I couldn’t even blame my power for that. The weakening of my magic had entirely been on me. They’d all warned me it was a bad idea, but I’d been too stubborn. Too focused on taking Dante down on my own to listento the rest of my team—to my mate.
And now she was gone, and we were waiting for astrangerto go in and locate her.
Any relief I should have felt just tumbled into the emptiness and disappeared. Instead, I entered the small apartment we’d been given, heading straight to my room. From the window in the bedroom, I saw the expanding camp of Avalon’s survivors, as well as Rhadamanthus’s ever-growing army.
Somehow, in a matter of weeks, he’d rallied a legion prepared to go to war against the usurper king, summoned some of the strongest creatures in the entire Underworld, and had fortified himself as a real threat against Dante.
It felt like a sick reminder that even though we were her mates, the team and I would never have been able to do anything similar. We never had the weight or power to do what he was doing, and he was just in this for an alliance with Ivy. He wasn’t her mate, had no bond with her, and yet he’d done more to get her back than we had.
And it fuckingburned.
I tore my eyes off the army and bowed my head, trying to ignore the pain thrumming in my chest. Goddess above, if I’d justlistened?—
“You could be helping me with the rune study, but instead you’re just going to, what, mope around?” a voice snapped from behind me. I stiffened as he laughed bitterly. “Get a fucking grip.”
I turned slowly to find Rowan behind me, his arms crossed. Since our return from the Old World, it hadn’t been the same between us. Although, who could blame him? I wouldn’t. Maybe I’d feel the exact same way if the roles were reversed. At some point, it had.
But he’d literally been stabbed with a poisoned blade intended to kill him. And I’d put myself in a position where I couldn’t save her.
My mind had been weak, open for Dante’s manipulations. It wasmehe’d used to get to Ivy. Not Rowan, not anyone else.
I released a harsh breath. “You’re right?—”
“I don’t want to beright,Adrian. I want you to get a fucking grip and do something helpful, rather than sulk.” Rowan crossed his arms, jaw clenched as he looked me over. I knew my best friend all too well, and I knew exactly what he was thinking: I was pathetic. Useless.
After a moment, Rowan sighed, shaking his head. “Look, you know Dante better than anyone. Regardless of what’s happened. Maybe you should be using some of that knowledgetohelp. I mean, come on. You spent more time with him than anyone. He probably revealed more than you realise. So, figure out if he actuallydidtell you anything useful. Go use whatever bullshit he talked about in the cottage against him.”
I swallowed thickly, but Rowan didn’t give me a chance to respond. He grabbed his pack filled with the research he’d already done on God Runes and left the bedroom without looking back.
My gaze darted to my nightstand and the unopened bottle of death wine hidden within. But instead of going for it like I was tempted to, I left the room entirely, Rowan’s words following me as I did.
The war roomwas thankfully quiet as I dredged up the moment we’d stepped into the cottage. Our belief that he couldn’t be in there. The wards protecting the ruins, layered over one another, some so old I knew it couldn’t have beenhim.And then his voice cutting through the darkness and tension. Thethanksfor helping him lead Ivy right into his trap.
My stomach twisted sharply, sickness coiling in the pit of my belly. I ignored it as I wrote what I remembered. Not just from the cottage, but everything. All the long nights in random locations—ruins, mostly, which now seemed intentional—where Dante and I shared bottles of strengthened shifter liquor and he talked about the things he learned during his time in the Fae Courts. Like the older histories of the realm; Titania and the curse on her children; the end of the High Queen line.
I’d never thought twice about his stories, but now they screamed at me for the omens they were. He hadn’t been lamenting about his studies while drunk, he’d been testing whether I’d agree with him or not. Whether I’d be weak enough to fall for his manipulations.
And obviously, in some way, I had.
My eyes closed tightly from the threat of tears. Tiredly, Irubbed them, a breath leaving my lips. In the darkness behind my eyes, I couldn’t escape him, though. Not the confident smile as Ivy and I crossed the threshold of the cottage, leaving Rhadamanthus behind. Not the delusion in his eyes as he told us his plan. And definitely not the way he snapped the collar around her throat after Orion’s death.
It all came back in sharp, painful flashes I wanted to escape, but I allowed them to flood my mind. There was no running from what Dante had done while I stood there doing nothing.
Scrubbing a hand down my face, another shaky breath left my lips.Get a fucking grip, I told myself. In my head, I heard that in not just Rowan’s voice, but in Maeve’s. In Elias’s.
I heard it in Hawk’s, despite him being missing. In the Primal’s, who had been taken with all the others.
Eyes opening, I stared at the pages of information I had on Dante. It wouldn’t be enough, but it was a start. I pulled a blank page of paper from the stack on the table and started a list of all the locations he’d dragged me to. Dante used to say he preferred the ruins because no one would care if anything happened. Most were abandoned for obvious reasons; migration, accidents that made them unsafe, shifts in worship.
But as I wrote the names of areas I knew, the older temples really stood out. Temples long abandoned despite being built around the time of Avalon’s formation, mostly just ruins by the time he ever found them. But what if they’d been hiding something? What if he found out about God Runes from them?
“What are you doing?” Elias asked, his voice cutting through the haze I’d been working through. I barely looked up from my list, blinking hard as he came to stand across the table from me. “I thought you’d be down recording the creatures entering the Underworld.”
Shaking my head, I sat up a bit straighter. “No, I got the idea from Rowan to go back through what I remembered about Dante. How he managed to…”Use me for his own work, I thought, but didn’t say aloud. Clearing my throat, I pushedthe list of locations towards him. “Dante held most of his parties at ruins, old temples. I think he had a purpose for it.”
Elias took the list, glancing it over. “Not surprised,” he murmured. “We could have a few scouts in Avalon check them.”
“Good,” I replied, nodding once. Elias’s dark green eyes flickered to mine, like he could tell what was really going on. Like he could sense my shame.
