My skin prickled with the shiver running down my spine. “What is it?” I asked, voice harder than I expected.
Otto met my stare. “A memory trap. It will wipe our memories and leave us incapacitated.”
“Meaning Dante will be able to take us back with him should he find us in the trap,” Sunniva growled. Her hand went to the comms device on her belt, our only eyes on what was going on. Somehow, Dante hadn’t cut the device off.
The shifter shook her head as she stared at the screen. “He doesn’t have a camera out there.”
“You think he would allow anyone else access to it if he did?” Cato asked. “No way. He has eyes out here, but only he can access them. He’s probably watching us now. Hiding away, waiting for us to fall into his little trap.”
I couldn’t stop myself from shuddering. “Then how do we actually get out of here?” I asked, unable to stop the desperation from filling my voice. “How do we really escape?”
All eyes were on Otto as he turned towards our freedom. I watched him roll his shoulders back, as if he were coming to some sort of decision.
“I will walk out first,” he said without looking back. “I will test the barriers of this trap. And you will have to follow.”
It sounded as though he wanted to sacrifice himself for the rest of us. Maybe he thought this was the only way to redeem himself for the actions of his son.
But it wasn’t his fault Dante turned out to be a total psychopath.
Before anyone could tell him not to, Otto handed off the child he held and started for that small sliver of light. His fellow bond mates rushed after him; the vampire, Amais, hissedsomething about self-sacrifice, while the bear shifter, Hugo, snapped about stupidity. Leith, the siren, muttered something about wanting to join Greer too soon, but not even the mention of their mate stopped him.
The smell of water and cold, fresh air overpowered the lingering stench of rot, sulphur, and blood we’d been walking through for so long. In the distance, I thought I heard the rush of water.
We moved quicker, trying to keep up with Otto. When he turned a corner, disappearing out of sight, my breath caught in my throat. But Lazarus and Onyx were behind him just as quickly, then Sunniva, and several others.
Then they stopped, a rush of cold air hitting me.
Amais glanced over his shoulder at me, silver eyes finding mine. “Otto is carefully walking out now.”
I said nothing, sucking in a breath just as the males and children ahead of us exited the tunnel. Hawk spared me a look, one I couldn’t read, before moving to follow. With the others gone, I could fully see what lay beyond; a dark, starlit sky and a cliff that eerily reminded me of the one Pandora’s palace sat upon. This cliff had stairs carved into the face that led up to a forest, and between the trees were creatures and fire. I noticed a few archers, though they hadn’t seemed to spot us. They were too focused on something I couldn’t see.
The ground beyond was pebbles, dark shiny stones that shifted beneath my feet. I didn’t even care that they hurt; my toes curled in the stones, digging into the little round rocks, which were cold and wet, like it’d rained recently and they were cooled by the night air.
Xerxes gripped my hand tightly, keeping to my back with Thor still over his shoulder. Beside me, Hawk hugged what looked like a large piece of rock jutting from the earth. Maybe it’d once been part of the cliff, but now it stood like a sword reaching for the heavens.
“Follow me, Ivy,” he said, his voice low. “And don’t look up.”
I swallowed and nodded, pressing my back against the coldsurface. I didn’t listen to him though, and looked up, turning my head towards the cliff face.
There, standing at the very edge, were more archers. Soldiers. Even in the darkness, I recognised some of their faces. I remembered the way they’d sneered at me when I was dragged out of my cell. I remembered their voices in the back of the shifter prison, joking about doing unspeakable things to me and the others.
They were more focused on something else, not us. I couldn’t help but follow their line of sight, noticing what looked like an island.
I sucked in a cool breath, eyeing the opposing shore. There were people on it, and they had a shield surrounding them.
My heart raced, picking up speed as I took in the five gathered bodies.
Five.
Hope flared within me, blooming in my chest. It should be impossible. There was nowaythey could have known.
But they were my mates. They would always find me.
Water rushed between our beach and the one they stood on. I could tell it would be impossible to swim across, especially with the archers standing on the cliff above us. The island itself looked like it had protection; lots of forest and the ruins of a building.
No, not a building. It was a castle. Or at least, it used to be. I spied the old walls that would have once housed guards, now lost to the rushing water hitting the sides. Creeping vines hid what might have once been a tower.
Was that the old High Palace? The one the Fae lost when their Queen died?
