Chapter 3

3

Arya fought through layers of webbing to try to wake up, before succumbing again. She didn’t know how much time passed before she stirred once more. This time, she managed to crack open one eye before she was pulled back under.

There was comfort in the oblivion that kept calling to her. It urged her to remain, to drift endlessly in the depths of obscurity. And for a time, she did. The soft rocking lulled her, pulling her deeper and deeper.

But something niggled at the back of her mind. Something she needed to be concerned about.

The more she fought to wake, the deeper she went. It wasn’t until she gave in that she found herself gently rising toward consciousness. She was shocked when she reached it and tried to remain there, but wasn’t strong enough.

The soft, yielding darkness returned. She fell through a void, screaming, though no sound emerged. Suddenly , she was in Shaldorn , teleporting Ravi throughout the massive structure as he relentlessly sought Yasmin . Then she was with her parents at home. At school. Then back to Shaldorn .

There were voices, so many voices. Some yelling, others speaking too softly to hear. She was yanked from one event to another, never knowing where she would end up. It was terrifying.

“ How much did you give her?”

“ I wanted to make sure she was knocked out.”

“ Fuck . She should be awake by now.”

The voices weren’t familiar. She tried to latch onto them, but was swept back to Shaldorn . This time, she was with Dain as they walked the halls—empty except for the dead.

And always, a threat just behind her.

Arya turned to find a yawning abyss looming over her.

“ What’s wrong?” Dain asked.

“ Behind me. It’s behind me. Help !”

“ I don’t see anything.”

She turned her head to him, but he was gone. It was just her and the quickly approaching void.

Shaldorn vanished, and then she was falling again. She knew she had to wake. She clawed through the murkiness of her mind, past one chilling event after another, until she opened her eyes. It was just for a heartbeat. Barely a blip. Sleep summoned her, urging her back. Something tugged at her subconscious. Just as she was about to slip back into the darkness, she felt something behind her. The threat.

She scaled the lure of sleep again. It didn’t want to let her go. She fought her way out and managed to open her eyes. They stayed that way for two beats, before her lids became too heavy to keep open. Her entire body was heavy. Like she was weighed down.

Like when she used magical herbs.

That threat, the fear that had pushed her to wake, intensified. Strengthened . Deepened . Her heart rate quickened. Blood pounded in her ears. Arya forced her lids open. Each time they shut, she lifted them. Again and again, until she could finally keep them open.

Sleep waited, softly beckoning. A part of her wanted to surrender to it so she didn’t have to deal with whatever was happening. But she had never taken the easy road. She wasn’t about to start now.

The rocking struck her first—the slow and steady back-and-forth of a boat moving through water. A big one, if she had to guess. Her mind was still hazy, making it difficult to string thoughts together. If she gave up now, it would be tantamount to handing over her life.

Arya tried to steady her racing heart, but it wouldn’t listen. She focused her eyes and found she was on her side, staring at a wooden-planked wall. She moved her arm, biting back a wince when prickles of awareness shot through the limb. It had been twisted behind her. She gingerly brought it to her chest and hugged it there. She began moving her toes and fingers as she listened to the creaking ship. When she managed that without pain, she slowly worked her way up both legs and arms.

She didn’t have any injuries, as far as she could tell. It was time to sit up and take stock of her surroundings. She pushed herself up.

“ About time you joined us.”

The deep, seductive voice stopped her cold. She still heard it in her dreams, beckoning, soft and insistent, right before he kissed her. Was she still dreaming? If she looked over, would he vanish as he always did? But the need, the driving ache to see if it was Jai , was too overwhelming. Too irresistible.

Her heart slammed against her ribs, thumping with excitement. With hope. Arya slowly turned her head and locked her eyes on Jai . He sat behind her, one foot propped on a stool and staring out a small, spherical window. He was just as commanding and handsome as she remembered.

She smiled, and tears burned her eyes. Her hand shook when she lifted it to reach out for him. She had to know if he was real or just a figment of her imagination. Even as she leaned toward him, a voice in her head shouted a warning.

She froze, her elation dying quickly as it dawned on her that he was the threat she had sensed. Arya put her back to the wall and stared uneasily at his profile. His thick, white hair now fell past his shoulders in soft waves. The top portion was pulled away from his face and bound with a strip of black leather behind his head.

That wasn’t all that had changed. Before , clothes had hung on his too-thin frame. Now , he filled out every inch and then some. The shirt, a blue so dark it was almost black, stretched across broad shoulders, a wide chest, and thick arms. She followed the tapering of his body to narrow hips encased in black trousers. Her gaze lowered to his muscular thighs and knee-high boots.

He leaned an arm on his bent knee, his attention locked on something outside the window, as if the thought of meeting her gaze was too ghastly to consider.

“ I’m sure you have questions,” Jai continued.

She had plenty of questions, but they weren’t the ones he probably thought.

His head swung to her. Arya’s breath caught in her throat at his raw magnetism, the visceral masculinity that rolled off him. How could she have forgotten how gorgeous he was? His eyes were so pale gray that some mistook them for colorless, but she knew the bands of silver that wove through the irises. She had seen for herself the deep gray that encircled them.

The face staring back at her wasn’t the same amused, easy-going elf. Gone were the laughing eyes, the teasing tilt of his lips. The man scowling her way was cold. Hard . Jaded .

And , somehow, that made him even more fascinating.

She had once run her fingers along the hard line of his jaw, teasing him for the indent at his chin. She still remembered the softness of his wide lips. From his high cheekbones and hollowed cheeks to the thick brows slashing over his eyes, Jai was every inch a virile, sexually potent male.

