It took all my strength not to flinch. To not let him see my fear.
“I will get you back,” he whispered, reaching for my throat. “There is nowhere in Nyx’s realms you can hide where I won’t find you.”
I screamed.Something heavy held me down, coiled around me like chains. I thrashed against the powerful hold, shoving against the powerful binds trapping me.
I couldn’t go back to the cage. Never again.
“Ivy,” a voice growled, cutting through the buzzing in my ears, the thrum of blood as it and the sound of my racing heart drowned out everything else. “Ivy. You’re safe.”
My teeth gritted, but I felt cool hands on my cheeks, the touch immediately making the tension falter.
“That’s it,” another cooed, their voice soft—pleasant. “You’re okay.”
Every breath had my chest aching, lungs filled with ice. The chains turned into something else—something less constricting, something soft. As I settled, I felt my senses come back to me.
Smell. Pine, vanilla, spun sugar, honey. Scents I recognised, scents I found comfort in tickling my nose with each breath I drew in.
Touch. Cool fingers on my cheeks, wiping away tears I hadn’t realised were falling. Hands on my wrists, holding me against a familiar warmth I wanted to sink into. Fingers in my hair, stroking away the remnants of his fist around my throat.
And finally, sight. I pried my eyes open. At first, I saw the canopy above my bed, the white gauze hanging over the posters, always swaying despite the windows and doors being closed. But when I blinked, I realised there were faces in the periphery of my vision.
Elias on one side of me, gripping my hands, holding me tight. Maeve on the other side, wiping away my tears. Above my head, Xerxes, stroking my hair. And by my feet, Damon, close yet keeping his distance.
The hands around my wrists immediately loosened, though they didn’t release. Elias heaved a breath, dropping his head. Relief flashed across his face.
Mouth dry, I tried to swallow. “What?—”
“You had a nightmare,” Maeve said, her voice gentle as she wiped away another tear. I looked at her, finding her lips pursed, uncertainty darkening her eyes. “But you’re safe.”
It hadn’t felt like a nightmare, though. The chill of theroom had felt so real, and Dante’s fingers as they curled around my throat…
I brought a trembling hand to my neck, feeling the ridges of the collar and the tender flesh beneath. “It hadn’t been a nightmare,” I whispered, voice hoarse. “It’d been real.”
Xerxes’s hand stilled in my hair. “What…happened?” he asked hesitantly.
I wasn’t sure if I wanted to say it aloud. I didn’t want to speak Dante into existence, but I also had to tell them. If there was a way that he’d figure out where we were, then we weren’t safe anymore. This place, the haven it was, had been found.
I bit the inside of my cheek hard enough to draw blood and squeezed my eyes shut against the fear tightening in my chest. “Dante,” I said, voice cracking. I felt everyone tense at the mention of his name, breaths catching, waiting for me to continue.
Swallowing hard, I released a shaky breath. “I thought…I thought I was alone. That I’d been left here. And when I got up, the balcony door was open. The air was so, so cold. I thought it was strange someone would leave it open. And so, I went to it. But I found someone out there.”
When Dante’s cruel, twisted smile flashed across the darkness of my mind, I forced my eyes open, inhaling sharply. “He said he would find me. That I would never be able to escape him.” I covered the collar with my hand completely. “I am so, so scared he’s found us.”
The silence of the room became too heavy as looks were shared. My heart wanted to crash out of my chest with how badly the panic coiled within me.
Finally, after a moment, Elias pulled me completely against his chest as the others released me. “We’ll do a complete perimeter sweep, check the wards, and enhance them. He hasn’t found us.”
I shuddered, looking up into his darkening eyes. “How can you be sure?” I asked, voice trembling. My stomach twisted, cramping, but I barely felt it over the fear rushing through me. “How do you know? He was right there, Elias. He was on thebalcony. He could see everything. He could be rallying his army now to get us?—”
“There is nothing on the horizon,” Hawk said, his voice startlingly quiet, tense. “No ships. No army. He hasn’t found us.”
I swallowed hard and sought Hawk out. He stood by the balcony door, which was closed. Outside, clouds covered the stars and moon, which only barely made a dent in the darkness. It wasn’t the same sky I’d seen in my nightmare—not even close to it.
Maybe it had just been a nightmare. But after the sweetness of my dream with Orion, it was hard to believe I was dragged into something so…dark.
“But we will go out there and make certain,” Xerxes said, glancing back at Hawk, then down at me. “We won’t let him find you, fated. The island is hidden. He has nowhere to search.”
“But for how long?” I asked quietly, sitting up. My hands wouldn’t stop trembling, and my stomach gave another warning twist, bile rising in my throat. “Are we really safe here? Are we sure this collar isn’t a beacon guiding him to us—to me?”
