Elias’s eyes widened, and even the bear shifter looked shocked. “What?”
“The compound is in total anarchy. The Primal and a bear shifter broke Ivy out, and they got to Hawk. They are leaving rightnow.” Adrian sucked in a breath; I listened to the pounding of his heart, heard the desperation in his voice. “We need to get to her. She’s using the tunnels under the Pit. Dante already knows.”
Cyrus blinked hard. “Shore that looks out to the old High Palace. But there are traps there. Memory traps?—”
“It doesn’t matter. Hawk stole the powers of a mind mage. He will be able to sense them when they get near,” I replied, shaking my head. “I’ll explain how later. Can you confirm if that is true?”
Cyrus nodded once. “Yes. If they’re taking the same tunnels I did, then they’ll end up on the coast. Chances are they’ll cross.”
“Why?” I asked.
“If they’ve got any sense, they’ll get as far away from the tunnels as possible. Especially if Dante is going after them. He’s probably not worried because of the hellhounds.”
I cursed under my breath. Of course, he had hellhounds guarding the tunnels. When I turned to Adrian, he looked shocked. “He hid that from you.”
Adrian met my stare with wide eyes. “I think so. I got a lot out of him, but not that.”
“That explains why he wasn’t going after Ivy. He wasn’t worried because he knew his hounds would stop any escape.” I glanced at Elias, then Rowan. “It gets worse.”
“How could it possibly?” Rhadamanthus demanded, eyes black, horns ripping through his glamour to curl above his head.
I gritted my teeth. It was Elias’s reaction I worried about most. His wolf could take total control if he let it, and then he would be useless to us.
But he and Rowan needed to know what to expect when we found her.
I looked to Adrian, who understood exactly what I meant. I gave him a nod, one he knew the meaning of.
“Marion has been on Dante’s side this entire time,” Adrian murmured, crossing his arms. I felt the rage rise again within me, noticed it in Elias’s eyes when I met his stare. “She lied when she gave Ivy her birth control at the safe house. There was no birth control. And Sable hid it, because…”
“Because our Queen is with child,” Rhadamanthus said, voice dark. “Isn’t she?”
Elias froze, but Rowan barked a laugh. “How would that even be possible? One of you—” He pointed between Elias and me, breathing hard. “—would have known. You should have scented it if she were.”
“It’s true,” Adrian replied. “Dante said it, to me and to her.”
“How can you be sure?” Elias replied, oddly calm.
I gave Adrian a nod, and he explained the last two hours; the entering of Dante’s mind, seeing everything through his eyes, and learning about the pregnancy from his own lips.
“Twins, from what I can tell. Mine and…” He looked to Elias then, eyes shining with tears. “And yours, Elias.”
The wolf went completely still, but where I expected to find rage in his eyes, there was terror.
“If we get the team arranged, we can leave for the Luna Court now,” I said, voice soft. “We will not let him take her again.”
Elias blinked hard, his eyes finding mine before darting away. “She didn’t want that.”
“We know,” I replied, looking to the floor. “There might be a chance that…” That she can take back her power to choose. I would never tell her to do anything with her body. In her position, I knew exactly what I would do. I had no desire to birth a child. But I knew my mate did—one day, perhaps even soon. But only with Dante gone.
Cyrus cleared his throat, drawing our attention to him. “Dante developed a spell—a potion, really—to accelerate pregnancies. We need a potion witch working to stop the progress of the spell, otherwise she’ll give birth in a matter of days.”
“That’s what he meant by giving me my child,” Adrian whispered. “That’s why he allowed Ivy to keep carrying the pregnancy. Because he knew he would have time to make her deliver the babies. Before he…”
Before he stole her magic and killed her.
48
Rhadamanthus
