38. Chapter Thirty-Eight

Chapter Thirty-Eight

Evelyn

V ampyrs hurried down the castle hall leading to the fighting rings. Wine and blood sloshed from their goblets, staining the floors crimson. Mildew, tannins, and iron hung in the air as cheers echoed from the lower levels, the growls of werewolves muddled against the snarls of demons. Tala weaved far behind Ingrid and Belle, letting the current swallow them up.

At the last second, Belle’s doe eyes connected with Evelyn’s, and she gave her one committal nod.

“Get out,” she mouthed.

Sweat trickled down Evelyn’s temples, prickles traveling down her neck. She didn’t want to leave Belle. No. Not in this wretched castle surrounded by the court of vampyrs. There had to be another way. But she had no other choice at present. She and Ingrid veered right towards Riven while Tala turned left.

It was so different at this level. Louder. Harsher. More brutal. Evelyn tried to tune out the fighting below and the cheering of vampyrs, but Visha’s screeches of glee snagged her attention .

The princess wore white, and blood ran down her chest and exposed cleavage, bleeding into the fabric of her low-cut bodice. Next to her, a body lay motionless, the glassy and vacant eyes of a dead servant staring straight into the fighting ring.

Evelyn’s flame wrestled in her blood. Her heart hammered in her chest, lips inching upward into an angry snarl. Fucking flames , she was so furious, so done with Visha and her hatred and malicious ways. She stepped away from Tala. She had her magic back. She’d end this—Evelyn halted. In the row above Visha, Riven sat between two lords, his attention focused on their conversation. Not the fighting. Not his sister. Not even the sisters seating themselves a few rows over.

Evelyn retreated, the chorus of chaos around her snapping her back to reality. Visha was one vampyr. A horrible, terrible one. But there was more at stake than the vicious princess. Despite Evelyn’s blood coursing hot and hurried through her, she couldn’t fight back. Not yet. She couldn’t risk being thrown into her cell again and not reuniting with Kade.

She fell into step with Tala, who angled her body aside Evelyn’s, shielding her from anyone that passed. Tala tugged her into a seat obscured by a column in the second to last row at the top of the stadium. Evelyn lost sight of the others, but if she couldn’t see them, they couldn’t see her.

At least she hoped.

She turned to Tala. “Are you ever planning to tell me what is going on?”

As Evelyn asked, the horns signaling the next fight drowned out her question. She knew Tala heard with her vampyr hearing, but she ignored her, attention riveted on the fighting rings. The war adviser swallowed, a flash of recollection fleeting through her golden eyes, and Evelyn followed her line of sight.

The gates to the ring screeched open, revealing a golden-brown werewolf stalking inside. Evelyn’s heart hammered louder than the cheering crowd around her. Her entire being turned ice-cold. The blood in her veins, the weaved tendons of her soul, her very essence soared, plummeted, and burst.

Kade. Her fated.

In his werewolf form.

In the fighting ring .

The air underground turned humid and thick, and Evelyn couldn’t breathe. The beat of her frantic heart matched the surrounding drums. She clutched her stomach, afraid she’d be sick. Her other hand gripped the bench, her nails digging into the wood.

Who had captured Kade? Had Riven done this? Visha?

She’d kill them.

Below, Kade roared, and Evelyn shut her eyes. Her heart pounded. Once, twice, a third time. The sound of his beast reached to her bones and soul.

She willed her eyes open again, and the next moments slowed as the madras entered the ring from the other side. The arena’s cheers fell away, the cavern unnaturally silent. The only echo was her own ragged breath. The demon’s prowl inched step by step as it circled the perimeter. She sucked in as it charged.

Her flame—wicked, angry and protective—pushed and pushed to be released. To protect her fated. Her love. Her heart.

“ Don’t. ”

Tala’s commanding tone snapped Evelyn to the present. She blinked, focusing on the vampyr blocking her view of Kade.

Kade. Kade. Kade.

She couldn’t stop thinking, couldn’t sit here and do nothing. Evelyn had to protect him. She’d burn every last vampyr in this arena to get to him.

“Evelyn, don’t. You will ruin everything.”

Tala’s words were absolute, so stern they bordered harsh. Her golden eyes bore into Evelyn, begging, relenting— Wait, not golden, amber.

Evelyn’s world spiraled, her mind reeling. She shifted her gaze between her fated and Tala. The same eyes. The same look. The familiarity.

The likeness, the eyes alone pulled at her soul, a piece of her mate.

