“Your friends had best be good at getting every camera down between here and the academy,” Dante’s sharp voice cuts through the air as he turns onto a main road and weaves into the traffic.
“They’re on it. Hollis is very good at things like this, as is Finn. They are surprisingly useful.” I have full trust that my message and demands to them this morning would have been carried out without question.
“This Vian academy of yours, are you sure it is safe?” I question after a while. It is the hideout we chose, with Severi swearing it is the closest and safest place we can head to if we got to Gwen.
“It’s not mine per se, but it is shared with the three other rulers of the academy. You won’t be allowed on the academy ground, but there’s a house hidden in the forest at the back. It’s where we conduct our meetings privately, away from the academy where ears are always listening and reporting to the darkness.” I’ve heard rumours of the Vian academy, a place which takes only the very best of the Vian students at eighteen, and they never come back. No one knows what happens there, why they are chosen exactly, and what they fight. Only that they are important to the Vian, and even the king never dares to set foot in the academy or question its rulers. “Not a single student will dare venture to the hideout. It will be the other rulers and me who know you are there. They’ve agreed to let me step in after seeing the destruction our king is causing. In return, domake sure you chop his head off and put a decent ruler in his place.” He nods, waving a hand at Severi.
“I would not make a good king.” Severi answers sharply. “The throne will never be mine, and I am glad for it.”
“Then find someone that actually would make a good king,” Dante commands, “because your father definitely isn’t fitting the bill. You kill him or we will, and if we get involved in the affairs of mortals…there will be hell to pay.”
What the fuck is this man? I don’t doubt a single word that he says. Severi must not either. “There will be a decent king or queen chosen, and we will deal with my father. His death will be swift and public.”
“Then we’re all in agreement,” Dante answers, and Severi’s shoulders finally drop. The rest of the drive is in pure silence. I just wait, waiting for her to wake up, but she doesn’t. At least she’s breathing. I know she technically can’t die, but the feeling when she does—the times that I’ve seen her dead, where the bond feels like it’s empty and broken and hollow, like there’s nothing there, nothing alive in it—makes me feel like dying too. But then she comes back, bringing with her everything light and good in the world.
Eventually we start climbing through a thick forest of palm trees and yellow bushes. The trees are impossibly high, blocking out any stars and sky. We pass through several thick metal gates, and all I can smell is sand. “What exactly do you teach at the academy, Dante?” I dare to question. “We were tutors at an academy in Starlight City. We taught them to be rangers, protectors of our people.”
“Things that not even the king knows about and no mortal should,” he answers. “There are far more dangers in this world than what is fought on the surface. We are here to protect what would happily come and kill us all. This academy and its students stand to protect the world.”
“We all have our secrets, don’t we, Rhodes?” Severi answers in warning for me to shut up. I wince all the same. No, I don’t have secrets anymore. My secrets cost me everything. They almost cost Gwen her life, and she still might hate me and want nothing to do with me. I’ve decided even if that is the case, I will stay by her side to protect her until my last breath and even beyond that, even if all I become is a star watching over her from the darkness.
Severi’s eyes meet mine in the mirror, but we say nothing. We drive for twenty minutes through a dead-silent forest before we come up to a house—or somewhat of a house. The bottom half is built with stone, the top with wood. There are several windows, a thatched roof, and fairy lights hung on the trees outside. And above it, in the distance, on top of a huge hill, a dark blue castle looms over the forest—imposing, with more towers than Starlight Academy could ever claim. I climb out with Gwen, and Severi goes round to grab Feyre. Dante doesn’t get out of the car. He just drives off the minute we’re clear.
I walk up to the door. Before I can reach it, Finn, Alek, and Hollis storm through, sensing their mate, and their faces crack when they finally see her.
Finn spots Feyre. “Is she alive?”
“They both are,” Severi answers for me. “They both need healing and medical help. Dante’s gone to get a healer he can trust. Let’s get them inside.”
“Give her to me.” Finn says it like a demand, stepping in front of me. His eyes are wet, his face tense, and he hasn’t asked where his father is. The fact he isn’t with us is answer enough. I want to comfort him, but I know he won’t talk to me. “Give her to me now, betrayer. This does not mean you are back in her life yet.”
“How broken is she? Did you speak to her? Did you—” Alek asks instead, touching her face. “My Gods, she looks?—”
“I know.” I gulp. “I fear it is worse under the dress. The entire mansion smelt of her blood and suffering.”
Hollis punches the wall, a growl ripping from his throat, and he only stops when Gwen whines in her sleep. I clutch her tight before handing her to Finnegan. I don’t want to let her go, but I’m barely standing from blood loss myself. We are all silent in the hours that follow, as a female healer comes to fix Gwen and Feyre. Only when she is tucked into a massive bed that makes her look tiny, do I sit down, and my brother moves to my side. “What if they broke her too much?”
“Then we remind her what life she has to fight for, and we serve her the king for her to kill as she wishes.” I look up at him. “For our mate.”
“Forever.” He nods once, both of us turning back and never taking our eyes off her as she sleeps through the night.
Chapter
Four
Irun my tongue over my cracked lips before I open my eyes, squinting at the bright light pouring in from the windows. I can’t hear anything but the fan in the corner of the room, blowing much needed cold air into the humid space. Where am I? I remember seeing Severi, I remember my Nexus forcing a shift back, and then nothing. I reach for her, finding her sleeping but healed, but okay. With me. It’s been so long it is almost strange to have her so close, so real in my mind again.
I sit up slowly, my body aching, and I tug the sheets around my waist when I realise I’m just in a tank top and panties. The room is bare other than several strange medicinal bottles on the side table, and from the wickedly horrible taste in my mouth, I guess someone has been giving them to me. I touch my throat, feeling that the collar isn’t there and neither are the scratch marks from where I tried to pull it off. My shoulders drop in relief, right before I feel them—my mates. They are here. I almost call for them, but I pause… What if they hadn’t looked for me? What if they are scared or horrified by me? I killed so, so many, and the world must hate me now.
The door opens, stopping my internal spiral.
My world stops as Onyx walks in. He stands still in the doorway for a long second, both of us staring at each other as I struggle to breathe. He looks just like he did before I saw his heart ripped from his chest. Onyx looks so breathtakingly normal—it’s almost like he didn’t die in front of me. Onyx—dark, wavy hair curling around his ears and forehead. His eyes as black as always. Empty, but not. Somehow there’s warmth in them, and it’s there as he looks at me. His presence commands me even now, his muscles pressing against his black shirt and fitted darker jeans, and I’m drawn forward. The only thing different about him is the dark circles under his eyes, as though he hasn’t slept. There are several dark runes, dozens of them, all over his wrists and arms. A few on his neck too.
“You died,” I barely manage to breathe out. A sob scratches up my throat. “Am I dead? Am I with you? Did I die?” I shake my head as his eyes tighten. “I felt you die, our bond die, before we ever really got a chance to make it real. I lost you, and it broke me. I barely wanted to fight back because I saw you die…”
His voice is ragged. “I was dead…for a time. But I’m alive. You’re alive.” He walks slowly over to me. “Death would never part us, Gwen. Our Nexus have been mates in every lifetime, in every world and every soul. Our love was destined, fated, long before we ever existed in the world.” His eyes bore into mine with the truth. “We will always be together, no matter if our hearts beat in this lifetime or the next.”
“But how?” I rub my heart. He still loves me?