9. Bexley Blackforge

Chapter 9

Bexley Blackforge

Rebecca stepped out from the shadows, the silvery surface of our prison's wards warping my view of her. I could see her slight frame and the cloak she wore as she walked towards my cell, but her normally powerful aura was completely blocked.

I hadn't even known she was here until she spoke, which gave me hope that it was the wards blocking our ability to feel my parents' magic and not something worse.

Although I wouldn't have put it past Linan, especially if he thought his new prisoners were more valuable than my parents were. Plus, if they had their power drained and couldn't fight as they normally would…no. I wouldn't consider that.

I would get out and go through the doors at the end of the hallway and figure it out myself. I refused to believe we'd done all of this for nothing.

"How did you get down here?" I asked, my voice betraying my shock.

"Who are you?" Fletcher demanded. He positioned himself between Rebecca and Rachel, even though Rachel was in the cell next to ours, thick iron bars separating us. I guess Linan thought that if we were physically separated from our mates then he could control us. If that was the case, he was dead wrong—both Fletcher and I were loyal to our mates, and there was absolutely nothing that would change that.

"I cloaked myself so that no one could see me and followed all of you down here. Even though we were traveling from different realms, I arrived at the portal only a few moments before you," she explained. "I don't have much power left, but I have enough to help. I only fear I won't be as useful when it comes to the war."

"Any little bit helps," Breaker countered.

"He's right," I agreed. "We're thankful you're here."

"We do have a potential problem." She looked between the three cages. "I'll be able to break down the wards on this side of the corridor, but I'm not sure I can do the other side—the magic they've imbued in each of these barriers…well, it's powerful. Some of the most powerful wards I've seen outside of Carmina. And the magic at the end of the hall is even more so. I fear that this entire effort may be in vain if I can only remove one side."

"We went to Carmina," I explained, pulling the small sphere Moloch created from my jacket. Rebecca watched me in surprise, coming closer to the cell but not so close that she touched the silvery wards. I could hear my mates moving around across the way, no doubt checking their spheres, and I was thrilled to see that despite us being knocked unconscious, transported to a prison, and placed in power-draining wards—the spheres were perfectly safe. Not only safe, but charged up. At least mine was.

"Did yours get charged from the portal?" I called out, rolling the sphere between my fingers. The orb was silver and felt hot to the touch, like a white-hot fire was burning inside.

"Mine doesn't seem as bright as the other two, but yes," Jagger answered as the others said something that I didn't fully catch. There was tension in his voice, and I knew a large part of it had to do with us being separated so soon after solidifying our mate bond.

Honestly, I wished all three of my mates had been part of the dream I shared with Breaker, if only to give them solace that we'd make it through this okay. The experience of a vision like that was like none other, and I planned on telling them about it as soon as I could. Maybe it would serve as a beacon of comfort in the absolute chaotic mess we now found ourselves in.

"Who made these?" Rebecca asked.

"An associate of the Nyx family," Gage answered.

She nodded as if that explained everything. "If that's the case, you may be able to use them from within the cell to break open the ward."

"We need our power to trigger them, and these wards, unfortunately, are draining our power as we speak," Jagger grunted. My brow dipped in concern. I hated the idea of them undergoing any power drain, let alone one of this magnitude.

"Of course," Rebecca murmured, studying the object a moment longer, her brows furrowed before she met my gaze once more. "That's a dangerous object you're holding, but it'll serve our purposes once you have your power back. First things first, though—let's get this ward down."

Before I had a chance to ask her how she planned on doing that, she dropped her hood and pushed up the sleeves of her robe, revealing her scaled and clawed hands.

I jumped in surprise as she suddenly slammed her hand against the ward, the violent action taking me off guard. At first nothing happened, but her confidence didn't waver. With the slowest movement in the world, she pierced the ward with her claw and whispered a singular foreign word under her breath. I immediately felt the air shift, a wave of dizziness nearly overtaking me with the amount of magic sizzling around us.

Slowly at first, stems of black ivy grew out of her palms, thickening into branches as they began to climb the ward aggressively. I stepped back to watch them climb higher and higher until they reached the top, where I could no longer see them in the darkness of the room.

Then… it broke.

All at once the ward shattered, icy blue shards of magic crashing to the floor. I instinctively shielded my head, but the shards faded into nothing, disappearing as if they'd never truly existed in the first place. I watched with bated breath as Rebecca ran her hand between the prison bars and met no resistance.

Before I could take a step forward, a body darted in front of me, Fletcher rushing from our cell to pull Thomas and Rachel out of theirs. I smiled at their reunion before looking towards my own mates.

Walking up to the ward, I stared at my three men in concern. Breaker offered me a smile that was far too relaxed for the moment—and one I didn't buy for a second—but I could feel their relief that I was no longer in that cell. Rebecca walked up to me, standing by my side as she adjusted her robe and looked at the ward with disdain. Shattering the other one had visibly taken a lot out of her, and I worried that she wouldn't be able to do it again. That I'd be forced to find Linan and somehow make him release my mates.

"This one will take longer," Rebecca said as she fortified herself for another round, the determined gaze in her eye making me feel hopeful that she'd be able to do it.

"That's fine, we can keep a watch out," Fletcher said, nodding towards the elevators. I shifted on my feet, desperately wanting to reach out to my mates.