His mother.

“But that’s not possible…” She spoke her thoughts out loud, unable to contain her shock. No. She had to be wrong. “You can’t be. You’re… dead, right? I mean.” Evelyn shook her head again. She’d never met Alpha Nadia Drengr. How could she be certain? “Are you…?” She trailed off, unsure if she was right or absurd.

Tala’s features softened—and Goddess, right then and there, she learned where Kade had gotten his kindness from. “I am.”

The two words filtered through Evelyn like a gust of wind, leaving her off balance. For weeks, she’d been guarded by Kade’s mother.

A vampyr. A member of Riven’s council. Someone she believed to be the enemy.

Evelyn swallowed and refocused on Kade. “Why is he down there? Did Riven capture him, too? Has he been here this whole time?” Her questions tumbled out of her as she tried to keep tabs on Kade’s fighting werewolf form. Seconds ticked by like hours as he swiped his claws, and the demon bared its teeth. Jaws snapped. Two canine-like creatures fought. Bits of the bench peeled under Evelyn’s fingernails, her lungs ballooning.

She still couldn’t breathe.

“No, Riven didn’t capture him. The prince doesn’t even know that is Kade. No one does. It is part of the plan to get you out, and you must remain calm for it to work.”

A sense of suspension, like falling or sitting at the edge of her seat, bound her in place and threatened to speed her heart faster and faster in her chest, but Evelyn remained calm, grasping a sense of Tala’s words.

The plan to get you out.

Kade had come for her, and Evelyn begged, tugged at their fated-mate bond, sending her warmth and light his way as he fought the demon.

Kade muscles tightened as he rose above the madras demon and delivered a deadly swipe of his claws. The demon dropped to the sands of the pit. Kade lowered slowly, vertebrae by vertebrae back to all fours and turned, amber eyes locking on Evelyn.

A small sound, a whimper, escaped her. Relief. Hope. Love. For a fraction of a second, the torment of the last month dissipated like mist when the sun came out. Her light, her fated, the man who held her heart was yards away, and the promise of their reunion filled Evelyn with blazing determination.

And then the world exploded.

The east wall of the fighting ring blew to bits, destroying rows of the arena on the farthest side instantly. Above them, the cavern shook, debris and loose rock falling. The column closest to Evelyn and Tala groaned, hairline fractures splitting across its surface.

Vampyrs screeched and cried out, fangs bared and eyes wide with horror. Another explosion shook not just the cavern but the foundation of the castle. Evelyn fell off the bench, Tala tumbling with her. Vampyrs around them scrambled to escape, silk skirts covering Evelyn in layers of darkness. A heel pushed into her belly, and Evelyn groaned. She grabbed the vampyr's cold, bony ankle and jerked them off her. Chaos and light warred with the other as she regained her wits.

The howls of werewolves silenced the fleeing vampyrs. Everyone in the arena stilled for a moment, an unease, an impending beastly energy filling the cave. The howls grew louder, the growls fiercer, and Kade’s roar, the loudest of them all, joined.

Evelyn pushed her way through legs and limbs and rubble, pulling herself upright on the bench. She had to get to Kade, fight by his side. Someone grabbed her wrist, fierce and strong, pulling her the opposite way.

“Evelyn, we must go,” Tala said.

She peered at the vampyr. “I am not leaving him!”

“Kade has his part in the plan, and you must follow yours.”

Evelyn fisted her hands at her sides. “I can’t let him fight alone!”

“You can and you will. This is a distraction while I get you to the meeting point. Besides, he isn’t alone.”

Evelyn turned back to the arena, and Goddess , werewolves from the fighting rings emerged with a deadly vengeance, chains off and teeth bared. Smoke passed over the opening created by the first explosion, figures approaching from a tunnel. Evelyn swore she saw pink hair and a tall man glinting in enough knives for an entire army.

And arrows began to fly, hitting their mark every time—square into vampyr hearts.

“Evelyn.” Tala tugged her wrist, and Evelyn, despite her fated-mate’s instinct, followed. Her heart raced, threatening to burst from her chest. It felt wrong to leave Kade, to abandon him in such chaos, especially when Riven was here, but she had to trust the plan, had to respect his decision to enter that ring. She’d escape, and they’d be together again.

Evelyn swore it. Her belly fluttered. Her limbs tingled. Her soul beat hope down her bond with Kade, singing the promise of seeing him soon.

