“The timing needs to be just right,” the Seer added as the shadows consumed her. “We’ll be in touch!”
As soon as she disappeared, the dreamscape shifted from one of darkness to one of light. The fields of our future home together sprang out around me. Wildflowers grew amongst the tall grass, sunlight glinting off the pond. Tall trees hid the home I’d rebuilt for her, though I could imagine the tower I wanted to turn into her personal library rising from the trees. A distant, far-off dream I would eventually make into a reality when I woke.
Like I had since the day my father tried to kill me, I waited in the hidden oasis for my mate to find me once more.
28
Adrian
Every part of me thrummed with a dull, aching pain. From my head all the way down to my toes, the only thing I felt was the slow beat of my heart and the waves of pain that came with it.
I squeezed my eyes shut despite the darkness waiting for me if I opened them. Stale, sulphur-tinged air filled my lungs with each short breath I sucked in, but I wished it was something else. Something warm and comforting. Something that would save me from the darkness in my own mind.
I hadn’t felt the sticky fingers of my brother in my head for hours. But I felt the remnants of his control in the back of my mind. Like he’d planted something there to make the next attempt easier.
Sickness swelled within me, rising in my throat. It took all the strength I had left not to throw up all over myself. Not like I had much left in my stomach to expel.
“Adrian.”
Maeve’s voice cut through the pain enough for me to want to open my eyes, but I kept them shut. “Don’t get close,” I hissed. “I don’t want to risk him coming back. He might if he knew you were here.”
“I know,” she replied, her voice strangely soft. But shedidn’t come any closer, and I wasn’t sure if I appreciated it or not. “But I needed to ensure you were okay.”
I released a heavy breath, one that sounded almost like a laugh. “I’m not okay,” I admitted, voice breaking. Still, I kept my eyes closed. Kept part of my consciousness on the back of my mind where Dante might be hiding. “I don’t know if he’s here or not.”
Maeve made a sound in the back of her throat. “If he is, then he should know we will stop him. That we will not stop until we have Ivy again. And we will not stop until you are free of his control. We are not abandoning you down here.”
I flinched, her words like ice coursing through me. I waited to feel that unfamiliar prickle of darkness in the back of my mind that came with Dante’s magic. My entire body locked up like it knew he was coming.
But when it didn’t come, when he didn’t make himself known, I released a breath. “Maeve?—”
Before I could get the rest of the warning out, the door to my cell opened. My heart dropped as I waited for her to leave, but instead, someone else entered.
The chains around my body warmed with the presence of the witch who bound me. “Get her out of here,” I growled, the chains tightening around my body. “If he finds out?—”
“Think about something else,” Maeve instructed. “Don’t let him know what’s happening. I want you to imagine the first time you saw Ivy.”
My body went rigid as the chains stopped moving. I heard the pair in my cell, but I sucked in a breath and tried to do what Maeve said.
For the first time since being imprisoned, I allowed myself to think about my mate. First, I imagined what it would be like to breathe in her scent. A scent that’d brought me so much comfort and stability when I found out about Dante’s betrayal and my mother’s death. I thought about the first time I breathed it in, something that meant nothing to me before seeing her behind the desk at the hotel, suddenly becoming everything to me.
Before her, I hated the taste of coffee. Tea had been my go-to hot beverage of choice, and I’d never considered changing it until seeing her for the first time. When I’d walked in with Rowan, and the light caught Ivy’s dark hair, her smile brightening her face, I’d considered what it might be like to drink it every day.
For a moment, the image of her behind the desk flickered, darkness creeping in. I tried to keep Ivy in the forefront of my mind, but I felt a tickle in the back of my head. Not Dante with his dark magic, but the presence of someone else.
Focus on Ivy, a voice said, like a whisper on the wind.
It was all I needed to go back to her. To that first moment. To her dark eyes landing on me, the flush of her cheeks as she recognised Rowan. That realisation the Goddess put us directly in front of our mate.
I’d been so in awe of Ivy, of her beauty, of her attempts to remain professional in front of us, that I hadn’t even noticed her magic. It’d been building within her even in that moment, but I’d been so distracted I never even sensed it. But I could almost imagine it now brushing my skin, filling the air around us as if recognising us as her mates.
Before I could take her in completely, pain struck me, splitting through my head and racing down my body. The image of Ivy, her scent, everything disappeared as my eyes opened, and I let out a broken cry.
There’d been hands on my head, fingers burning like fire on my temple, but they were ripped away as my head fell forward.
“He’s in deep,” the voice from earlier said. “It’ll take time to get him out.”
It took me too long to realise the voice belonged to Blythe. She and Maeve moved, lowering their voices so I couldn’t hear. Leaving me to deal with the agony splitting my skull on my own.
