Matty’s head spun to me, but he didn’t pause as we passed the dining hall, as we headed to another secret set of stairs, the ones that would lead us to Levi. To the prison beneath the castle.
“You didn’t recognize me. We met in hishome. Except I had been there for years before you.” Matty’s voice was cold, empty. “My emotions are no longer my own, Raven. These words and memories I fed you were the ones he gave to me. My existence is his. And once you return to him, as will I.”
And then he unlocked the bottom door and pushed it open.
Thrusting me through it first, I came face to face with my darkest nightmare.
With the man I attempted to forget about.
The one who I had never truly escaped.
He looked exactly like the first time I met him, perhaps by design. Inked, stringy hair curtaining the front of his face, eyes mucky and chaotic. His lips lifted in a cheerful smile as he took me in.
“There’s my special bird.”
Ivan.
Chapter 39
Her Circumstances Have Changed
Enzo
One Hour Ago – Grypheem
Enzo hadn’t been in the right headspace since landing in this country, or perhaps it went before that, back to when everyone learned his darkest secret, or maybe it was when he first touchedher. Pushed his cock in her pliable body.
Into Raven’s.
I hate you, Raven.
The thought circulated but never landed. Time and time again.
And then he had fucked her again. His nightmares fueled by the delirium-soaked wet dream of pumping twice into her tight—
“Enzo.” Maverick snapped his fingers in front of him. “Come on, I need to go to the library again, I am so close to understanding this country, and I need your company, Oleks is busy with the wedding. Ivan still hasn’t made his move, but I imagine he will soon.”
Enzo didn’t want to go. Didn’t want to think about the wedding. Didn’t want to be here any longer. Didn’t think Ivan was in this country at all. There hadn’t been a single trace of him.
“Sure.” They had been hidden off in a room on the same floor as Griffin’s. Confined to their space, rarely leaving except when this area of the castle was assuredly empty. He had seen Raven from a distance but hadn’t spoken to her.
And last night, the screen in his room had flicked on to the video of her being—
He shook his head. “I’m ready, let's go.”
Maverick opened the door, but he froze, and Enzo joined him.
The sight of Raven in her wedding dress pulled his attention first, but then it dragged to the man holding her wrist. She was on the very opposite end of the hallway. Too far away to understand or hear what was going on.
When the man began to wrench her towards the secondary stairs, when it was clear she was fighting him, it instinctively propelled the brothers forward. But another person appeared before them.
Amelia.
She raised her hands, her one visible eye widening as she looked back over her shoulder. She shook her head, her arms crossing in an X. It was clear she didn’t want them to continue.
But anxiety wouldn’t allow Enzo to remain stationary any longer, he easily side-stepped the injured woman, running after Raven. Not caring that he was acting recklessly.
He heard two other sets of feet behind him as he sprinted. As he made his way down one set of stairs, he searched the dininghall but didn’t see her. He continued down the long hallway, a noise drawing his attention to another set of hidden stairs.