None of the vampyrs paid mind to her and Tala as they pushed their way to the exit tunnels. The entire time, Evelyn searched for Riven. As they reached the east tunnel back to the grand hall, the column at the center of the arena crumbled. Shouts to save the prince and princess gained the attention of vampyrs around them and some turned. Reassurance rushed through Evelyn, fueling her steps forward.

At least the destruction of the arena separated her and Riven.

She and Tala sprinted through the grand hall. Evelyn followed close behind, forming a blind trust with the vampyr. She didn’t have all the answers, but her instinct told her not to doubt Tala and to keep going. Tala led her to the southeast side of the castle, the stone halls led to ones with carpet. Passing guards barely acknowledged them, swords in hands and heading towards the booms shaking the bones of the castle.

At the stairs in the tower where her old room was located, up and up they climbed, an icy sensation coating Evelyn’s throat as she broke into a sprint to keep up with Tala’s frantic pace. They entered her room, the space frigid; the fire in the corner had died. Out of her pocket, Tala retrieved something small and slender. She placed it in Evelyn’s hand, closing her fingers around it, the familiar smoothness of bone drawing out her protective instinct .

“This belongs to you. I’m afraid I couldn’t save all your things. Riven dropped your muince necklace into the depths of the Sapphire Sea, afraid your coven would discover where he brought you.”

Stunned, Evelyn found her dragon bone staff in its hairpin form. She elongated it, magic brimming at her fingertips as it grew to its full size. It was a light and welcome weight in her hands. She’d used it last against the White Lady, and it felt good to be reunited with a piece of herself. But for only a moment before she shrank it once more and tucked the pin inside her pocket.

“I…” Her words trailed off. Near the bathroom, Tala fiddled with the hidden door. It gave way to the passage beyond.

“You knew that passageway existed this whole time.”

Tala sighed and nodded. “That’s why I chose the tower. An escape route if we needed.” Her gaze ran up and down Evelyn. “I never imagined you’d find it and start exploring, especially with Ingrid’s sister, of all people. Rather reckless.”

“Why didn’t you try and stop me?” Evelyn asked.

Tala paused. “Because it kept up your resolve. You take risks, Evelyn, but you’re also very brave.”

Evelyn swallowed. Tala—no Nadia’s words, Kade’s mother’s words bloomed warmth through her belly. She wanted to fidget, to hide from Tala’s assessing stare.

“You saw me that night, didn’t you?” Evelyn whispered. “Across the arena, you saw me in the rings.”

“Yes.” Her edges of sternness had softened, the light of her eyes glowing in her every movement, in every angle of her body.

Evelyn shook her head, her confusion paralyzing her. “Why didn’t you say anything? Why not be honest with me?”

“Tovi and the others hadn’t made contact yet. They hadn’t arrived in Drystan. Until I knew—”

“I don’t understand. What does Tovi have to do with this?”

Tala pushed open the hidden door, a draft gusting into the room. “We don’t have time to discuss everything. She is waiting for us.”

Evelyn’s heart fluttered in her chest. She wasn’t ready to face Tovi, not yet, but if it meant escaping, reuniting with Kade, she’d make do. Before she stepped towards the passageway, she rushed towards her bed.

“What are you doing?” Tala hissed from the doorway.

“I’m not leaving without what I’ve discovered.” She retrieved her notes, Matilda’s journal, and the unread letters shoved under her mattress, hands shaking with adrenaline. Evelyn folded them and secured them beneath her undergarments.

Tala’s lips pinched into a thin line. “So bloody reckless.”

They descended the stairwell. Explosions continued, sending slight tremors through the castle. Dust shifted and fell onto Evelyn’s shoulder while her bones rattled. They slunk down the stairs until they reached a dead end, their breathless, winded faces reflecting in the still, sludgy water.

“I actually forgot to ask,” Tala said. “Do you know how to swim?”

Evelyn grimaced and fought the urge to pinch her nose. “Yes. In that, no.”

Tala laughed. “It’s our only option. Not deep is a doorway into the abandoned part of the castle where Tovi’s waiting.”

Evelyn sighed and tapped into her magic. She conjured her flame and created a sphere of swirling light—Goddess, it felt good to wield her power again. She dropped the light into the water, and it sank. Magic kept it alive, and the swirling ball cast a glow onto the dark rectangular shadow of a door.

Not deep at all, like Tala had said.

“You should go first.”

