Unblessed Witch (Phases of the Moon #4)

8. Deva

8

DEVA

“So far so good,” Cage said, his good-natured smile back in place as I stared up at him with affection. His humor was a grounding force that I really appreciated right now. I didn’t want him acting lighthearted if he didn’t feel that way, obviously , but compared to everyone else he seemed the most normal.

Well, as normal as Cage could be.

“There’s dried blood painting the walls,” Alek said gruffly from where he stood on my other side. Luckily, these tunnels were wider than the staircase we took up, so I was able to be surrounded by my men comfortably, and for the first time in what felt like eons—I felt safe.

I realized very quickly that what I wanted out of life was very simple. Freedom, protection for the unblessed, and my men. That was it.

Everything else could wait.

“Dried,” Cage mused. “You just said it—dried. Means old. No threat incoming.”

Grimshaw shook his head, but I could feel the tiniest bit of humor through our bond. I couldn’t get a fantastic gauge on how the shadow witch felt right now, but he appeared mostly determined and focused on getting the hell out of here. Grim was often the default leader when it came to their group, especially when conducting missions for the Society, but I worried that because of that role he was holding something back…or everything back.

Alek, on the other hand, wasn’t holding anything back. His hand held mine in a steel trap that I couldn’t escape even if I wanted to. While he wasn’t saying much, I could feel his eyes on me, and the way he continuously ran his thumb over the pulse on my wrist told me he was trying to stay tuned in to my body.

“I can’t feel anything,” Lazaro said as his magic slithered ahead of us, lighting the way. The magic in this dungeon was so heavy and oppressive that even Lazaro’s insane magic couldn’t create more than a few feet of light. It was plenty enough to see where we were going, though—something that was very welcome in a place like this.

Lazaro, similar to Grim, was another one that I couldn’t fully read. His bossy tone was normal, but there was something else there. It felt like he was waiting, I just wasn’t sure for what or why. Probably to get me alone, if I had to guess. So why was there a nervous excitement associated with that? I mean, I knew why, but it didn’t seem freakin’ appropriate right now.

Lazaro tended to have an effect on me, especially at the prospect of being alone with him.

Suddenly, a noise up ahead had Oz’s hand wrapping around my waist as he tugged me back hard enough I let out a surprised noise. His head rested on top of mine as Alek and Grim moved ahead. Cage followed but held back, Lazaro standing in front of us. Without a word of communication, these men worked in easy harmony.

“I’m okay.” I looked up at Oz, squeezing his hand. “I don’t feel anything dangerous up ahead.”

Oz studied my expression before looking down at my throat. “Your necklace is gone.”

My hand darted up as my lips tugged down in realization. I hated that I found nothing there. It wasn’t the only thing I was missing. “My athame as well.”

“I’ll make you a new necklace,” Oz said, his tone making it a solemn vow rather than a simple promise.

The noise sounded again, this time from behind us. Oz turned sharply, keeping me behind him. I leaned into Lazaro, his hand wrapping around the back of my neck and securely holding me against him. I watched as Oz walked forward, but when nothing made itself known, I realized that one of two things were happening here.

“Either there’s something shielded so well we can’t feel it,” I said, “or it’s rocks falling and shifting.” My guess was the latter.

“It’s just rocks,” Cage said, confirming my suspicion. “We found some debris a few feet down, probably from activity in the dungeon above us.” A fact I continuously kept forgetting—there were others in this dungeon as well.

When I tried to break out of Lazaro’s arms, he made a sound of disagreement and locked our hands together, his fingers rough and warm against my own. Looking up at him, I found he was already staring down at me, a contemplative expression on his face.

“What?” I asked quietly.

“Trying to decide if I’m mad at you for dying.”

I came to a full stop and offered him an incredulous look. “You’re joking, right?”

Lazaro shrugged, his gaze darkening to charcoal as his skin seemed to shimmer with silver momentarily, lifting a hand to my cheek. “I don’t find anything funny about you dying, Deva. Or seeing you in that damn coffin.”

My mouth dropped open. “Lazaro?—”

His lips pressed into the faintest smirk at my tone. “With that being said, I’m sure I can find a creative way to take it out on you, little thief.”

