My eyes narrowed on him, but I just shook my head. “Do you think you could draw out the runes you saw?”
“Yes.” He nodded once, though uncertainty flared in his dark eyes. “But why? How will they help?”
Before I could respond, Adrian cleared his throat. “We need to know all the sequences of the runes. The exact way they’re used, and where they were put. It’ll give us a better indication of their uses. If we can recognise patterns, we may be able to recreate them, which should give us a better chance at creating a way to undo them—or find the reversed runes.”
“I can remember all the ones I saw,” the Primal said. “And I will draw them out. They were clearly very different to the others. I also noticed only a certain few guards had a way to unlock her cage. It was kept secret. You should also ask the other prisoners we escaped with, and the soldiers who helped us. The Fae male might have a key.”
“Do you think we’ll be able to send word to my father from here? He’ll know—he’s a charm master,” Adrian asked, looking at the demon king.
Rhadamanthus scratched his chin as he shrugged. “The shadows should be able to. I have a feeling I can pull from other places, including the Underworld. Jumping is difficult with these wards. That Luna Prince was quite efficient with his charms. Transporting the witch back to Elysian was hard enough.”
“Yeah,” I muttered, eyes straying to the window. The view from here was nothing but trees and the deep creek bed we’d walked over entering the manor.
A small part of me expected to see soldiers through the trees, Dante’s men with their lifeless eyes, the feral beasts he’d tortured into their shifted forms. Part of me couldn’t believe we were safe here. That we could be protected this far out, away from our own army and those dedicated to Ivy.
But then again, out here, we were away from anyone who could betray us. Those who could report our plans to Dante couldn’t. Out here, although we were alone, there was no way we would be betrayed—unless the Primal, bear shifter, or Hawk proved otherwise.
They were the loose cannons. The ones I didn’t fully trust. And I hated to admit that I trusted Rhadamanthus enough to know he wouldn’t betray Ivy, soul or no soul. He had no intention of hurting her. I doubted it was even in his vocabulary.
The other three, I wasn’t sure.
I released another shaky breath and tore my eyes from the window. “Alright. You want to help? Then help. We need to figure out how much of this we can understand. The runes on Ivy’s back are clearly there to sever the bonds.”
“How do we know that for sure?” Rhadamanthus asked, arms crossed. “He has silenced them before, has he not? There is no real way to sever bonds—at least to my knowledge. But silence them, yes. He might have decided this was the easiest way to keep you from communicating with one another.”
I hoped that was the case, prayed to the Goddess our bonds weren’t gone forever. But I also didn’t trust Dante.
“He carved them into herskin,” Adrian said, voice thick. “He used a knife, and he made sure they wouldn’t heal.”
“Exactly.” The demon looked between us, meeting each of our stares. “He could have put those runes anywhere. But he knew to keep you out, he needed to make it appear permanent. We have no idea if once that collar is off, she’ll heal naturally. Ivy is the Daughter of Nyx, theQueen. She holds all of Nyx’s power now. It just isn’t at full strength because her bonds are incomplete. Nothing will stop a mate bond from appearing. That is why we have that bear. She recognised him as hers, even without magic. Nothing, not even God Runes, can sever that power.”
“We need a healing balm, something to start the process. The longer it’s left to scar, the more permanent we should assume it becomes,” Adrian said, quickly. “We need the potion from Cyrus, anyway. So, we should get that, too.”
“Prepare a message for your father and I will send it through the shadows,” the demon said. “In the meantime, the Primal should tell us what he knows.”
“If they’re the same, I will reverse them,” I said quietly, grabbing one of my scrolls. “I’m getting that collar off her. No matter what.”
61
Maeve
Icould barely breathe looking at her, seeing the bruises and scars covering her body. The harsh lines glared at me from the water as she stood at the edge of the tub so I could try and detangle her long hair.
Even the scars on her back looked bruised. They hadn’t healed entirely, and I had a feeling that was Dante’s doing. Not just because of her mortal body, but because of whatever he’d done to her.
My chest ached with each gentle run of the brush through her wet hair. Ivy remained quiet as I worked to undo the knots. Tension hung in the air, and every time I spotted the collar around her neck, I felt that quiet rage rise within me. The rage that drenched me in Hyperion’s blood, the rage that kept me in his cell for days at a time as I tried to pull her whereabouts from his lips.
Ivy barely seemed to notice it, not as she tipped her head back, allowing me to run the brush over her scalp and through the tangles of her hair.
From the corner of my eye, I caught Elias’s stare. The male remained in control over himself and his wolf, though I had no idea how. Not with the metal around her throat, the runes carved into her back, or the fact that we could both scent her pregnancy so clearly.
When I breathed in, it wasn’t just her scent that tickled my nose anymore. Intermingled with her own was the scents of the babies growing inside of her. Two very distinct scents that were obvious replications of their fathers.
Elias and Adrian. Their scents marked her so clearly within the pregnancy. I’d hoped Adrian was wrong, that he’d misunderstood whatever he learned in Dante’s mind.
But I couldn’t unhear the two quiet yet fast heartbeats. And I doubted Elias couldn’t, either.
He didn’t even try to give in to his natural instincts. His wolf would be telling him to ensure her and their child were safe. If he listened to his wolf, it would be him caring for her now.