Evelyn nodded and tapped her side, sending a protective enchantment onto the books and letters hidden there, refusing to lose them. With that, she dove. The water’s cold bit at her exposed skin like tiny needles. It stung her eyes, her vision blurring to a tinged green. Evelyn swam deeper and straight ahead, reaching for the dark silhouetted doorway. She kicked and pulled her way forward, using the door’s stone frame to propel herself through it. Her vision flashed bright as her lungs screamed.

She surged up and gasped, air filling her lungs. A moment passed, bubbles popped, and Tala sprang out of the water and joined her.

Tala had told her Tovi was waiting, but that hadn’t prepared Evelyn for the sight of her friend standing there. Nothing could have prepared her.

Dressed in gray fighting leathers, Tovi stood at the center of a partially flooded set of stairs. She had a dagger strapped to her thigh and her snowy hair braided and pulled over her shoulder. The two friends locked eyes, steely blue snagging jade. The betrayal Evelyn had felt all these weeks scorched sharper than ever.

Because the woman before her wasn’t her friend, but a well-armed vampyr princess.

A boom quaked through the castle, this one far bigger than the rest. The water rippled and lapped against the steps. Tovi’s head tilted as she listened. Two more booms followed, and Tovi nodded to herself.

“That’s the signal,” Tala said.

Tala swam to the stairs, and Evelyn followed. She shivered, not from the cold but from nerves. She pushed them down, buried them. It’d been some time since she’d worn her stoic, aloof mask, but Evelyn placed it on, letting it absorb her nerves and shield her from the pain squeezing her heart. The fact was, Evelyn feared Tovi’s betrayal more than anything.

The two regarded one another.

Tovi swallowed. “Look, Evelyn—”

“Save it. I assume if that’s the signal, we need to move.” She didn’t recognize the sound of her own voice—lost, angry. It belonged to the witch she’d sworn to have left behind.

Pain flashed through Tovi’s eyes, and her mouth hung open. Evelyn knew she was being childish, avoiding the conversation, and she hated the hurt in her friend’s eyes, but now wasn’t the time.

“She’s right. You both need to go. ”

Evelyn whirled. “You’re not coming with us?”

Tala nodded once, her golden eyes forlorn and lips down turned.

“But why?” Evelyn hissed. “Come with us. Kade—”

“I can’t. I’m the only contact in the castle that can keep tabs on Riven.”

“What if Riven learns you helped?”

“He won’t,” Tovi said.

Evelyn shot her a glare. “She’s your spy.”

The more Evelyn learned and connected the dots, the more it stung. She added her fated’s mother’s life onto the never-ending pile of things Tovi had chosen to withhold.

Tovi stepped towards Evelyn, arm outstretched.

She recoiled, her stomach twisting. “Please don’t touch me.”

Her friend— betrayer —flinched, brows pinching in pain.

Another tremor shook the castle, dust and flakes of paint falling from the weathered ceiling.

“Go,” Tala hissed, swimming back toward the submerged door. “Now.”

The urgency in her tone awakened Evelyn’s magic, and it sensed darkness approaching. Tovi’ nostrils flared, and the two communicated with only a look.

Run.

Tovi led the way, running up the grand staircase that bled into a destroyed hallway. Ripped tapestries whipped in the wind filtering through the shattered windows. Something crunched under Evelyn’s flats—her soaked heel had gone straight through the eye socket of a skull. She shivered, shaking her foot loose of the broken bone, and keeping up with Tovi.

No light lit their path aside from the glow of the overcast clouds outside the windows, painting the darkness a silvery gray. Tovi’s leathers blended into the haunted hall, and Evelyn felt silly in her days-old dress, soiled with dungeon mildew, old water, and fearful sweats.

She sent out her magic, and it recoiled from the nearby darkness, but she heard no one approach. No one followed down the hall, and the castle had been still from tremors for minutes.

Tovi and Evelyn rounded the corner. They skidded to a halt and grabbed the other for balance. Ahead of them, a stern, cold witch waited, hands outstretched, wind magic upturning dust into twisters, dancing at her feet.

To Evelyn’s left, Tovi crouched, hands flaring to talons. Evelyn couldn’t fight her shock, couldn’t fight the slight amazement at her friend’s transformation.

“Move aside,” Tovi snarled.

Ingrid didn’t move, but the twisters at her side grew. “I don’t think I will, Princess .”

Wind tunneled through the hall. Their clothes billowed, tapestries swung in the air, and shards of glass chimed against the stone. Fucking flames . Evelyn grabbed her staff, elongated it to its full length, and braced as Ingrid struck.

