I shook my head, heart racing. “No, we never…he didn’t…”
“He might be on the brink of overconsumption,” Leith said, keeping his voice soft. “A wraith can only take so much, and since he’s half…”
Despite knowing literally nothing about wraiths, I didn’t need to hear anything else. It was obvious; Hawk took more than he could hold.
Now, I prayed to the Goddess it didn’t harm him. I couldn’t lose him. Not when we were so close to freedom.
I refused to lose him, again.
51
Elias
My heart pounded. Not for the first time, I scented the wind, searching for that familiar whiff of coffee and coconut.
But instead, all I could smell was fear and despair. The scents of different shifters, creatures—Fae and mages, specifically—were intermingled, though there were others. Like the sulphur of hellhounds. Smoke from fires being lit on the mountain.
I took several steps back, pebbles crunching beneath my feet as I counted the fires erupting beyond the cliffs. Four since the first was spotted. And with the howls and screams sounding every so often from the darkness between the trees, we could map the escape.
But it was the shore across from us that took my breath away. Almost like the beach we’d landed on in the Old World, this one had a cliff at its back, but it was accessible by stairs carved into the stone on one side, and a rocky path on the other. But rather than black sand, it was pebbled like the one we walked on now.
I remembered it. Being on that beach was locked in the back of my mind. I could just reach it, remember the feeling of the stones beneath my feet, the way the sharp ones cut into the soft skin of my heels as I ran.
And I remembered the water. It hadn’t been calm like it was now. It’d been rushing, like a recent storm had torn through the land. There’d been less beach that night, too.
I swallowed hard, shoving the memory aside. “Recovery teams go up, start pulling the escapees out,” I said, finding my voice for the first time in hours. It sounded hoarse to my own ears. “There should be a tunnel somewhere around that cliff. That’s where…” I trailed off, almost terrified to say her name.
Like if I said it aloud, she would disappear again.
No one fought me on the plan; the four Elysian demons, as well as the Wrath demons and witches immediately disappeared, the shadows transporting them to the stairs lining the cliff. I held my breath as I waited for them to signal, to show they hadn’t lost their memories. I prayed to the Goddess we weren’t about to lose our only chance at saving these creatures.
When one of the Elysian demons looked back at us and raised their fist, I blew out a shaky breath.
“No mind wiping—yet,” Grey murmured, stalking towards the edge of the water. “No one has dared go to the beach, though.”
She was right; although there was a way down, none of the escaped creatures tried it. They were running down the mountain, trying to get as far away from wherever Dante had kept them. But for whatever reason, they didn’t try the water. They could have crossed onto the island, and if they were aware, they could have swam further towards the coast of Seelie.The Spring Court was right there with their own beaches they could escape onto.
Kingsley moved to Grey’s side, his shoulders tense. From his pocket, he pulled out a rune stone. “Throw this across the water. It’ll light up if there are any wards or lingering magic.”
As Grey took the stone, I stalked towards them, jaw clenched tight. Behind me, the demon and Archer followed, their anticipation high.
I couldn’t stop my stomach from twisting with fear as I watched Grey launch the stone into the air. It landed on theopposite beach with a crack before lighting up with a yellow glow.
“Fuck.” I stepped back, running a hand through my hair, as the others cursed.
There was a trap there. Something that could stop us—or Ivy.
I scrubbed a hand down my face as my wolf pushed at me to take over. He thought he might survive whatever waited for us. It took all my strength to keep him at bay and remain in control. I had no idea how my wolf would react when we saw her again, especially in the state we already knew she was in. I knew the rage would take over, and I couldn’t let my beast hurt anyone she was with—or her.
“What if we went to the stairs like the others?” Archer asked, crouching at the edge of the water and staring over at the beach. “Then made our way down with another rune stone to see where the spell starts?”
Part of me wanted to say fuck it and just go. Only one of us technically had to pull her out. Get her and the others to the water then swim. I paced the length of the beach, shooting the cliff and mountains quick stares. The howling quietened, and through the trees, I was pretty sure I saw the Elysian demons transporting shifters away.
“We have no idea where the tunnel opens up,” Grey replied. “I don’t see any sign of an opening.”
I stopped my pacing and stared at the cliff itself. She was right. I tried to rememberhowI escaped the tunnel with Cyrus but came up blank.
I remembered the tunnel. The cold, icy feeling of being followed. The rush of the escape. My pounding heart as terror tried to claim me.
