Like all Velesians, I hated it here. All of Lunaria was dangerous, but nowhere else did my instincts scream at me that this was a bad place. The living were not welcome, and the fucking Fae had thought it was a great place to build a treasure trove.
The sooner we got inside, the sooner we could use the mirror to get the fuck out of here. The temple might be in the badlands, but it wasn’t nearly as creepy there.
“Someone, I’m guessing Roth, took the fucking gem.” Bastian swore. “We don’t have any way to activate the stairwell.”
“So what do we do?” I growled. “Can we force our way in?”
“Do you want to go into that fucking water?” Bastian snorted. “I sure as fuck don’t. Plus, I doubt we could open it anyway. But Roth and whoever else is there will heal Rynn and she’ll have to come back this way.”
“Unless she’s running again,” I pointed out.
“I don’t think she is.” Bastian looked up at the late morning sun. “There’s still plenty of time for her to make it back. Let’s give it an hour.”
Part of me wanted to press him on why he was so sure she wasn’t running, but that would only lead to him asking about why I’d been rubbing my chest earlier and my obsession with Rynn. Which he likely would anyway if we were stuck here for long.
The two of us walked back to the tree line and settled in.
Come on, Princess. We’re overdue for a chat.
Chapter Fifteen
Rynn
I made my way back to the stairs to the lower levels. Roth and Draven were waiting for me, but Kieran was surprisingly absent.
As soon as I crossed the threshold past the silencing spell, Roth’s intense stare fell on me. “I want to see the mirror,” they said immediately.
I sighed, knowing that would be their response. “Cade won’t like it, but I’ll see what I can do.”
There was no way to sneak Roth in without Cade or the other Alphas noticing. Even if I figured out a way to get into the locked room where they kept the mirror that connected to here, they would catch Roth’s scent before we made it downstairs. I’d have to come up with an excuse as to why I wanted Roth to look at the mirror without making Cade suspicious.
I mulled that over while we made our way back to the room we’d met in before. “Where’s Kieran?”
“He’ll be back in a few minutes. I needed him to grab something from my room,” Roth said. “I’m going to help you out so you don’t get your ass kicked the next time you decide to run naked through the woods.”
I shot them a dirty look. “That’s not wha?—”
Roth cut me off. “How do you feel about tattoos?” They smirked. “Actually, never mind. Doesn’t matter.”
Yeah, definitely didn’t like the sound of that. “What the fuck do you mea?—”
“Do you still prefer axes over swords?” they continued. “Your hand-eye coordination was always shit, so I’m assuming daggers are a waste.”
I stared after Roth as they ducked into the room. Was this what it was like to deal with me when my thoughts jumped around? Sighing, I followed after them, Draven like a shadow behind me. Roth was across the room, standing in front of a table where weapons were laid out. Ones that had been enchanted to be effective against wraiths. Draven and I moved over to one of the empty tables and leaned against it.
“You know Erendriel better than any of us.” I glanced at Draven. “What do you think about what he said?”
The Moroi Prince—he might not technically be that anymore, but it was how I thought of him—watched Roth sort through the weapons. “Growing up, my father had a use for me. More than that, he was intrigued by what would happen if his bloodline crossed with that of a Moroi. He was charismatic and . . .” Draven’s brows furrowed as he seemed to search for the right word. “Captivating. My father has this way of making you want to believe him.”
I didn’t say anything. Samara had told me a little of Draven’s past. He’d had a brother once. One who Erendriel had killed the first time Draven had told him no.
“Your father needs me, but I have no doubt he’ll betray me the first chance he gets.” I chewed on my bottom lip. “He’s not going to let what Samara did to him go. Not only did she imprison him, but she humiliated him while doing so.”
“He’ll kill her the first chance he gets.” Red bled into Draven’s eyes, and I swore I heard the ground tremble slightly. “Not just her. All of us. Hells, he might kill all of the Moroi and make her watch before killing her.”
Something cold and vicious stirred in my soul at that.
“We won’t give him the chance,” I growled. Samara and Cali might be obnoxiously protective of me, but that didn’t mean I didn’t feel the same about them. “Erendriel wants to go home? Fine. We’ll fix the damn mirror and get the next clue. Then we’ll find whatever he’s looking for and send his ass back to wherever he came from. The wraiths too. He’s their fucking problem.”
