29. Erik

Ididn’t stop trying to escape as the truck tore along a road, bumping wildly over broken stone and crumbled mortar. I’d received more cuts thanks to my attempts and the chains were so tight, blood was pouring from my wounds. The injury Callie had given me mere days ago was split open again and I ground my teeth against the agony it caused.

The sun had been left behind at last as I moved away from the extension of Valentina’s powers, but even with my strength intact I couldn’t break free of my binds. I focused my attention on the surrounding ruins instead, certain we were heading into the destroyed half of Brooklyn.

I counted every turn, committing it to memory. The second these chains were released, I’d fight tooth and nail to escape. If Valentina wanted me dead, I’d have been reduced to dust by now. But that was a fatal mistake. Because if she thought she could hold me alive, she was going to pay for that stupidity in her own blood.

The brakes whined and the truck finally pulled to a halt. The biter in the cab hopped out and a voice called to him.

“You actually got him?” a male gasped.

“Uhuh. I’ve got one of our royal rulers right here.” Someone banged their knuckles on the truck and I ground my teeth, waiting for them to appear.

Four biters circled the vehicle, gazing into the cab with wide eyes.

“Holy shit,” a female said. She had bright red hair cropped short into a bob and an angular face that made her resemble a crow. Her eyes raked over me with vicious delight.

“Hello, Prince Erik.” She ran her finger across the edge of the truck.

I snarled but she only grinned in response.

Two of them climbed into the truck bed, lifting me between them. There was no point in fighting them yet; the chains would start breaking bones if I fought them any harder.

They sprang down from the truck while holding me aloft and I eyed the rubble around us between two demolished buildings. They walked with purpose and I spotted a metal sign bent over at an angle as it jutted from the ground.

Rockaway Avenue Station.

I tucked that snippet of information away as they moved past the sign and we descended into a stairway between mountains of debris. Darkness swooped over me but my eyesight quickly adjusted so that I could see the dank, slanted ceiling above me.

They increased their pace, heading ever further into the depths of the old subway station. We arrived beside a large track and they promptly jumped down onto it. Old movie adverts were plastered across the walls and a poster girl watched my plight with her eternal smile. Her blue eyes were cracked down the middle and riddled with mould, the effect strangely haunting as my captors carried me away from her.

The darkness thickened, but I could just make out old cables on the walls, running deep into the tunnel. The biters moved faster and a light suddenly grew around me as we approached another station. Our way was blocked by an old train and one of the biters threw me over their shoulder, springing onto the platform beside it.

The group carried me toward the train and the redhead punched her thumb onto a button on it. The doors opened with a hiss and they walked me inside. The carriage had been gutted and looked recently decorated; the walls and floor were painted red and at the far end was a large throne that looked like it belonged in a museum. It was a huge, golden thing with crimson cushions.

One guess who that belongs to.

The biters wheeled me around to face the opposite direction and a chasm opened up in my chest. Two large cages filled the rest of the space which were big enough for four men to stand in each.

I ground my teeth, unable to fight the urge to writhe in their arms as they carried me toward the cage on the right. One of them swung the door open and they promptly dumped me inside.

I spat air through my teeth as my chin hit the floor. Rolling, I turned my gaze on them as they slammed the door shut and a metallic gong rang out. The redhead slid a padlock into place, eyeing me with glee.

“Prepare to bow to your new queen,” she said, her eyes glittering.

“I don’t bow to anyone,” I growled.

“And yet you were happy to make us all bow to you and deny us our gods-given right,” she snarled.

The large man beside her with a bloody cut across his nose nodded his agreement. A sweet satisfaction filled me that a slayer had delivered that blow; it was going to leave one hell of a scar.

“But you’re content following Valentina as your queen? You’re a bunch of sheep with no brains of your own,” I said icily.

“We will feed from the vein under our new ruler,” the wounded man said, cracking his knuckles. “She is the true queen of the New Empire.”

“So what will you rename it now?” I asked coolly. “The New, New Empire? Not quite as catchy, but I wouldn’t expect anything more from a bunch of braindead fuckwits.”

“It will be the Scarlet Empire,” the redhead announced with a wide smile. “The humans will be released from the Realms and we shall hunt them as we please. Our calling will be fulfilled. Our true nature will be honoured and never hidden. We won’t be oppressed any longer.”

“Well as charming as that sounds, I’m afraid you haven’t taken over yet. My family will come for me. And the only blood that will be spilled in my empire will be yours.”