Silence stretched between them as they stared at each other. Her drinking him in. Him glaring. The elf she knew was no more, and she wasn’t sure what to expect from the one before her.

“ I wondered what’d happened to you,” she said.

The door creaked open. “ Well , well, well. The princess has finally woken.”

Arya’s head whipped around to find herself staring at none other than Priya . The Dark Elf snorted a laugh as she walked to stand beside Jai , putting her arm on his shoulder. Marking her territory, maybe?

She gave Priya a once-over. The sultry elf was tall with well-endowed curves that she put on display. She wore her hair short and tousled as if she had just rolled out of bed after having sex. It gave her a sensual, wild look that Arya could never pull off.

“ She hasn’t figured it out yet, has she?” Priya asked Jai .

He shook his head, his gaze never leaving Arya . “ Not yet.”

“ Oh , she’s getting there.” Priya’s smile widened.

It was the kind of grin that made Arya’s skin prickle with unease. She used the wall to get to her feet. She was tired of looking up at them. Whatever answers she might want from Jai would have to wait. She needed to leave. Arya called to her shadows, but they didn’t answer.

Priya threw back her head and laughed as she pointed at Arya . “ I’ve been waiting a long time to see that look on your face.”

“ Aye ,” Jai said, a sardonic grin curving his lips.

Arya tried to call the shadows again, but she was once more left without them.

Priya laughed and sauntered across the room, the sound following her as she walked away. Arya looked from the door to Jai .

“ You can keep trying, but you aren’t going anywhere,” he told her. “ That necklace prevents it.”

Arya reached up and felt the hard gold band around her neck. It was no wider than her pinky. She tried to tug it off, but it wouldn’t budge.

“ There’s no getting it off.” Jai shrugged, his lips twisting. “ Well , unless we separate your head from your body.”

She pressed her hand against the wall, digging her fingers into the wood to prevent herself from drowning in the panic that threatened to swallow her.

Jai dropped his foot to the floor and took a step toward her. “ Whatever life you had, whatever future you thought you might have, is long gone.”

“ Why ?” she croaked.

“ Because you messed with the wrong people.”

“ Nay . Why did you come for me?” She knew she shouldn’t have asked that the moment the words passed her lips. Even if he hadn’t cared for her like she had for him, she had never thought him cruel.

His nostrils flared, and his eyes turned as frigid as the Dangerous Peaks . “ You already know the answer.”

She was reeling from his response as he strode from the chamber. Arya jumped when he slammed the door, the slide of metal locking her inside ominous. And final.

She could deny it all she wanted, but she knew what was happening. Humans and elves from all over Shecrish had been disappearing for years, never to be seen again. She was now one of the taken. A statistic. And she feared she knew exactly how it would end. She thought about Shaldorn and the humans kept as slaves.

Her fingers found the gold around her neck again. She pulled on it so hard that it cut into the back of her neck and her fingers. Blood slid down her neck and back. More dropped onto her chest from her fingers. She was holding on to her calm by a thread that was fraying with every beat of her heart.

She gasped for air, her lungs seizing as she attempted to suck in huge mouthfuls. Her knees buckled. She dropped onto them hard as hot tears streaked down her cheeks. Dain had warned her to be careful. Why hadn’t she listened?

Her lungs finally ceded, and she gulped air. She fell forward, her forehead landing on the hard planks. When she didn’t arrive for dinner, her parents would go to her flat. But they wouldn’t know to seek out Dain or the CCD . How long would Dain wait before he went looking for her? They were supposed to meet, but would he wait if she didn’t show?

It could be days—weeks, even—before anyone knew she was gone. Far too long for anyone to track her.

“ Hey .”

Arya stilled, sure she had heard someone.

“ Over here,” came a feminine voice near the back corner.

Arya crawled over and found a hole where a knot had been in the board. She peered through it and saw deep brown eyes staring back at her.

“ I’m glad you’re finally awake. It’s creepy in here by myself,” she said.

Arya moved her head to get a better look and spotted long, dark hair. The face came into better view. She frowned with recognition. “ I’ve seen you before.”

“ I work at The Crossing .”

Arya nodded. She remembered now.

“ I’m Reva , by the way.”

“ Arya . How are you here?”

Reva grunted irritably. “ I saw that bitch of a Dark watching you at the tavern. I got a bad feeling about the looks she gave you. So , I followed you out to warn you, but they got to me first.”

“ I’m sorry you got caught up in this. You didn’t happen to say anything to Dain before you came after me, did you?”

“ There wasn’t time.”

Despair threatened to crush Arya . She pushed to her feet and went to look out the window that had occupied Jai’s attention. Her fears were confirmed when she spotted the brightly colored fish swimming just beneath the surface of the water.

“ So ,” Reva said, “how do we get out of here?”

“ We don’t.”

The human chuckled. “ Trust me, there’s a way out of everything.”

“ Not this time. We’re on the Lotus River .”

“ I’ve never heard of it.”

“ We’re far underground. The river is dangerous, and not just because of the things living in the water.”

There were sounds on the other side of the wall as Reva moved. “ So , swimming isn’t an option?”

“ Most definitely not. But we need to worry about more than just the river. There are tunnels through the rock, honed over thousands of years. They bring in winds and even water from Above that can make navigating the river nearly impossible.”

“ And if we make our destination?”

“ I’m fairly certain you’ll be sold as a slave.”

“ Great ,” Reva stated sarcastically. “ What about you?”

Arya returned to the corner and slid down until she sat. “ I pissed off some pretty powerful people. They’re after revenge.”