Sapphire Falls (The Lost Realm #2)

35. Chapter 34

Chapter 34

Morgan

E lio pulled Morgan along through the dark tunnels deep under Aeritis. She’d lost sense of what time of day or night it was hours ago, but she suspected it was late into the night. They were led by two Goldoth guards, one shimmering with flakes of mica, the other resembling the same sandstone red as Edet.

Morgan hadn’t given much thought to what Edet was, but now it seemed evident that she was a Goldoth. She wondered if she missed the cool darkness of her folk’s caverns, or if she preferred the sunlight and changing of seasons. She wasn’t even sure if all of Goldoth lived underground. She knew it was a larger nation, there could be whole cities above ground.

Left to herself, Morgan knew it would be impossible for her to make it out of this place alive, especially with the collar putting a damper on her magic. If only that idiot hadn’t used all her bullets in his blood lust experiments.

Maglar had given her the creeps, and Mara was right there with them. Cold, cunning, and cruel, she knew they wouldn’t hesitate to collect her as another slave. But she wouldn’t have hesitated to become a kingslayer, and add the name Queenslayer to her repertoire.

It wasn’t normal how easily she’d slid into this world; how she craved the challenge of life here and the need to gain knowledge of her unexpected powers. Day by day, she’d slipped away from the person she’d once been, and yet she hadn’t. Graduating top of her class, securing a lucrative position in tech right out of college thanks to years of coding and proving herself on her own, wanting to climb the corporate ladder to make a name for herself.

This was what she continued to do, but in another realm. The stakes were higher here, but the rewards were sweeter. Now, if she could survive this place, she could get back to growing in her power. Most likely to help Rylo defeat these assholes.

Elio tugged hard on her leash as the Goldoth guards unlocked her door. Without a word, he pushed her into the black room. The fae lights turned on with a lazy glow as she walked toward the darkly blanketed bed. She kicked the dog bed for good measure, one tiny fuck you to the folk who believed they could own someone.

She let herself flop back on the bed, closing her eyes in exhaustion. She wasn’t surprised when the Goldoth king and queen tried to extract information from her. She was just happy they bought her lies, but it was puzzling that they believed they could control her truths when they hadn’t been the ones to offer her food or drink. There’d been a moment where she was worried that Rylo would make her spill her secrets, it being the first time she’d had to eat or drink something he offered her. She’d made it a point to use extreme caution with where her food or drink came from, and had so far avoided the unpleasantness of spilling her secrets to any fae who gave her a bite to eat.

The tight bodice of her gown squeezed her waist and chest. Morgan needed relief from the corset before she could let herself drift into sleep. She stood, tugging on the laces before she slipped out of her stays and let the heavily ornamented dress spill to the floor.

Wearing only the slip under her gown, she took a deep breath, the first she’d had in hours. Crawling back into bed, she tucked herself under the covers and tried to let her exhaustion overtake her. The fae lights dimmed and darkness consumed her. Not even the light of the moon or stars infiltrated this windowless room. But she couldn’t relax to fall asleep, even though her body felt exhausted. The collar around her neck itched and the heaviness of the relic tugged at her chest.

Or was that the twitchy itchies? That sense of foreboding that she and Avery had all their life seemed to be at a constant simmer under her skin in Aeritis, and she learned to live with the reality that her untimely doom could happen at any moment here. But now her chest felt tight, and even the relief of taking off the gown hadn’t taken away the unrest in her heart, the sickness stirring in her stomach. It was obvious to her that this was a dangerous place, it was no surprise that she couldn’t let her body calm down enough to find proper rest.

As she tossed and turned in the bed, Morgan heard the click of the lock and the crack of the door. No light pooled from the tunnels outside, but she sensed someone stepping into her room.

She could only hope that it was Rylo, but the unease in her stomach told her otherwise.

“Rylo?” Her voice shook as she said his name.

“It’s not Rylo.” A dull amber glow cascaded off Elio’s skin.

“What the hell are you doing here?” Morgan asked. The fae lights gleamed to life, illuminating the bronzed skin and grey wings of Elio.

He didn’t answer, only moved forward to the bed, pulling the blankets off her and tugging her by the arm. Morgan twisted and writhed, escaping his grasp. She leapt to the other side of the bed, putting space between them.

“Don’t touch me!” she shouted. She saw him flinch from her loud tone. Right, sensitive fae hearing. It was probably her only weapon against such a powerful man. “I’ll scream if you come any closer.”

“Don’t be a fool. I have no intention of hurting you and shaming my king. We have work to do.” He dangled a key over the bed. “Let me get that collar off you. Do you think your shadows can disguise us?”

“ What?”

Elio’s face looked like carved bronze, so inhumanely beautiful it didn’t seem real. “The relic. The reason we are here.”

Morgan stepped around the bed, tilting her neck for Elio as he clicked the collar off. The icy metal fell to the floor with a clank and Morgan rubbed where the collar had stung. She’d only worn it for less than a day, and already it had chilled her skin to the touch.

