I wanted to laugh at him.I bet it’s grinding his insides at the idea of being blind for once.
I stayed quiet for a little while, contemplating all of it. I had failed—that was obvious. I underestimated her courage and didn’t do nearly enough to break it. That power in her… However the fuck it got there… Perhaps that was where I needed to divert my efforts. It was raw… unlike ours.
I could use it.
If there was a way to… extract it from her…
“Alright,” I agreed, the decision already made in my mind. I brandished my chains before him with a cocky grin, straining my bruised cheeks. “When do we leave?”
Chapter 9
DEZ
The entire atmosphere felt suffocating with the thick tension that lurked in the air.
Naaz returned to the castle and retrieved me with his shadow walker. We were then brought to my courtyard as the rest of our brothers arrived. Every pair of eyes landed on the man standing at the center of us, with iron chains wrapped around his wrists and ankles. I had been pissed when I woke from the damned sleeping draught that D had forced me to take, but any anger I bore for him and Cassius quickly simmered away intothe fury I had for Cain.
Even with my aching limbs and churning stomach, I could find the strength to kill him if I wanted to. And Ididwant to. But, of course, we had no idea what that would do to Morrigan.
Gods… I could smell it on him… Smellher. The bond was evident—like an invisible cord tied around his essence. I felt it somehow. Though, I didn’t feel it with Naaz, Eris,orCassius.
A sudden woosh of air, and Kaiden appeared beside Naaz, his hand wrapped around a young woman’s arm. She looked frightened, a common feeling people seemed to show around Kaiden. Naaz had told me where Morrigan was.
I should tell them what really happened all those years ago…
Everyone was so confused when they found out where she was—thinking the gate had been severed. I knew better, but I wouldn’t dare speak of why or how. I made a promise that day, one I swore I would take to my grave.
But knowing Morrigan was there…
Gods… I could only pray that our mistakes wouldn’t fall onto her shoulders, just as everything else had. She was innocent. If he…
We just have to find her beforehedoes.
“Let’s go,” Kaiden hissed at the young girl, making her cower even lower than she already stood. She couldn’t have been much older than Morrigan, and maybe that should have peeled away at my “bleeding heart,”as Kaiden likes to call it.But when it came to Morrigan…
I think we had all reached a mutual understanding of the lengths we would go at this point. Even if the rest of them wouldn’t vocalize it, with her gone for nearly a month, it had affected each and every one of them.
“W-We will need to go through the tunnels,” she whispered. Kaiden gave her a light shove forward and allowed her to lead us to the entrance.
My blood crawled with tiny needles through my arms as we made our way through the forest. I wasn’t sure how I would react to anything inside. And as we came to a stop in a small clearing, I felt my heart beating rapidly inmy chest. Suddenly, Kaiden offered his hand to the seer, and I tilted my head in question.
“What are you doing?” I asked him. But as she made a small cut along his palm and turned it over, allowing the blood to drop onto the ground, I felt my breath hitch. “Kaiden…”
“Not right now,” he snapped over his shoulder.
Cass moved closer to me, getting a better view of both the seer and Kaiden. “I thought the tunnels could only be opened by?—”
“The blood of a god,” the seer whispered nervously.
Everyone stilled, refusing to speak. Though, Cain had a slight smirk on his face as he stared at them.
“How did you get into the tunnels, Cain?” I asked in a low voice. He shrugged, refusing to answer, and we all stumbled a little as the ground began to vibrate. “We’re going to want answers, Kaiden,” I called to him.
His head turned toward me. “So do I, Dez.” He turned back toward the hole that had formed in the dirt, and I watched him slowly walk down the inclined patch of grass into darkness.
We walked through the tunnels for what felt like half an hour.
I had this eerie feeling that continued to follow me down each path. This place had once been created as a safe haven for what Rosina thought was love. It turned into a massacre. I remembered the day Rosina was taken—it was something I’d never forget. Ryuk dragged her down here, and insisted that we be present. When he stabbed her with the obsidian blade, I… I remembered the shattering feeling I had as the light faded from her eyes.