"Go to your parents, Bexley. Use your orb to blast that damn lock. We won't waste it on this ward when I should be able to handle it—I have a feeling you'll need all the firepower you have when it's time to release your parents. The one you have should take care of the ward externally and hopefully release the power drain on your parents…unless he has another one on the inside. We'll follow shortly after just in case since your mates have three more orbs.

"Your parents will be very weak, and they may not recognize you," Rebecca warned as a second thought. "Don't fear them. They won't hurt you once they realize who you are."

Which meant that I had to hope they would recognize me, and fast.

"Don't go alone!" Gage's words came out all in a rush, and for once he let his worry show outwardly, not bothering to school his expression for anyone else.

"Or wait for us," Jagger rumbled, his gaze narrowing on Rebecca as if she were purposefully putting me in danger. I knew that wasn't the case, though, and we needed to speed up this process in case Linan came back. Still, I couldn't blame them for worrying. This could go terribly wrong.

Glancing nervously between the doors at the end of the hall and my mates, I said, "I love you guys, and I understand why you're concerned…but I need to do this. By myself."

Without another word, and before I could second-guess my decision, I walked past the empty cells that lined both sides of the hall. The space was saturated with magic, the wards having hidden it from us before, and I could feel when Rebecca started working on my mates' cell. Swallowing nervously, I approached the double doors that had played a starring role in my recent dreams.

If I was right, my parents would be right behind them.

"You've got this," I murmured to myself as I placed my orb on the lock. When I stepped back, though, I realized I had a problem.

My own power had been drained, and I wasn't sure how I was going to trigger the thing. Frowning, I closed my eyes and searched for the flame inside of me.

After what felt like minutes I finally found it, the flame diminished to a glowing ember. It was trying to grow with minimal success. Inhaling sharply, I pulled on it, sweat beading on the back of my neck as I brought my hands together, cupping them and willing my magic to pool inside.

Wind brushed over me, tickling my arms, and above me the sky seemed to rumble despite being inside. It was a shadow of my normal magic, but I soon realized it was growing and that my mates were feeding it—our bonds lit up as they willingly shared their magic. Tears of gratitude welled in my eyes as I pushed for more.

Black electricity suddenly jumped between my fingers, my eyes snapping open as a bolt struck the lock. Hard .

I stumbled back as the sphere detonated, heat brushing over my face as I raised my arm to shield it. My skin stung from the burn, but the pain—a mere echo of what I'd felt when attacked by the electricity of the taser—was completely overshadowed by the realization that the door was open .

Smoke curled out the cell, and I crept towards it, cautious. The darkness that lay before me felt eternal, but I wasn't scared. Not exactly.

How could I be when I recognized the energy inside?

There was no doubt about it: my parents were in there.

Turning around, I felt relief at seeing that Rebecca's black vines were halfway up the other warded wall. I had no idea what Linan could or couldn't hear; could or couldn't sense from above. I had no idea if he had cameras, but it didn't matter because my men were nearly out and my parents were feet away. Deciding to be as brave as my men, I slipped through the door. The moment my feet touched the stone on the other side, golden flames erupted around me.

It wasn't enough to help me see through the pitch black of the room, but it did make me feel better… until the door behind me slammed shut .

"Shit!" I gasped, my adrenaline surging as the flames died out.

Standing there in the void of darkness, I closed my eyes and pulled on my power, a subtle glow surrounding me once more. My heartbeat was loud, and the light flickered along with it. My magic was returning slowly, and it felt like a constant struggle to maintain it. Like I was barely treading water. I hated the feeling.

"Hello? Mom? Dad?" It felt foreign saying those words, but it did help dispel the fear. Maybe, just maybe, they wouldn't view me as a threat. All I could do was hope, because the reality was that they hadn't seen me in eight years, and they'd certainly only known enemies in this place. My brain still struggled with the fact that they were alive after all this time; the concept seemed too good to be true. So I'm sure that for them, the thought of seeing me was likely the same.

As I stepped further into the room, a faint glow began to grow opposite of me. Or at least I thought that was the case…until I realized it was another ward reflecting my own glow. This ward, though, felt more like a vacuum. Like it had enough power to just siphon and siphon without restraint. I was going to need my mates and their spheres for sure.

Stepping closer, my hand reached up and I considered touching it?—

A scream caught in my throat as I nearly fell back onto the stone floor.

A face, stark and gaunt, appeared on the other side, wide eyes staring at me with a furious, hateful expression. Holy crap. Holding my heart, I took a moment to catch my breath as the woman pounded against the ward, sparks flying around her. If it hurt her, she didn't act like it, and the way her hair flew around her made her look like she was surrounded by flames.

It was only then, my stomach dipping, that I realized who I was looking at: my mom.

Her frame was smaller than it had been in my visions, her dark clothes hanging off of her. Any life or glow to her skin was completely absent. Somehow I could feel the imprint of her magic, an echo of what it once was, and my own reached out to her. Her eyes were manic, though, filled with an intensity and aggression that scared me. She was intimidating, even in this state.

"Mom?" My voice cracked as her gaze narrowed on me, her fist pounding the ward once more. Walking forward, I spoke more clearly. "It's me. Bexley. Your daughter."

Her face grew impossibly angrier as she let out a predatory hiss. "I know who you are. You've come to me again and again in dreams, a cruel vision at most!"

"No!" I squeaked, horrified. "I'm here. Really."

"Impossible," she growled.

Looking at the ward that separated us, I decided to do something that I'd probably regret. I crossed through the ward and into the other side, not knowing if I'd ever be able to get out.