Her shadows poured out of her, dancing at her feet as she stepped back from Elio’s grasp.

“Thanks for that. How did you get that key?”

“I have my ways of getting what I need,” Elio responded as he moved toward the door.

“Fair enough. Where do we go from here?” Morgan reveled in the power that returned to her fingertips, the misty darkness that called to her. She grabbed a wool dress and slid it over her head before putting on slippers.

“According to Rylo, you have the answer to that.” Elio pointed to the necklace. “We don’t have much time. Rylo is only going to be able to distract the Goldoth monarchs for so long before he’s dismissed for the evening, or before word gets to them of your escape.”

Morgan closed her eyes and let her mind settle. She focused on the necklace pressed against her throat, the heavy sensation wrapping around her. Then she felt it. A tug, a calling that she hadn’t noticed before. She pulled her magic toward the necklace, feeling her shadows wrap around her throat. Morgan’s ears began to ring, a sharp shrill sound that she’d only heard twice before. The sound she heard when she and Avery went through the portals. Yet there was no pressure change, nothing yanking her back to her realm.

She took another deep, calming breath, letting her mind become clearer, more focused. The necklace seemed to sing to her now, calling her to follow its path. Before she followed that tug, she reached out for Rylo’s bright, bold mind. She wasn’t even sure if she could reach him from this distance, but she did, following the connection she’d established between them. He needed to know that she had her magic back and she was going after the relic. After all, the sooner she completed that task, the sooner they could go home.

Her voice was otherworldly and full of power, as she said, “I can feel it calling to the other relic,” and she stepped into the tunnel. The tugging led her deeper underground through passageways that became rawer, less refined as she and Elio walked in silence into the belly of Aeritis.

Avery

The musty scent of dirt and old lumber filled Avery’s nose as she held Savine’s hand tight, the warmth and the pulse of their shared touch giving her a sense of calm in the silent darkness. Kyla stood on her other side, and Avery’s shoulder grazed Kyla’s arm. It felt as though she had a phalanx of support as they made their way down the dark and damp tunnel to Kinlon’s cell. Garnel and Jay were following behind them. It was the first time Garnel had left his room in nearly a month, but Savine had demanded he be present to interview Kinlon.

So this was Orofine’s own prison. The raw gloom of it was unnerving, with tangling roots of trees exposed around the roughly hewn passages. Muddy cells dug out of the earth and secured with some kind of bones made Avery’s skin prickle.

“What kinds of bones are those?” Avery muttered.

Savine squeezed Avery’s hand. “The bones of an ancient line of elk rulers. They gave up their freedom in alliance with the fae, to protect this nation from its enemies.”

Avery let silence descend on them again as they walked deeper into the prison. There were a few stirrings from the cells, but it was strangely, eerily quiet.

“Are there prisoners in here?” Avery finally asked, her curiosity getting the better of her.

“Yes, Avery, we do keep our prisoners here,” Savine replied, a hint of sarcasm in his tone.

Avery tried to make out someone in the cell that passed, but the light was too low for her to see what the cell held. “Why are they so quiet?”

Kyla gave her arm a squeeze. “There are others like Raikin. One is the warden of the prison and he keeps the prisoners’ mouths bound with his essence.”

A chill went down her spine. Avery knew Savine was ruthless, knew he had a side to him that would stop at nothing to secure his folks’ well being and safety, but there was something unnerving about knowing that she’d bound herself to a man who continued to let folk live in these conditions.

There was a part of her that wondered if she needed to take on a bigger role in ruling the nation just to allow folk more rights. She’d never seen an American prison, and knew there were problems with her own country, but this seemed crueler than anything she could imagine.

Finally, they stopped at a cell where Raikin stood, waiting. Savine placed his hand on the white bars, and they opened immediately to his touch.

“I’ve prepared the prisoner for you, My King,” Raikin said. Jay moved around them to stand at Raikin’s side. Even in this dreary place, Jay smiled and winked at his soulmate. How had he gotten to that point? To overlook Raikin’s faults and only see the good in him?

They entered the cell and Avery gasped at the state Kinlon was in. He was bound to a table, sap dripping from his face and arms, burn marks slowly healing across his skin from the scalding substance.

His eyes were closed and he only wore pants. She could now see just how emaciated the man was. His ribs jutted out and where Savine and the other men in this room were stacked with muscles, Kinlon’s skin clung to his skeletal frame.

She heard Kyla let out a strangled gasp at the sight before her. “Savine, this man is wasted away. His essence is drained and he has nothing left.”

“Then he’ll give the last of himself in service to his king and queen,” Savine said, his voice a cold growl. Addressing Kinlon, he said, “Open your eyes. One last thing and your soul may rot in the Abyss for eternity.”

Kinlon groaned on the table as he cracked an eye open. “You will never be my king, and I’d rather spend eternity in the Abyss than help a human scum sent to destroy my realm.”

