28. Livy

CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT

LIVY

T hree days have quickly flitted by since I killed Varcus and Malek had been in healing ever since. After a series of blood transfusions to filter the dagger's poisons from his system, he was expected to make a full recovery.

I'd been at his side through it all, even when he begged me to go get some rest or to not watch as they poked him with needles, I stayed. I wanted to be there for him. It didn't matter that he was the toughest, strongest being I'd ever met.

I saw straight to the core of who he was and knew just how vulnerable he truly was. When Varcus and his demons tortured Malek, it broke him in ways so terrible that it was a miracle he was still fighting, let alone still sane.

It was my duty to get him to realize that a peaceful, safe world was possible without war or bloodshed. But I also needed to protect him so that his mind and body didn't fracture any more than it already had. I needed to be his safe place, a shoulder for him to rest on until he became whole again .

Malek was fast asleep, and I let myself out of his hospital room, soundlessly shutting the door behind me.

My stomach growled voraciously as I recalled I hadn't eaten since breakfast. So I decided to meet up with Ferina in the dining room for dinner.

The smell of rich tomato sauce and cheese perfumed the dining room as I watched Ferina go toe to toe with the extra-large meatball on the edge of her plate.

"I'm surprised you're having dinner with me tonight. Elias not available?" I teased, twisting my fork in my spaghetti.

"Oh, Sunny, it's been like a dream. Since we talked at the party, we haven't stopped. If Mally hadn't gotten hurt, Elias and I probably would be in Italy on a romantic vacation by now. He's like that, you know. Just look at the bracelet he gave me."

Ferina's expression was bright with euphoria, she stretched out her arm, showing off her new golden bracelet.

It dazzled like diamonds. She couldn't look prouder.

"He should be romantic and more. He'll need to treat you like the princess you are if he wants to gain my approval, let alone Malek's." I chewed a meatball before taking a sip of wine.

"I knew I liked you from the moment I met you. You just get me." Her head tilted back, her eyes worshiping her bracelet.

"By the way, since Mally's getting discharged on Friday I had Elias get us movie tickets to celebrate. You up for a little double date?" She winked mischievously and my head fell.

"It doesn't have to be movies," she said in a hurry. "We-we could do something else. Would you rather we go for pizza or fro-yo?"

"It's not that." I looked to the moonlight gardens outside the window before reverting my gaze back to Ferina.

"Malek was tortured in the underworld. It lasted for centuries, and it almost broke him." I swished the remaining wine around my glass .

"And you want to know why I didn't help him?" She answered my question in a far more direct way than I intended to ask.

"I didn't mean it like that," I hastily set the glass down.

"No, it's reasonable to want to know. It's not every day the most powerful demon alive gets overthrown by his underlings and caged like a beast." She set her fork down and rolled back in her seat.

"Malek and I were born hundreds of years apart. While he chose to live and rule the underworld, I fled to Earth the second I came of age. Nothing about life down there jived well with me. If I'd stayed, I would have been forced to take on a role I didn't believe in. Tormenting souls never sat right with me." She looked off deep in thought. "I thought Malek was fine with his role as Master Punisher, but apparently even he couldn't stand it anymore."

"Hence the decision to stop the torture." I asked and she gave a slow nod.

"Had I known what was going on, I would have rallied to help and gone to him. But Malek and I didn't get close until the last several years. We crossed paths while he was still searching for you." She sighed, raising her glass to view the chandelier light through the crystal. "He must have felt so alone back then."

"But now he's making progress. He's healing and getting closer to other demons again. Maybe he'll even come to trust in them one day." I said, with hope brimming in my eyes.

She stared at me wordlessly as if unsure how to answer.

I needed to believe he was healing, this was integral to any plan I could make to take him off the war path.

"He has been making progress, Sunny. But it's too early to say if his heart can ever go back to the way it was." She shrugged before finishing her wine. "He was so trusting and innocent, the Malek I knew as a child. He wore his emotions on his sleeve, and you always knew what he was thinking. Now, most of his thoughts are hidden even from me. "

"He just needs to learn that it is okay to trust others. Then he'll revert to the same old Malek he was," I argued.

He was already softening, all I needed to do was encourage that, nudge him towards healing himself and making lasting peace with all his demons, even the ones who tortured him. Then the world would have nothing to fear.

Ferina and I finished up dinner and a second bottle of wine before calling it a night. Our paths forked at the hallway that connected the dining room to the west wing. She went left waving goodnight, and I went right.

The castle was even more quiet than normal, with most of the staff gone on annual leave. So it was odd, that as I made the final turn that led to my room, I heard a bone chilling scream. It came from all the way on the other side of the palace.

