20
Ivy
My throat tightened with fear as I took in the cages. They were piled atop one another, so many it was a wonder no one knew where Dante was. How had he taken so many shifters without anyone noticing? There were dozens of wolves, even more bears. Feline shifters in the back. Winged creatures above.
Sickness twisted my stomach as I took it all in. I wouldn’t shy away from it, not as they looked back at me. Not as their fearful, pained whimpers met my ears.
I might have been trapped, but they were in the real hell.
In the cage closest to me,a large brown bear lay still. I felt the burn of his eyes on me. The giant beast breathed in, his entire body shuddering.
Was this the same bear I’d spotted in the Old World? It was too dark to be sure, but he had a lot of the same scarring. Mostly on his back, maybe from a whip, and some on his face.
Nearby, Greer’s mates sat quietly in the largest cage of all. I couldn’t tell if I was relieved to see them alive and unharmed, or sick knowing they were here. I’d hoped for their escape during the palace attack, but instead they’d been here for weeks, living in their own nightmare. They watched me, even when they shouldn’t have been. Even when it got them hurt.
Theon looked like he wanted to shout something. Lazarus vibrated with rage. And Otto…
He barely looked alive anymore.
It was heartbreaking and terrifying watching these powerful men sit in their own filth, knowing they would likely die before being rescued.
And it was painful to wonder if that was my fate, too.
I lookedup at the opening of the doors, tensing in preparation for the return of Dante—or any number of his little soldiers. There was a demon who walked around the cages like he owned them. The shifters were particularly afraid of him.
I glanced sharply at Greer’s mates. There was a dark look in their eyes as they sat scattered around their large cage, not communicating with one another, not even looking at anything but their own hands.
And the dark, almost dead look in their eyes had nothing to do with Dante. There was no way the false king had penetrated their minds—I had a feeling Sir Otto would have ensured their minds were all fortified. The look came from the deep despair of losing their mate.
It pushed my thoughts about death aside. Knowing my mates would have the same looks in their eyes if anything happened to me.
A shudder rolled down my spine as I took in the dark space at the top of the stairs. I couldn’t make out who stood there, but if it was the demon, he wasn’t alone. There were two figures looking out over the cages, and they didn’t move. The only assurance I had that it wasn’t the demon was the fact that the shifters didn’t react.
And yet, I still held my breath as I awaited their descent into the prison. No one else entered as they took the stairs down, but I kept my eyes on them. Was it Hawk again, ready to drag me into a new cell? It wasn’t Dante—I had a feeling thecreatures down here would react if it were—so it had to be someone new.
When they hit the cages, a shiver rolled over my skin, the hairs on my arms prickling. A feeling I recognised but couldn’t put a name to rushed through me, but I wasn’t sure why.
I froze when they finally came into view.
It wasn’t the soldier who made my blood run cold. Not the weapons strapped to his side, or the casual cruelty playing in his eyes. He was a carbon copy of every other male I’d had the displeasure of meeting here.
It was the soldier who walked one step behind him who took my breath away. Maybe it was because I only really knew him as his Primal beast, the towering creature that looked like he’d been pulled out of a gothic novel. Maybe it was because here, he was actually dressed, wearing the clothes of our enemy.
Unlike Hawk, the Primal didn’t have that dead, dull look to his eyes. His dark eyes were sharp, angry. When he grew near, his nostrils flared.
The cage beside me groaned, as if the bear shifter was making himself known. I noticed the Primal’s eyes flicker to the giant beast’s cage and narrow. But they quickly flickered to meet mine.
I couldn’t tell if I was slipping into panic or even more anger and betrayal. One mate choosing the dark side was one thing, but another? One who claimed to want the enemy dead for the slaughter of his people?
My breaths quickened as they came to a stop at the cage near mine. “We need to get this one up to testing,” the soldier said, pulling something from his belt. It looked like a small pouch, one I vaguely recognised. But I wasn’t sure what it was until he opened it.
My racing heart slowed to a stop as he pulled a thin, small stick from the bag. Attached to the end was a thorn.
I never thought I would see that thing again. I remembered it vividly now; the moment I’d pulled it out of a similar pouch to use on a female shifter who claimed she was working her waythrough the ranks of the organisation determined to take my throne. A shifter who might be here, in this very prison with me.
But I also remembered the detrimental effect it had on my family. It was how I’d learned my little sisters weren’t human, that their father was Fae—a siren from Abyss. And the same poison that came from the tip of the thorn had also killed our mother. On the supernatural, it was like a sedative. But on humans?
It killed.