Raikin spoke up. “He was ready to share all his secrets yesterday. Perhaps we need to…”

Avery interrupted. It was one thing to try and talk to this man, but it was another to watch Raikin torture him. “No, we’re not going to force his answers out while under duress.”

“If you insist, My Queen,” Raikin replied.

Avery stepped closer and she felt the bond between her and Savine tug at her. “Kyla? Can you help in a gentler way?”

Kyla stepped forward and pressed her hand against the man’s arm. She felt Garnel move up with her, keeping close to his mate.

The man’s face relaxed for the first time and his breathing steadied. He closed his eyes before he opened them again. “The best I’ve felt in—You’ve manipulated my emotions. Such relief.”

Avery moved closer to the table, standing side by side with Kyla. “How long were you in the human realm?”

Kyla continued to hold the man’s arm, her essence stirring restlessly under her skin. “A little over a decade. We’ve been searching for you all these years.”

“How did you know where to find me? How would you have recognized me?” Avery asked, her voice shaking with the knowledge that she’d been hunted in her own world, yet miraculously never caught. Maybe that was the cause of all those twitchy itchy moments between herself and Morgan. Instinctively, she’d known that she was in danger.

“We sought twins marked by the Goddess. We searched where we could without being caught, but your kind have found us out. Took us if we were caught.” His eyes locked on Avery and his face hardened. Kinlon’s body shook on the table, trying to free himself of Kyla’s grasp. “Ah! Damn you, traitorous bitch! Get your filthy essence out of me!”

Kyla didn’t speak as she continued to push her essence into him, once against sedating him into complacency. He sighed deeply again and his eyes looked glazed. “Your kind took some of us. I don’t know where they were sent, but the ones who were caught were never seen again. After several years of being hunted, I realized they were some sort of secret spies for your nation.”

Avery wanted to laugh at how ludicrous this sounded. “The FBI? Are you trying to tell me the US Government has captured fae?”

“Believe it. I’ve been hunted for years. They drew me off your trail and I was forced to take refuge in the forest. My essence didn’t work properly there so I’ve survived through my wit.”

Avery frowned. “You said you were looking for a human marked by the Goddess, but I never had the mark until I came here.”

The man shook his head. “Untrue. It was always there, just not visible in your realm. You have no magic there, so such things couldn’t be seen by your kind. That mark was on you at birth, as all marked by the Goddess are.”

Avery didn’t dare look at Kyla and her freshly trimmed bangs covering her glamoured forehead.

“How would you even know that?” Avery asked. “I never saw a fae until I got here.”

“I saw you myself once in the forest. You were working on a trail, using that large axe of yours against the roots of living trees . You, the queen of Latiah, once injured trees for a job.” Kinlon said with a bitter laugh. “Your sweat-soaked hair was tied back and you took off your hat to wipe your brow. I saw it then.” A chill ran down Avery’s spine. She’d been stalked by fae warriors before she ever reached Aeritis?

“But why didn’t you, um, finish the job?”

The man thrashed and screamed, tearing his arm from Kyla’s tight grip. He grimaced and said through gritted teeth, “I made a mistake once in letting you get away, but I’ll not do it again!”

The binding holding him to the table snapped, and Kinlon gripped Avery by the throat. Despite his weakened state, he squeezed so tight that Avery’s vision began to blur. Her ears were ringing as she reached for the iron blade at her waist. But Savine was quicker. He pushed his essence forth, impaling Kinlon through the eye with a sharp, spinning branch. The man fell back on the table, shaking as his essence drained before Avery’s eyes, leaving him looking like a husk of a man.

Avery’s heart was pounding as Savine drew her closer, pressing a brutal kiss to her lips.

“Well, Avery, Kyla, the wardens should call on your services more often,” Jay said.

Raikin nodded in agreement. “He hadn’t revealed that information to me. But I did find out how he found the fae your sister killed. Over the years, the Hunters had adjusted to your world and began using a human device to communicate with one another. A satellite phone, I believe he said. I recognized the word phone from your language. Kinlon got an alert from the other fae that he’d caught Morgan, and he shared his location. When Kinlon arrived, he found the fae and the iron used to kill him.”

Savine huffed out a breath, still gripping Avery close to his chest. “Savine, I’m okay,” Avery whispered and his grip loosened on her, but the need to be consumed by Savine was building. This desire to jump his bones right here in a prison cell was already building. She was a freaking beast. Wanting to have sex in a prison just because her life was threatened. What was even wrong with her?

“Excuse me. I’m still adjusting to the bond,” Savine said in a rasping voice to his friends.

Garnel gave him a sympathetic look. “It will never go away. You’ll always have that need to protect your soulmate.”

Jay and Raikin nodded in agreement. “It’s a natural response,” Jay said. “None of us would fault you for the reaction it brings out in you afterwards either.”

He looked at Avery with a knowing smile. “In both of you.”

Avery could feel Savine’s heart hammering in his chest. “Let’s get out of here,” she murmured.