Stepping into him, I wrapped my arms around his neck and spoke in a hushed whisper. “You can’t be mad at me for dying or being kidnapped; that’s actually insane. You can, though, do creative things to me. I liked that part.”

Lazaro let out a small hum of amusement, not agreeing or disagreeing with me, before scooping me up under my butt and burying his nose against my throat. Oz had walked a bit ahead, but I knew the others would be waiting for us. Still, I appreciated the moment alone.

“Don’t leave my side anymore,” he murmured, the teasing mood falling away. “You sacrificing yourself, your power, your damn life…That was worse than you running away. Far fucking worse.”

I nodded in understanding, running my hands through his hair. I didn’t regret what I’d done, but if our roles had been reversed I would have been devastated and furious, although probably not at them—more at myself for allowing it to happen.

“I’m not going anywhere,” I promised my lunar witch.

“Except walking ahead,” Grim mused, a full smile still not appearing on his lips, as he stayed back until we were walking side by side. “We need to keep moving—come on.”

Lazaro set me down with a sound of frustration, and I grabbed both of their hands as we made our way toward Oz, Alek, and Cage—the first ignoring the other two.

“How long has he been like this?” I asked, knowing Grim would understand who I was talking about.

“From the moment it happened. We had to restrain him from going after you without a plan,” Grimshaw said, his eyes darting to Lazaro. “He wasn’t alone in that. Took me six hours to even realize a plan would be necessary to ensure your safe return.”

“You had to restrain Oz, or all of you had to be restrained? By who?”

“The Society, but we can explain that later,” Lazaro said, his jaw clenched at the memory. His gaze strayed from mine in a way that made me think that he’d been part of the problem. “What really drove me mad was my inability to reach you in a dreamscape. No matter how hard I tried, I couldn’t get through.”

I bit my lip, stating hesitantly, “Well, because I wasn’t dreaming. I was dead.”

“Stop saying it,” Grim growled, the sound causing my toes to curl.

“Of course.” I squeezed his hand and offered him a sympathetic look.

About two minutes later, our group entered what could only be described as an arena. I didn’t think it actually was one, but it bore a striking similarity. We stood at the top of what would be the seating area, the stone carved into rows that surrounded a lower chamber lit with torches.

There was only one exit from this place—a tunnel leading out from the ground floor.

“We may want to retrace our steps,” I breathed out. “We want to go up, we don’t want to go further down.”

“I know that’s what it looks like, but we climbed a relatively steady incline in the tunnel to reach this point,” Grim pointed out. “It may have been created to give the illusion of going further down.”

“I also don’t think he would have put you anywhere other than the deepest chamber he had, the hardest to reach. We fell a considerable distance through a spelled circle to get to you,” Alek said. I felt a moment of alarm, hoping they hadn’t been injured. If they had, none of them showed any outward signs of it.

“Nothing good can come from this.” Lazaro gave the space a speculative look. “But I don’t think we have another choice.”

Cage stepped around the ledge that barred our way and cautiously began to move down the stone steps. Oz followed behind and I tried to do the same, but Alek kept me firmly by his side with an arm around my waist, kissing my cheek.

“Wait, hold on!” I called as I tried to gently tug free of Alek’s embrace. He wasn’t having it, though. I turned in his hold, needing his full attention. I loved how protective he was, but we couldn’t continue like this—not in such a dangerous place.

“What’s up, little jaguar?” Grimshaw asked. Cage and Oz had stopped to look back at us.

Good, I had everyone’s attention. They all needed to hear this

“Listen, I know what happened was really upsetting?—”

Oz released a dark chuckle that made me pause, so I eased my way into what I wanted to say. “I get it, if that happened to one of you…”

The thought ignited a deadly bloodlust for Astaroth, more intense than I thought possible.

Taking a deep breath, I continued. “The point is, I really do get it, but I also need to be able to fight and pull my own weight. I feel much better and?—”

“You died, Deva.”

Oz appeared, faster than I thought possible, in front of me. His fingers tilted my chin up so gently that my breath caught, and I could feel the tension running through the room as he lowered his head so our noses brushed each other. “You fucking died . Astaroth took you right out of our hands. He tortured you for two days and killed you, starlight.” He took a breath, and when he spoke again, his voice was soft. “You died, and if you think any of us have recovered from that or that life will be like it was, you haven’t been paying attention.”