Why did I keep hearing random screams? This was the third time now.

Curiosity turned me around and I followed the sound. It was faint, but just loud enough for my keen hearing to detect in the mostly empty palace. My journey took me down to the first floor, in the hidden back, near to the laundry.

I traced the same strip of hallway five times and still it led nowhere. I was stuck, with no doors to enter. I was sure this was where the scream originated but all that was here was an old bookcase, a few paintings and an aged mirror with a huge crack on it.

Sleepiness encouraged me to just forget about the search and go to my room. But then, right as I was about to go, I heard a voice calling out for help.

I followed the source, and it led me to the bookcase. I slid my finger on the crease where the shelf touched the wall and I noticed a faint light peaking through from behind. There was an opening.

Taking the shelf with both hands, I yanked it toward me. It moved like a heavy door, rotating on its hinges .

A stone staircase came into view on the other side, leading down into some kind of basement. Wailing and screams sailed up from its depths prompting my stomach to churn.

Something told me not to go down there before making sure with Malek or Ferina that it was safe to enter.

The voice called out again, this time joined by two more voices.

I delved inside, the screams growing stronger as I went down the dim staircase. I entered a dungeon with wall-to-wall cells. Dozens of dirty faces stared at me through metal bars.

I immediately recognized one of them. It was one of the mages who attacked us in the library. Half the cells were filled with mages from the library attack, the other half were members of Varcus's resistance group.

"Thank god! Can you help me? My water hose is blocked. I haven't drunk in days." A young mage begged and dozens of voices started begging for me to set them free.

Everyone here was covered in dirt. The stench made it clear no one had bathed or changed clothes since they were arrested.

The young mage pointed me to a jug of water on the table near the bottom of the stairs. I handed him the jug.

Wedging his face between the bars, pushing his lips out as far as they could go, he drank it all.

"Thank you." He set the jug down outside his cell, wiping his mouth. "Please, can you get me out of here?"

"You chose to break into someone else's home and try to kill them. Did you think you wouldn't be arrested?" I asked.

A large part of me did want to do something. Even if they needed to be punished, their conditions were deplorable.

"Listen. Maybe I can talk to Malek, see if he can get this place cleaned up. "

"No!" He shrieked, visibly afraid, "Not the Monster King. Don't call him down here!"

"Please don't tell him I asked to go." Huddling in the fetal position in the corner, he went quiet.

"Listen to him, girly. If you bring that monster down here you're just as bad as he is." The old mage in the adjacent cell said.

"Malek is not a monster." I crouched down in front of the old timer's cell.

"Of course he is!" He waved me off. "Who but Malek the Murderer would invade the Mage Kingdom and kill the Grand High Mage? He even murdered her eldest son."

"Malek wouldn't do that." I Insisted. "That would be a declaration of war."

He laughed in a nasally sort of way, combing his fingers through his scraggly white beard. "What rock are you living under, missy? War's been declared, for a good couple weeks now and that Monster King isn't taking many prisoners. We're lucky to still be alive. It's a bloodbath out there. And not just in mage territories. The monster sent his armies all over the world. The shifters are running scared. Only the humans haven't been invaded yet. But that's only a matter of time."

This couldn't be true. If it was, it would mean that Malek waged war right after I arrived. There was no way he could do something so cruel. It would mean that everything he told me from day one was a lie.

I felt sick to my stomach. If this old man was right, then there was nothing I could have done to stop this war in the first place.

The old mage carried on explaining the stark situation outside of Demon City; but while I saw his lips move, I couldn't hear a word. My ears shut down to protect me from the dread that slowly rose in the back of my throat like bile.

Anger, betrayal and shock mixed in my gut. I couldn't bear this pain that ripped my heart in two .

My walls broke down and finally I heard again, all due to one familiar voice.

"Livienne!" Someone shouted. It wasn't Malek or Ferina.

My knees straightened and I followed the path down to the end of the cell block. In the darkest corner of the room, in the final cell on the right stood three pairs of eyes I thought I might never see again.

Chasten, Blake and Payton, the demi-gods who had kidnapped, emotionally tortured and then awakened fathomless desire in me.

My mates! My soul sang. The same mates who killed my parents, I remembered, tamping down my emotions.

They looked like they'd been chewed up and spit back out. Their clothes were splattered with holes and blood. Their gaunt faces were smeared in dirt but even that couldn't hide their regal shine.

My lips didn't know what to say and by the varied thoughts and emotions that marked their faces, they didn't know what to say either.

Finally, looking angry as hell, Blake took charge, injecting himself in front of Chasten and Payton.

In a slow and exasperated tone, he said, "It's about damn time."

~Continues in Book 3~