And I believed him, even though based on our past, I probably shouldn’t.
I nodded once, releasing a breath. “I really appreciate you telling me about that,” I said, looking back up at Rowan.
I still felt that rift between us, and it continued to feel impossible to cross. Especially when he looked at me like he wasn’t sure what he was seeing. Whether he saw me or just the collar and scars on my back.
And I couldn’t decide which had my heart breaking more.
With a shake of my head, I stepped back, putting distancebetween Rowan and me. “Well, I’m starving,” I said, changing the subject. “It has been a…day.”
Rowan said nothing as he nodded, though he hesitated before taking a step. “I’ll figure it out,” he whispered, gaze flickering to my throat. “I promise.”
A shiver rolled down my spine, but I didn’t feel that familiar flare of hope that should have been ignited at his words. “Okay,” was all I could say to that.
After everything, I doubted runes would be enough to take the collar off. Dante wouldn’t make it that easy, but even then, these weren’t runes designed by us or for us.
These were runes of the Gods. And they were entirely different creatures.
“Our scoutsin Avalon have sent word,” Damon said from the other side of the long dining table someone had pulled out of the old dining room. They’d set it out in the spacious family area by the windows, allowing us an unobstructed view of the field and ocean beyond.
Maeve, who only had a glass of blood in front of her, as well as her tablet, glanced up from the files she’d been looking at. “What do they say?”
Damon picked a letter from his suit jacket and used the shadows to hand it to her, though his red eyes flickered to me. After our near kiss, I hadn’t spoken another word to him, though the thought of how close he’d been made my heart skip a beat.
For a moment, the rest of the table was silent while Maeve read the letter aloud, “Our scouts have confirmed Dante’s location in the palace, though he has taken down the Phoenix Compound to stop resources from going through the mountain. To our knowledge, no lives were lost in the destruction of our headquarters, but our systems, paper files, artefacts, and weapons cache are gone.”
“He just effectively cleared any chance of us gettinga hold of weapons for our army,” Adrian said quietly, eyeing his plate. “He’s probably also taken out the cache in the palace, too. Sir Ya’Dahir hid a few around the Queen’s Wing and in the underground tunnels.”
I swallowed hard, pushing a pea across my plate. “We took his weapons, so he takes ours.”
The table fell silent at my statement, though no one disagreed or tried to correct me.
“More of Dante’s army was found during a secondary sweep of the mountain and compound. This sweep found an additional fifteen shifters trapped in their shifted form, as well as several injured soldiers claiming they dissented—though Blythe says otherwise, so they have been taken to the dungeons. We also finally made it onto the High Palace island, where we searched the ruins, but found nothing except the empty cells and the body of a soldier—one of Dante’s, we believe, with his throat cut,” Maeve finished, her voice trailing off with the last sentence.
To my surprise, Elias stiffened, his hand moving to my knee as he cursed.
“What?” I asked, looking at him. “Why is that important?”
“There was a prisoner on that island, being kept in a cell,” Damon replied darkly, sitting back. “He had his own cage of God Runes, requested a meeting with you to make a deal, and now he is missing.”
70
Orion
There she was.
Drenched in wonderful sunlight that reflected off her glossy brown hair, skin glowing under the high sun, with cheeks tinted pink and lips a dark red, she appeared like a beacon of hope and comfort. The owner of my heart, body, and soul.
I pushed out of my seat at her appearance and couldn’t stop myself from crossing the field towards her. I would have normally allowed her to take control of the dream, but now that she was close, now that she and I could almost be together again, I grew desperate.
And tonight was the first night she’d returned to me in days.
Ivy’s smile turned to one of relief when she spotted me coming towards her. Tonight, the dream had given her a simple sundress that framed her body in a way that made it clear the changes happening to her in the waking world. Even though it’d been years since I’d seen her naked, since I’d laid eyes on her flesh, I could tell almost immediately that there was something intimately different about her.
And yet I didn’t stop myself from pulling her into my arms and burying my face into the crook of her neck. It didn’t stop her from clinging to me, either.
“You’re real,” she said, voice hoarse. “Not just a dream. You’re real. You’re alive.”
I squeezed my eyes shut as I held her tighter. “I am, my flower. I’m here. Really here.”