Silently, I nodded in understanding. Oz was teetering on the edge of darkness, a hair’s breadth falling into the void.

“Good.” He kissed my forehead. “Now stay here with Alek while we make sure shit is safe.” Then he was gone. Lazaro joined him and Cage, leaving Alek, Grim, and myself up top.

I stared blankly at the man’s muscular back, my cheeks turning pink at the intensity of his words. Worse, the expressions on the others’ faces showed they felt the same. I understood, I really did, but what good was I if they treated me like glass? May as well leave me in the glass coffin at that point for all the help I’d be.

Grim crooked his finger at me, opening his arms in an offer of comfort. As he tucked me against him without a word, Oz, Cage, and Lazaro reached the ground floor.

Immediately, as if setting off a trap, the room trembled. I groaned as the tunnel behind us sealed shut, the walls shifting to create four doors at ground level. The original exit—or what we’d assumed to be the exit—was nowhere in sight.

“Back up,” Oz shouted, Lazaro and Cage moving right in the nick of time.

“Shit,” I growled, crouching down as a swarm of flying insects exploded out from two of the tunnels. The sound of buzzing echoed loudly through the room, millions of small bodies crowding the air. I covered my head as the feeling of tiny bites pulled at my hands and I let out a frustrated growl, my magic threatening to blast out defensively.

But then I didn’t need to.

The room seemed to freeze, the air particles themselves halting their movement as the swarms within them locked up. Slowly putting down my hands, I looked around to find them floating slowly in the air, the arena thick with shadows that held each and every one of them prisoner. There had to be thousands—maybe even millions—of these things.

“Poisonous flies, little bastards,” Grimshaw muttered as he flicked his hand, gathering all of them into a shadowy orb in the center of the room.

I took a deep breath of relief and looked down at my hand, finding three little bites dotting the skin. Now that I was focused on them, they began to burn like fire.

“ Zaya , you were bitten.” Alek zeroed in on the injury, grabbing my hand and examining it.

“I’m fine,” I promised, shaking it off. “Just hurts.”

“Let me see,” Grimshaw said, his voice unusually serious. His shadows were sweeping the bugs back into the two tunnels they’d come from, a wall of shadows preventing them from returning. Offering him my hand, he looked over the bites before looking up at me.

“Any others?”

“No.” I shook my head. “It only hurts a little.” It actually hurt a lot, but I wasn’t about to be the one to slow us down. Not when I knew time was of the essence in getting the fuck out of here.

“What happened?” Oz asked. Suddenly they all surrounded me as Grimshaw described the type of poison the little critters had.

“Acid that can break down human skin and cause necrosis,” he said bluntly. “Sometimes with only one bite.” I stared at him wide eyed before looking back down at the red flesh in concern.

“Fates,” I murmured, closing my eyes. I’d have to heal these before we could go any further. It’d take time that I didn’t want to spend down in this dungeon where a new horror could attack us at any moment, but my hand was already getting worse. I could feel my pulse as it beat through the swollen, tender skin.

“I’m going to heal myself,” I stated, looking at Alek in question.

“I’ve never done it with poison, but it should work.”

“Try it,” Grim encouraged. “Alek and Cage, stay with her. The three of us are going to try to feel out these other tunnels.”

“Don’t separate!” I said immediately, worried what would happen if we got split up.

“We won’t,” Lazaro assured me. As they made their way into the first tunnel, all of us going to the bottom floor, Alek stood near the entrance, listening to their progress. I sat down on the lowest ring of seats in the makeshift arena and hoped he’d be able to intervene if something went wrong.

Cage, on the other hand, was holding my hand softly, his eyes filled with concern. “Do you need Alek to talk you through the process again?”

“No, he explained it perfectly the first time.” I let my eyes fall shut, heavy and tired. I conjured up the image of the house, but this time it was different.

It was the same house, but it had transformed into a glowing fortress. Silver stones glinted in the moonlight, reflecting the warm light that flickered from inside. I walked through the front door, instantly greeted with a warmth and strength that I knew was because of my bonds, the sound of my heartbeat loud and steady.

