Another harsh breath fell from my lips as I pushed the paper away. “No chance you could go ask him yourself?”
“Not even a necromancer would be able to summon his soul from his bones,” Rhadamanthus replied, sullen. Great. At least I wasn’t the only one who felt fucking useless. “The runes are our key to saving her.”
I nodded. “If she’s got the collar, then yeah. We need them.” The thought of Ivy in such a thing made bile rise in my stomach. I hadn’t seen Dante clamp it around her throat, but Rhadamanthus had.
And by the dark look playing in his eyes, he was remembering that moment—vividly.
If it were me, I would never sleep again.
“I will summon more scholars. The Priestesses,” he muttered, rising slowly. “I will conjure an entire army of academics to help you with these runes. We will find a way to save her.”
I wanted to believe him. But based on the way he looked around the library, pilfered of all its books, not even he took much stock in his words.
With a shake of his head, the demon left with the shadows, and I sat back with a sigh.
Books weren’t going to get my girl back. But I wasn’t sure what else I could do.
The exhaustion became too much,so I started for the apartment. Instead of going directly there, though, I detoured towards the dungeon—and my best friend.
I’d treated him like shit. It wasn’t that I blamed him. Not like he could see his own brother being inside his head coming. And anyway, we never thought Dante was capable of anything like that. It was on all of us for not being prepared for the trap. We all should have seen it coming. We never should have let Ivy enter that cottage until we were all there with her. So we could fight Dante—together.
Then this would have all been over. We could have trapped him and she would be safe.
And I would blame myself every day for not thinking the plan through. For not considering all angles properly—like we’d been trained to do.
The smell of sulphur and smoke filled my lungs when the dungeon elevator let me off, becoming thicker as I entered the hall of cells. In the distance, the rumble of sleeping hellhounds almost made the place feel peaceful.
I passed Hyperion’s cell with only a look at the door. Two Wrath demons stood guard, so Maeve probably wasn’t inside tearing the male apart—sadly.
But the next door had me coming to a dead stop. Already there were witches guarding it, but Blythe stood there with her hand hovering over the handle. The witch looked up at my appearance, blinking hard.
“Oh,” she said, dropping her hand. “I didn’t think any of you were going to come down and check on him.”
Immediately, that triggered a sense of guilt. “Yeah, well, not much we can do, I guess.”
Blythe looked me over, hiding her emotions well. “He’sasleep—well, as best he can be. Dante is coming and going as he pleases. I’ve never seen anything like it before.”
My stomach bottomed out. “You haven’t?” Granted, neither had I. But I’d never found much interest in the magic of mind witches and mages. “I assumed it was like, a bonus affinity I guess.”
The witch shook her head. “Not that I can find,” she replied slowly. “I don’t know how he’s doing it. Especially so easily. And it shouldn’t even be possible because of who you guys are mated to. Even if your bonds are—” She cut herself off, shaking her head again. “It just shouldn’t be possible.”
I looked from her to the door, feeling even more fucking terrible. Maybe if I’d been a better friend, he wouldn’t be sitting in chains right now. Maybe if I’d helped him, he would be here helping me with the runes.
He would be part of the team trying to find Ivy.
“You’ll look after him?” I asked quietly.
Blythe pressed her lips together. “I’m going to see if I can reinforce the blocks and check his binds. It’s probably best you don’t join me.”
With a nod, I turned slowly. Fuck, at every turn, it felt like we were failing. And there was nothing we could do to stop it.
32
Rhadamanthus
Islammed my way into my suite and allowed the door to lock behind me. My conversation with the mage still played in my ears despite the hours that’d passed.
Useless. Anger rushed through me at how unfair my power truly was.
