At the top, I paused for a single instance, my eyes zeroing in on the spot I had fallen against before, but I pushed it down.
I needed to see Levi, and if that meant throwing caution to the wind, I would.
I caught up to Amelia at the bottom of the steps, but then she was turning another corner, going to a part of this area I had never been. She went down another set of steps, colder and mustier the further we went, the hair on the back of my neck sticking up. Flourishing a key from her pocket, she unlocked the wrought iron door at the bottom.
I would have been afraid. I should have been.
But I wasn’t.
My fear was replaced with a nervous energy, and then, just a dozen feet into the dingy space, I found him. His head resting on the bars of his cage.
Running past Amelia, I fell to my knees before him.
“Levi?” I sobbed hysterically, catching full sight of him.
He had been below us this entire time. So close and yet unreachable, until now. The cage he was in was tiny, to the point he wouldn’t be able to stand.
He raised his head limply, offering a bleary smile. “Darlin’, I’m dreaming of you again.” He reached through the bars, a muddy hand finding my chin, calloused and bloody fingers stroking my sensitive skin there. His eyes lit up for a single instance before panic entered them. “Raven, you have to leave. Do not be caught here. I am a—”
Loud steps came from the opposite direction of the space. “Who’s there?”
“I’ll be fine, go!” Levi rushed out, his eyes widening in horror, but how could I believe him?
Amelia was behind me, tugging me up and away from Levi, back towards the hidden door, back up the two sets of stairs, back to Griffin’s room, but as far as she took my body, my heart never moved.
It was buried deep in the castle, in the prison hidden down there, just outside Levi’s cage.
Chapter 35
Two Separate Seeds
Griffin
A Year Ago - Grypheem
Griffin stood with his back against the wall in the throne room. The over-sized Iron Mother taking up most of the space in it. It had been built in here for a specific purpose, and while it was reminiscent of the one used as punishment, it was different. This one was a larger metal tube, big enough to fit a bed and two people. Nearly ten feet tall and much longer and wider too.
He desired more than anything tonotbe here. But he was still royalty, whether he wanted to be or not.
The Sacred Cherished who stood in the center of the room was silent as the High Priestess removed her robe and left her bare.
Griffin averted his eyes, he didn’t want to watch this. The pre-matrimony ceremony was archaic.
But as Cherished, especially those who were sacred, became scarce, they were held more often. Before they had been saved strictly for royalty but now even advisors, distant relatives, and anyone with a place in royalty were forced through them when they were permitted to wed.
A falsified beacon of hope that women were still here, that the Sacred Trinity wasn’t dying out.
Except it is.
“Troy, you have staked your claim on this sacred cherished. Another has tried, but as he is an unnatural, he is not permitted. Only those of natural birth are to be blessed with a soul sent from above.” The Priestess’s voice echoed eerily around the space.
Drago’s advisor stood confidently. “Correct, she is mine.”
“Let us commence.”
Griffin shut his eyes at the woman’s soft sob. He didn’t want to be here. He wanted to stop this.
But what could he do? Even his brother was powerless to the High Priestess. She was the ultimate sovereign in the Sacred Trinity.