As I prepared to heal my hand, I knew instinctively that I didn’t have to go through the same process this time, shutting everything down to light up the runes under my skin. My magic had changed, and in this transformed house it guided me to a different solution.

I pulled on the five bonds I could feel roaming through the home, their very magic part of the foundation to my own power. I could use the raw energy that came from them to fuel my runes, and the darkness that lay beneath my skin would rise to meet it equally.

Almost as if they were a mated pair. A cool sensation soothed my skin as my magic surged toward the injury on my hand and began to repair the damaged tissue, removing the poison with ease.

“She didn’t have to cut off her bonds this time,” I heard Alek say to the others, their closeness helping me heal even faster.

My magic slowed as the injury healed, and when I left the fortress and opened my eyes, all five of my men stood around me.

“That was easier than before,” I said, smiling. Proud of my abilities and the growth my magic had undergone. I wiggled my fingers, my hand completely unmarred and pain free.

Oz captured my hand and examined it, relief filling his expression.

“I’m even more durable than before.”

The third tunnel had been a dead end, so we began walking down the only one left, and I was relieved at the relatively neutral air. This tunnel, like the last, had the faintest scent of old blood, but I’d started to wonder if there had ever been a threat here at all. Maybe Astaroth’s selection process wasn’t nearly as intimidating as people were led to believe. I knew I hadn’t been recruited in the traditional sense, but he didn’t have a ton of exceptionally powerful followers. Just individuals willing to give their entire life, their freedom, to serve him—to possibly gain an ounce of his power. The concept made me feel both sick to my stomach and slightly bad for them, misled in their attempts to grasp at some type of control over their world.

As the tunnel narrowed, I was pulled from my thoughts as I realized there was a dark wall of shadows behind us. It didn’t feel threatening, though, so instead of reacting defensively, I came to a momentary stop. It took a singular second for me to realize that what my instincts had considered was a potential threat was actually only Alek’s magic.

Alek confirmed my suspicions. “Grim pulled back from the flies, so I’m keeping a shield up just in case.” Smart. Because no one, least of all me, wanted another encounter with those little assholes.

After another few minutes of walking, Grimshaw came to an abrupt stop ahead, causing our entire group to slow. I peeked around Cage and immediately saw the problem. Squirming past the group of them, I came to stand next to Grim…and the massive drop in front of us.

Our path was interrupted by a vertical shaft that rose and fell as far as the eye could see. The tunnel continued on the other side of it, but the gap was immense, too wide to jump by a mile. Shit.

“And we can’t shadow portal,” I murmured, remembering Grimshaw mentioning that.

“No,” Grim said, “but I may be able to try something else. I’ll need help from you and Alek.”

The plan was relatively simple, and in the small entrance of the tunnel the three of us began to craft a bridge made completely of shadows.

I had used my shadow magic to create matter before, but working in conjunction with two others while trying to create a cohesive product was challenging. I felt like I was playing catch up to them as I followed their lead, our shadows building off one another. I kept my eyes closed for the majority of the process because every time I would look at the imposing gap we had to close, my confidence would falter.

“I’m giving it a try?—”

My hand shot out to hold Cage back. I wasn’t ready for that. There was no way the bridge was ready to hold anyone’s weight—let alone one of the men I loved.

“Open your eyes, little siren. Look at what you built.”

I forced my eyes open and inhaled sharply at the sight. Oh.

‘Bridge’ was too small a word to describe what we’d built. It was beautiful, like black onyx stone sparkling under the barely-there light from Lazaro’s lunar magic. It reached the other side perfectly and appeared completely solid.

“I should go first,” Alek said. “Deva, you follow up in the middle, and?—”

“I’ll take the end. That way those with shadow magic are spread out,” Grimshaw finished for him.

I held my breath as Alek took his first steps on the bridge, terrified it wouldn’t hold. But he was perfectly fine, and all of us followed after. Still, I didn’t begin to relax until we were at least seventy-five percent of the way across the bridge—and even then, I didn’t breathe easily until Grimshaw stepped off on the other side. He flashed me a smile and tipped up my chin, pressing a kiss to my lips in victory.

“Good job, little jaguar.”