Gods, I wanted to run through the portal with them, but we still had a job to do here. Alexei turned toward the children and asked, “Who wants to go first?”
The little girl who’d spoken stepped forward. Alexei ushered her through the portal, and she stepped on through, just like she’d hop over a stick on the ground. Miroslava put her hands on the little girl’s shoulders, to acknowledge she had her.
Once that happened, it was like the other kids couldn’t get through fast enough. They flooded into the portal, and I gritted my teeth to keep it open, struggling to hold onto the portal as it transported dozens of children at once.
Just before the last child was about to step through, the door slammed open. Acolyte Xantha stood in the opening, surrounded by at least twenty oppressors. They were carrying noxite guns, and looked ready to fire.
What was she doing here? She said she wasn’t going to be back for another hour!
Shit.They must’ve had wards set up in the catacombs, to alert them if someone had done any magic! We were so fucked.
Alexei shoved the last child shut as I closed the portal. The oppressors rushed to where the portal had been, but their grasping fingers met nothing. Those kids were long gone.
Acolyte Xanta roared in rage. She pushed me to the ground and shouted, “Where did you send them?Where?”
“Far away from you,” I seethed. Kiara summoned a spell, and Ethan and Alexei’s shoulders rolled as they prepared to change. But before any of us could use our magic, a whizzing sound permeated the air. A sharp, needling pain entered my side, and I glanced down.
Noxite darts. I felt my magic instantly siphon away, and my body weaken as the noxite flooded into my bloodstream. I looked around and saw that all four of us had been shot with noxite, leaving all of us unable to use our powers and the shifters unable to change.
I didn’t think it could get any worse, until I felt the illusion disguising Ethan and I melting away. Our hair and eye color changed, and our features became our own as the illusion we’d cast fell away. When Xantha recognized Ethan and I, her mouth dropped open.
“Seize them!” Xantha cried, and she pointed a bony finger at us. The oppressors latched their hands onto our arms. We tried to fight back, but without magic, we had no hope of overpowering their shifter strength.
Arthur, we’ve been discovered! We need everyone to comenow!I heard Ethan shout through our bond. I hoped his telepathy magic was strong enough to reach my brother as the oppressors dragged us through the catacombs. Even if Arthur had heard, I doubted our friends would get to us in time.
I didn’t realize where we were going, until I heard the noise coming from the main chamber. They’d called a mandatory meeting— and I knew exactly what it was about, too.
Heads turned our way, and gasps of shock resonated around the room as eyes fell on Ethan and I’s faces.
“We’ve been betrayed!” Acolyte Xantha boomed. “These evil monsters havestolenour children from us!”
Cries from mothers and fathers erupted across the room. Alexei yanked against the oppressors holding him and spat, “We’re not the monsters. You are!”
Xantha’s nose curled, and she said, “You will pay the price for what you’ve done to us, Alexei. We won’t forgive you this time.”
We were laid upon the stone table, and Xantha cast a curse over us, holding us still so we couldn’t move. I was paralyzed against Xantha’s bonds as Acolyte Vesper moved over us, the staff that held the griffin stone wrapped in his greedy hands. His eyes shone with longing as he looked us over.
“We shouldn’t see this as a betrayal, but an opportunity! The blood of a former royal, and the Worldweaver herself! The staff will certainly accept this offering!” Vesper ranted.
Xantha’s mouth dropped open. “Vesper, it’s not the proper time to take the Worldweaver’s blood.”
“Idecide what will be the proper time!” Vesper roared. “And I say, her death will be today!”
My stomach churned. Vesper didn’t care about raising Droga or not. He just wanted the power in that stone.
Xantha gaped. She went to say something, before she stepped back.
Vesper sneered at us and said, “You’d better get any last words out, you disgusting heretics. Even the gods can’t save you now.”
Ethan’s hand shook beside me. Despite the binding spell, we were able to fight against it enough to at least hold hands. If we were dying, at least we’d die as mates. And I hoped to the gods that at the very least, once they took my blood, it wouldn’t raise Droga, because it wasn’t the proper moment. It was the only way I could get back at these bastards.
I’d failed my goddess. I’d failed everyone. The fae were going to die out, and it was because of me. Milonna’s last champion— her final hope, struck to dust.
Across from us, I heard Alexei say, “I’m so sorry, Kiara. I never should’ve brought you into this.”
“I regret nothing,” I heard her reply. Her voice was scared, but not as much as I thought she should be.
As the acolytes appeared with their knives, looming overhead to cut our throats, Alexei hurried to get out the words.
