A loudboomoutside followed by shouting interrupts our moment. I jump from the chair and position myself in front of the bed to protect Cheryl.
“What’s going on?” she asks.
“I don’t kn?—”
The door bursts opens, and three Nightingale males storm into the room. They aren’t wearing uniforms, but the malice in their eyes tells me they aren’t friendly. I swipe my arm at the one closest to me, trying to claw him, but he tosses powder at my face, and I gag. The strength whooshes out of me, my legs give out, and I fall to my knees.
“Ronan!” Cheryl yells.
I try to turn to her, but I’m pushed to the floor, and my arms are bound behind my back. A wolf snarl followed by a shout of pain tells me Cheryl shifted and got someone.
“Get that wolf under control!” one of the assholes commands.
A whimper follows, and then Cheryl collapses next to me with a dart sticking out of her neck. Her eyes are already closing.
“Cheryl!” I summon the last bit of strength I have left and manage to dislodge whoever was holding me down.
“For fuck’s sake. Restrain the vampire!”
Something pierces my skin, burning upon contact. My vision becomes fuzzy, and then everything goes dark.
Twenty-One
MANU
ELLNESARI, PRESENT DAY
I’m once again forced to walk the wind with Castiel, and the trip is just as bad as before. Telar also tags along, and I have a feeling King Ruel trusts the prince of Lynx as far as he can throw him. Telar must be the king’s watchdog.
I’m disoriented at first, but when my head stops spinning and I take a couple of deep breaths, I realize we aren’t in Aquila anymore. The air is much cooler at our new location, and the terrain is dry and brown. I don’t see any greenery, not even a patch of grass. And that is as much as I can discern—we’re surrounded by a thick fog that not even the sun can penetrate.
“Where are we?” I ask.
“We’re at the edge of the Valley of Lost Souls,” Castiel replies.
A touch of cold runs down my spine, making me shiver. I hug myself, rubbing my arms up and down. “Now what?”
“Now you enter the Valley of Lost Souls and find the Magna Vis,” Telar answers in a much ruder tone.
“I don’t even know what it looks like,” I grit out.
“No one does,” Castiel chimes in.
“Are you fucking kidding me?” I throw my hands in the air. “How am I supposed to find it, then? Does it even exist, or are you banking all your hopes on some half-baked Ellnesari myth?”
“It isn’t a myth,” Telar replies through clenched teeth. “You’re wasting time.”
I cross my arms. “It’s not a waste of time to gather as much information as possible.”
“You know everything we do.” Castiel moves closer, placing his hands on my arms. “I’m confident you’ll know the Magna Vis when you find it.”
His beautiful eyes are sincere, and they make me relax a bit. “Okay. How do I enter the Valley of Lost Souls?”
A flash of guilt shines in his eyes, but I don’t react fast enough before Castiel shoves me forward, and I fall into a foggy abyss. Son of a bitch! I scream as I claw at the air. The fall seems to go on forever, which means every single bone in my body will break when I reach the bottom. No wonder that motherfucker pushed me. I wouldn’t have volunteered to jump off a cliff.
After a while, the fog seems denser, and I sense some resistance that eventually slows my descent. When I finally reach the bottom, I’m going at snail speed and barely feel the impact. Not turning into a flat pancake doesn’t give me comfort, though. I don’t know where I am, I can’t see a thing, and I’m not picking up any scent that could clue me in about my environment.
Now I know why they call this hell pit the Valley of Lost Souls. Who would be able to find the exit? I fell off a cliff, so in theory, I could climb back up. But without visibility, it’s impossible to know where the damn rocky wall is.
