Chapter 34

Everyone in the basement was waiting for the sign. We didn’t know what it was going to be, but we knew it would be soon as we all had our magic back. I’d been hoping it was sooner than later because everyone in the basement wanted their revenge for what they did to us down here.

It all came to a head a few hours after I felt my magic fully return. And that was when it all hit the fan. Everyone was on edge because we wanted out, but no one could really talk or plan how we were going to help. I found out Jezebel whispered it to the next vent, and they played a game of telephone on our side and she used her mate connection with Calamity to pass it along to the other side.

Everyone could only whisper to their immediate neighbor if they weren’t Calamity and Jezebel. Jezebel was spending most of her time soothing her mate rather than planning.

I should have expected the sign was going to big since they said it was going to be Benji. He was the only one who could get through a steel door with a bio lock easily. I’d talked to Benji through our mental link enough to know that I probably shouldn’t have expected anything else.

I heard Benji loudly announce himself by doing the anticipation quote from the Rocky Horror Picture Show and then everyone started screaming. Like, even the supernaturals he was here to save. I couldn’t see a damned thing because of my door.

Shadow demons were feared because a lot of them took work as paid assassins. They could slip in any place with a sliver of shadow, kill someone, and get out with no one knowing they were there. The Coalition wards were probably the only thing that could keep them out and no one really knew what they were using…until my mates got here and broke them.

But everyone knew shadow demons weren’t dangerous unless you gave them a reason to be, or you were just a job. Everyone should have known Benji was the sign, so I didn’t know why they were screaming in terror.

Unless something happened when a werewolf mixed with a shadow demon that scared even supernaturals. Since Jezebel was a siren, she had certain gifts with her voice that weren’t just singing. She amplified her voice over the humans and supernaturals screaming and the sounds of bodies thumping as Benji did things with his shadows.

“There’s your sign, bitches! The shadow wolf is on our side. Do you want him having all the fun?”

Uh, shadow wolf? I could see why all the supernaturals were also screaming. That would have been a first for any of us, no matter how old we were. It was also really cool.

The doors of our cells wouldn’t hold us without the wards. I could summon tree roots and rip mine off, but the others had magic or super strength that could get their doors open. I could hear everyone letting themselves out to get their revenge.

I wanted mine, and I was having trouble not going to Benji now that he was here. I curled myself in a ball in the corner of my cell and tried to force myself to stay put. I had snakes for hair, but I still wouldn’t be as scary to another supernatural as a shadow wolf. I was kinda famous.

I was also the deadliest monster in this place, even if Benji was a shadow wolf who scared the other people in the basement. If anyone made eye contact with me, I’d turn them to stone. My mates included.

I knew Jezebel would warn them if she could, but she was fighting her mate bond, too. She had one upstairs and one downstairs. She’d been here longer than I had. I wouldn’t blame her if she took care of Calamity instead of me.

I was a big girl. I was going to try to explain to my mates that I was a monster they couldn’t look at from behind a steel door and let them deal with that on their terms. They could reject me or we could figure out how to get me to Di without killing them so I could get my glasses.

Easy, right?

I had a whole plan. I could do this. Athena took everything from me and repeatedly tried to ruin my life. I had one mate I couldn’t kill. If I played this just right, I could have the other three, too. I wasn’t letting Athena’s curse ruin this for me after everything I’d been through in New Eden Asylum.

Except, fuck me. Athena didn’t even have to be here to fuck up my life with the curse she left behind. The mate bond was screaming at me to go to them so we could complete the bond. I should have known it was calling to them, too. They weren’t going to let a little thing like a triple reinforced steel door stand in their way.

It scared the fuck out of me when my door went flying off by way of a shadow tendril. I couldn’t even control it. My eyes flew up to assess the threat. I knew none of the Coalition members could make that door do that, but they’d been a constant threat this entire time.

My eyes landed on my mates and they returned my gaze. They instantly turned to stone.