring at us with the same level of bewilderment that I'm wearing now. If Thorne notices, he doesn’t acknowledge it as he pushes on. “There is something we need to check.”
He lowers me to my feet, but he places me out of the way of his bed as he drops to his knees and starts pulling out storage boxes. The first one he opens, he rifles through some papers before he turns to me with another image.
This time, the picture shows the same man, not with his father, but with a woman.
“Have you met her before?” he asks, and I nervously run my tongue along my bottom lip as I nod.
“They were together in the cell,” I breathe, recalling the comforting words of the woman first, before I experienced any interaction with the man at all.
“Why?” Thorne asks, and I shake my head.
“I don't know. The only thing I know is that they said they were there, along with everybody else, to protect their family.”
Thorne’s gaze drops to the picture in question as he blinks. “That family might be closer to home than we think,” he states.
“What does that mean?” Kael asks, but Thorne doesn't answer for a few moments as he rifles through his belongings, pulling out another trunk from the back.
When he opens it, there's additional storage inside, one that looks like it doesn’t have an opening. Thorne’s attention turns to Kael as he holds out his hand. “Nip for me, will you?” he mutters, and although Kael frowns in confusion, he does as Thorne asks, elongating his fangs before he bites at Thorne’s thumb.
A droplet of blood forms at the tip and Thorne quickly retracts his hand.
“Thank you,” Thorne murmurs as he returns to the box and presses his blood into the center of it.
What looked like a decorative pattern moments ago brightens with his touch, trailing across the wood like veins, turning golden until a click sounds and the box opens.
Inside are rows of vials, each filled with a different shade of red liquid, and a tiny note above each one. He runs his fingers over the vials until he finds two.
Capturing them in one hand, he uses his free hand to dig out two empty vials from the larger box before rising to his feet. With the four vials in hand, he turns to me. “We're going to need our little pinpricker here to do the same to you,” he explains, but before I can speak, Rion interjects.
“No one is stabbing at my Petal.”
Thorne clears his throat, staring down at the items in his hand for a second before his gaze returns to me with an air of determination and decision consuming him.
“Odie was my father's closest friend. They were like brothers, even though Odie was actually my father's right-hand man.” Heclears his throat, taking his moment as he stares at the picture sitting face up on top of one of the boxes. “One of the great rules of the shadow fae is that you don't look beyond your own.”
“You mean shadow fae only bond with other shadow fae,” Ocean interjects, and he nods, making my heart lurch.
“To choose beyond that is a disgrace to the Shadowlands, or so the story goes,” he muses, his gaze glazing over as he stares off into the distance, but the story continues. “Odie was the most honorable shadow fae in all of the Shadowlands, but his love fell out of the box. His love was for Ellie. Do you want to know what Ellie was?”
Trepidation coats my veins as I shake my head, too scared to know, but apparently, it was a rhetorical question.
“Ellie was a scythe.”
I feel like I can't breathe as he returns his gaze to me, staring at me like he's already pieced all the puzzles together.
My brain can't catch up to process what he's trying to say.