Her attack hit both Evelyn and Tovi like the winds of a storm. And yet, Evelyn’s flame, starved from weeks of captivity, flared to life. Mighty, strong, and unbending. It spread across Ingrid’s wind, the magics flush against the other.

Tovi gritted her teeth. Held her stance. And turned from the heat of Evelyn’s magic. Ingrid’s magic stilled, and Evelyn attacked. She shot fire at Ingrid, spheres of flame flying through the air, lighting the dark, abandoned hall in an orange glow.

Ingrid braced, throwing her hands up and diverting Evelyn’s attack with a gust of more wind. Fire shattered the windows and dissipated into the cold of night.

Tovi stepped forward, dagger in hand. Evelyn was momentarily stunned from her speed. She moved with an unnerving yet beautiful fluidity. She’d held a blade before, the weapon an extension of each of her advances.

Evelyn joined Tovi, and together they fought Ingrid, two against one. Ingrid unsheathed a weapon of her own, a long, slender staff, equally sized from tip to tip. It shined the same onyx black as the setting around Evelyn’s bloodstone. Dark magic threaded the wind Ingrid wrapped around it, the little light in the hall dimming further. Licorice seeped into the air, clotting it with overly sweet anise.

Gritting her teeth, Evelyn advanced closer and thrust her staff towards Ingrid. The witch met her head-on, both staffs colliding. Light and dark magic battled the other. Power built in the air like crackling static.

Tovi skidded across the stone floor, dagger slicing across the back of Ingrid’s knees. Her gaze snagged Evelyn’s and time became suspended. Not in a hundred years would Evelyn have imagined fighting alongside her well-dressed and poised friend. Betrayal still lingered, but so did a sense of rightness. It was uncalled for, uncomfortable for Evelyn to accept, though warmth spread through her chest, a kind that calmed her.

As if this was where both her and Tovi were supposed to be.

Ingrid cried out, breaking Evelyn from her thoughts. The dark witch’s knees buckled, and Evelyn delivered a blow to her head with the end of her staff.

Ingrid fell, face smacking against the stone. She growled, a horrific hiss of anger vibrating from her. She reached for her staff, but Evelyn wedged it into place against the stone using hers. She gripped her flame, driving the power of light downward. There was no fucking flames way she’d let Ingrid succeed or spend one more godforsaken hour in this cursed castle and away from Kade.

She drove that hope, the promise into her magic. Flame danced down the dragon bone and traveled to Ingrid’s weapon.

Evelyn destroyed it.

Anger contorted Ingrid’s face. Blunt hair amiss. Cloak tattered. Blood streaming from her shaky legs. She rose.

Along with every piece of rubble in the grand hall, hovering in the air from the strength of her dark magic.

“Evelyn!” Tovi cried.

But the onslaught never came. Tovi pushed her aside, grabbing her by the waist as a wave of water surged from behind them. Another magic—a bright lively kind that skittered like spring rain across her flame in greeting. Ingrid’s eyes flared wide, and the water crashed into her, washing her away down the hall.

Belle stood at the other end, arms shaking as moisture glistened her eyes.

Tovi and Evelyn pulled apart, not daring to look at the other as Evelyn stepped closer to one of her allies in the castle.

“Go,” Belle whispered. “Guards are coming.”

“Come with us,” Evelyn said.

“What?” Tovi hissed behind her. She grabbed Evelyn’s arm, forcing her to look at her. “We can’t wait or take—”

“No,” Evelyn said far calmer than she felt. She knew this was a risk—one that jeopardized Kade’s plan in getting her out, but if anyone else understood being protector, knowing what it meant to defend others, he would know most of all. Evelyn’s next words came out shaky as she said, “She saved us, Tovi. We have no idea what consequences she will face from her sister or even Riven. I won’t abandon her.”

Tovi flinched, Evelyn’s message clear. Guilt wormed in Evelyn’s gut. Was she being cruel? Too harsh? But she was so angry, so hurt, she didn’t care. She faced Belle.

“You don’t have any time to decide,” Evelyn said. “Come with us and escape the castle, but we leave now.”

A choice. Because as much as her instinct screamed to protect Belle, especially after the kindness she’d shown her while trapped in the castle, she also had to escape and reunite with her fated.

Belle nodded. “Alright. I’m coming with you.”

Footsteps echoed, moments from turning the corner. Everyone glanced at each other, decision made as tension weighed in the air. Evelyn grabbed Belle’s hand and dragged her along as Tovi led them through the next door, continuing their way deeper under the castle.