The redhead stepped closer to the golden bars, glaring in at me. “They’ll never find you, Erik Belvedere. And even if they get close, Valentina will bake them in the sun’s rays until they yield.”

“Perhaps...if I don’t tear her heart out first,” I snarled as anger simmered in my veins.

She threw her head back as she cackled. “You’re in a cage made by the gods. They’re helping us because they know our cause is just. They gave us this gift of immortality and they want us to spend it well.”

“I’d be careful laying my trust in the gods if I were you. They are not on anyone’s side,” I said.

She turned her back on me and the biters exited the carriage, leaving me alone.

An ethereal laughter reached me from beyond the planes of this world. Idun was close, mocking me. I gritted my teeth, not acknowledging her presence, but as I lay in the silence, the chains around me loosened, uncoiling like living things and slithering toward the bars like wicked serpents. They moved through them, curling into a pile beyond the cage and I released a slow breath.

I rolled my shoulders, wincing from the cuts they’d inflicted on me as I waited for my body to heal. A heavy pressure bore down on me and I gazed up at the red roof of the carriage.

A warm hand brushed my cheek and I grimaced at the invisible touch of the goddess.

“Why?” I bit at her. “What is Valentina offering you for this?”

Her ethereal voice filled the air and her lips brushed my ear. “Valentina is devout. She honours us.”

“Us?” I spat, realisation hitting me.

“Andvari and I wished for a fight. You and Magnar scorned us, hiding under the gifts of his treasure. Where is it, my love? Which of you wields it?”

I smiled coldly, remaining silent. If they wanted that ring, I sure as shit wasn’t going to help them find it.

Sharp nails raked down my chest and I swore between my teeth as my shirt turned to ash around me.

Two dark eyes found me in the reflection of the carriage window as Andvari emerged, gazing at me.

“You have turned on me,” he snarled, his face almost pressing against the glass.

“You’ve never helped me,” I snapped. “You expect me to do your will, but I’m done playing your games. You want me dead? Then fucking do it already.”

Andvari scowled, baring his sharp teeth. “Death is easy. Valentina will ensure you suffer. And when you are nothing but a bleeding, starving husk, you will beg for mercy from me. Then you will tell me where to find my ring.”

As my wounds healed enough for me to move, I rose to my feet and stared at him through the window beyond the bars.

“You’re forgetting something,” I said, a dark grin twisting my lips. “That ring protects my wife from you. And I would never give it up, not if you tortured me for a thousand years.”

“Love is powerful,”Idun whispered to us both. “But it can be wielded. It can be used as a weapon against you.”

“You’re clutching at strings, Idun,” I said with a hollow laugh.

“Am I?” She stepped from the very fabric of the air before me, her golden skin gleaming as beautiful vines crept around her naked body. She moved toward me with a lustful smile and my love for Montana shifted sharply onto her.

I moaned, stumbling forward, wishing to touch her, needing to with every fibre of my being. She caught my hand as I approached, placing it against her cheek. I stilled before her, enraptured by her. But my mind snagged on a dark-haired girl with skin as pale as the moon and I snatched my hand away.

She tutted, forcing her will into me again as she claimed my heart once more.

“Foolish prince,” she purred. “I am the one you adore.”

I nodded, reaching out for her again and brushing my fingers through her silken hair. Desire slid into me like a hungry animal and I reared towards her, desperate for her mouth on mine.

She stepped back, surveying me with a smile. “I will make you love whomever I choose.”

I nodded firmly, bathing in the sound of her voice, willing to do whatever she bid me to do.

“So where is the ring, which one of your friends wields it?” she asked.

The answer came to my lips, but I bit down on my tongue to stop myself, a renewed flare of loyalty finding me. I blinked, clamping my teeth together as the answer tried to fight its way from my mouth.

The doors sounded again and Idun’s presence evaporated. My heart was my own once more and relief spilled through me at escaping her power.

I turned to find Magnar being manhandled into the carriage, yelling his anger as he battled against the gods’ chains. One was wrapped around his neck so tightly that his muscles bulged beneath it.

Blood dripped to the floor from his wounds and the biters eyed it greedily as they approached the empty cage beside mine, but they didn’t take a taste of it.

Magnar was thrown inside and the door banged shut before the biters locked it too. The chains around him loosened just as mine had, slithering away from him into the pile my own had formed and he spat a wad of blood from his mouth as he raised a hand to his bleeding throat.

Magnar groaned, rolling onto his side as his eyes found mine and I sensed irritation in his gaze. He released a heavy huff. “Great. Of all the fucking bloodsuckers to be stuck here with, it had to be you.”