His unspoken words hung in the air. Not telling them would be safer for her, especially because one wrong slip of the tongue might have all the Underworld knowing about the two babies in her stomach, and that, I doubted, was something she wanted to spread.
According to the bear shifter, it would take him another day at least with the potion witch to create the antidote to Dante’s spell. But at least it was something.
There were a few more details explained to the team, but my thoughts of her made anxiety swell within me. The thought of seeing her again, especially with how the charm mage described her, I couldn’t help but feel that anger and guilt I’d been carrying since the cottage swell within me.
If only I’d been quicker. Smarter. Then maybe, I could have seen through the glamours and spells. Maybe I could have stopped him from taking her.
I shook my head when the group dispersed into smaller teams. I would be taking the bonded mates, while my cousins took the soldiers. Although they could easily handle more, I didn’t want them to weaken themselves before we reached the shores of Faery.
“Remember,” I said, beckoning the bonded mates around me. “The shadows will take you close. You want to be on the eastern shore of Luna. But you do not want to land directly on that beach. If the mind traps are true, you will lose time. The Windermere witch might have helped with blocks, but we do not know what Dante is capable of. Remain wary. Get close, but not too close.”
With that, one by one, I watched the shadows rise from the ground and swirl around them before whisking their groups away.
“Ready?” the divination mage asked quietly, eyeing me hesitantly as he moved to stand beside me.
I blew out a calming breath and closed my eyes. I was more than ready. For the first time in centuries, when I summed the shadows, I begged for their guidance. I willed them to bend to my needs this once. I promised I would never ask them of anything again, if only they took us directly to our Queen.
When the shadows wrapped us in their familiar embrace, I brought the image of her into the forefront of my mind. Not the last image of her that haunted my nightmares.
But the first time I saw her.
The dress hugging her voluptuous figure, dark hair tumbling down her back as she stood before me in the crown of stars. Her curious eyes raking my body, the feel of her touch when she freed me. The wicked, unfamiliar feelings when she sat on my lap for those few moments.
I hadn’t felt like Rhadamanthus, King of Elysian, keeper and protector of the fields.
I hadn’t felt like the demon who fell to his knees before Nyx and offered her his soul for eternity.
I’d felt like the male who spent long nights with my mothers sitting around the small fire in the courtyard of our home while they told me the story of how they met my father. I’d felt like that boy who yearned for the touch of a true bond mate of my own.
The smell of fresh water and wet leaves filled my nose when I breathed in. I opened my eyes to find a dark, star-litnight spanning out ahead of us; in the distance, the mountains of Luna reached for the heavens, a black mark against the darkness. The water between us and the opposing shore was slow, calm, the opposite of what I felt within.
The shadows and its magic appeared four more times as my cousins joined us on the shores of the old palace with the rest of our small team.
“This place is…” The divination mage trailed off, his back to me and the shore of Luna.
I tore my eyes off the Luna Court and glanced over my shoulder at the remnants of old Faery; I remembered what the High Palace once looked like, with its tall spires and towers, ancient Fae architecture that couldn’t be replicated today, and the magic that once seeped from the stone. It was the gem of the courts, the very centre of Faery, and now it loomed behind us in ruin.
There was nothing left of its grandeur. Just a whisper of all that was lost when Queen Titania died, and her brother broke the laws of Fae magic to try and steal her crown.
Now, it was just bones, left too long in the sun, rotted from years of abandonment.
A sad reminder of what it had once been.
“Is that fire?” one of the demons asked, pointing towards the mountain.
I looked sharply into the darkness, sucking in a breath at the first flicker of light that appeared at what looked like the ridge of the mountain. It was barely perceptible, but it grew the longer we stared.
“That’s exactly where the contact went dark with our scout,” the wolf growled. “Right along that ridge line.”
As the words left his lips, a sound broke through the darkness. First a howl, ragged and broken, then a scream.
49
Ivy
TWO HOURS EARLIER
Thor wasn’t a bear anymore. I felt someone grab me from behind as the male shifted.
