“Are you sure you did it right?” the male—Dante, I realised—asked.
Somewhere in the distance, a door slammed shut. “What the hell is going on in here?” a new voice asked. This one I didn’t recognise, but it almost had a familiar lilt to it. An accent I’d heard before.
“Get. Out,” Dante growled, his voice low—deadly. Now, I really wanted to open my eyes. I wanted to know who the new person was.
Needed to know if this was someone I should be afraid of.
But the pain turned to fire, spreading throughout my body. The source of it ignited in my belly, creating a new swell of fear.
Had he done something to my baby?
Was it dying?
He said in the elevator that he wanted to speed up the pregnancy before the next eclipse, but what if he made a mistake? What if he was killing the foetus?
Maybe the thought should have brought me some peace. But instead, it only made me more terrified.Angry.
This was not his choice to take from me.
And although I knew I wasn’t ready, I also didn’t want the decision to behis.
Maybe it was spite. But I would not let him take another thing from me.
“She’s useless to you,” the new voice said. “Let me go get Marion, or?—”
“If you do not leave now, I will make you,” Dante said, voice somehow darker than before. There was a venom in his tone that made my stomach flip.
I’d heard him crazy. I’d heard him mad.
But who the hell was this newcomer, and why did Dante seem to hate them so much?
There was a moment of silence, where I was left to mypain, where the air was still with tension and rage. I felt a finger probe my stomach, making the pain shoot up my chest, but I still couldn’t make a sound.
“It’s the magic,” the female said. “It’s taking hold.”
No, I thought, wishing I could escape her touch.No, no, no.
I had no choice now. I needed to find a way out before Dante not only stole my magic, but also my child. I would not let him have both.
I couldn’t let him take yet another thing away from me.
When I woke,the pain was an ember that burned through my body. But I wasn’t in the medical room, lying on a bed.
I was back in my cage, the cool metal like a balm against my burning flesh.
For the first time in what felt like hours, I was finally able to move again. I had control over my limbs; my hands moved to my stomach, which didn’t feel any different than before, except maybe a little firmer. Bloated, almost.
The collar somehow felt heavier than it did before. Tighter, making it difficult to breathe. And now, it felt like a pressure I needed to escape.
It took me a little longer to pry my eyes open. I was met with murky darkness. It appeared they’d turned all the lights off in the prison, but I could still make out the familiar cages around me.
To my left, the giant bear,Thor,lay with his eyes half-lidded. I knew he was watching me without even really looking. I felt a small bit of relief knowing he was there, that he hadn’t disappeared.
Nearby, I spied the cage where Greer’s mates were kept. Out of habit, I counted them but came up one short.
Where the hell is he?I let my gaze dance over the figures.It was too dark to tell who was missing, but I knew for a fact there were only eight males in the cage, not nine.
Had Dante taken one of them? My first thought was Sir Otto, his father, but I couldn’t be sure. Not until the lights came back on.
