39. Chapter Thirty-Nine

Chapter Thirty-Nine

Tovi

T he tunnels under Drystan Castle held two things—memories and darkness.

Both clung tightly to the crooks and crannies like the claws of the slumbering bats, rustling in their dreams. Belle, with her golden-spun curls and wide turquoise eyes, kept close to Evelyn, turning Tovi’s dearest friend’s hand white as bone with her death grip.

Evelyn’s steely gaze met hers. The two stared at one another for a tense breath, and then Tovi cut the connection by turning down the tunnel. Stalactites jutted from the ceiling like rocky teeth, and she crouched down as she led them onward.

This far below, Tovi couldn’t feel the aftershocks of Linx’s explosives, couldn’t know for certain that things were going to plan or not. She tried to find relief that Nadia had successfully brought Evelyn to their meeting point, and they’d face no challenges getting this far, but her friend’s appearance caught her off guard.

Tiredness clung to Evelyn, and she’d lost weight. The dress she wore hung off her tall bloody-and-bruised frame. Her standoffish demeanor soured Tovi’s sense of success, too. Not that she’d imagined a happy, joyous reunion, but the way Evelyn had looked at her made her want to retch.

How you’re seen is what you are.

Tovi clamped her eyes shut, bracing her hand on the tunnel walls and pushing forward. Her mother’s voice was fiercer in the home they’d built. She didn’t want to imagine what Evelyn now saw. A vampyr, a princess, a liar. It didn’t help that the tunnels held so many memories of Tovi’s past. She’d been made immortal on this level, her rebirth place beyond the bend. She and her family had become the first of the first, the Verena dynasty planting itself like pine, rooting itself into the rock of the mountain. Their hold had twisted in marvelous ways. It had decayed and split in others, too, its branches basked in green glory while its core rotted away.

She had been rotten. Ravenous. Wretched. Mischievous.

Here, she’d metamorphosed into the monster she wished to destroy, and yet the curse held strong, like a fungus spore, far too small to brush away and too strong to pluck out. The memories didn’t help either, lingering like ghosts in the shadows of the underground.

The tunnel widened into a cavern, and the air dropped ten degrees. Their breaths puffed into the air, Belle’s rapid and quick while Evelyn gave her a reassuring squeeze of the hand. Tovi swallowed. She and Evelyn used to comfort each other like that at times. In an attempt to drown out the past and eeriness of tunnels, Tovi cleared hear throat.

“Eldrick, Kade’s brother, is waiting for us at the edge of the tunnels. It’ll lead us to the safe house. We’re almost there.”

Her friend opened her mouth, and then clamped it shut. An awkwardness stretched between them, the silence filled with the water dripping from the stalactites. Tovi tried to manage a small smile, but Evelyn averted her gaze, teeth grinding so hard Tovi heard it.

She sighed and crossed the cavern, the path turning rocky. Belle let go of Evelyn’s hand as they used their arms for balance, placing their steps slowly on the slippery rocks.

When they scaled to the top, it opened into the cave where Tovi’s new life had begun. Dark candles glowed in the space, the light stinging her eyes. She blinked away the pain, both from memories and the candles.

Evelyn and Belle were hesitant behind her. She turned to assess them, catching recognition on her friend’s face. Evelyn studied the carvings as they moved past the altar. Tovi blinked away the image of her mother’s dying body on it and the memories of her father’s frantic chants.

“Why didn’t you tell me?” Evelyn’s voice cracked, and the sound broke Tovi’s heart. Goddess , she wished she could take it all back. All of it.

“I didn’t want to lose you,” she said.

Evelyn scoffed, brushing away her tears before they fell. “I think you did that anyway.”

Tovi sucked in a breath, and that small part of her, the one from centuries ago, the angry princess no longer seen by her parents, judged by people, and ogled by males reared its ugly, angry head.

“That may be the case,” she said. “Trust me for the time being—”

“What?” Evelyn hissed. “You lied to me for years! Was our friendship even real?”

It was as if her friend had slapped her. “How can you say that?”

“What am I supposed to believe?” Evelyn charged towards her. “You’re not only a vampyr, Tovi, you’re the princess. I feared your father my entire life, and he isn’t even alive. You have a brother and sister, and there’s rumors you killed your sister-in-law and nephew—”

“Stop.”

Tovi gritted her teeth. Stupid, hopeless, and a fool. Why had she not anticipated this? Why had she expected Evelyn to learn so much and not care? It always hurt more from someone she loved, someone she cared for. Judgment. It sank its inky claws into her and hung on. The only way Tovi knew to shake it off was to hurt and lash out and rage against it.

“I made a mistake, Evelyn. One I regret deeply. But don’t you dare throw your hurtful words at me. You are no saint. You’re the one who ran. From your people, homeland, sisters, duty, and even your betrothed.”

Tovi’s words hung in the air between them, so much truth and hurt mixing with the cold of the cavern.

Evelyn’s face fell, something flashing in her steely eyes. She shut them, blinking back a bit of moisture and exhaled. “As I recall, you encouraged me to run. I wonder why.”

Tovi stewed, haste and frustration warring within her. She hadn’t meant to throw Evelyn’s decision as a weapon, because her friend was right, she’d told her to go. And for good reason. Bloody hel. She’d made everything worse.

Evelyn traced a shoe across the dais’s carving. Her brow furrowed, the way it did when her friend was deep in thought.

Confusion rippled through her. “Wait, have you been here before?”

“Yes.” Belle’s timid response made Tovi jolt—she’d forgotten the witch was even there.

Evelyn continued to study the carvings, dropping to her haunches to inspect the cross between the moon and sun, the two spheres overlapping the other.

“Belle had seen Riven use passageways that led here. When we scoped it out, we stumbled upon him visiting the altar. He”—Evelyn swallowed—“talked with someone.” Evelyn’s stare bore into Tovi, asking a question, but she gave Tovi no clues to help her answer it.

The cavern’s temperature dropped, the candles flickered, and the shadows shifted as if the underworld crept from above. Tovi teetered foot to foot, a creeping sensation crawling up her spine. Her skin tightened with the cold.

She shuddered a breath as she asked, “Did he ask for something? From her?”

Evelyn’s brows furrowed, and concern, not fear, flashed across her face. “No, but she promised him what he lost, what his heart beat for. ”

Tovi shut her eyes, fighting both the pounding of her heart and the tears stinging her eyes. “Bloody hel.”

“I assume you know about the spell?”

Tovi nodded.

“It seemed he was doing the spell in exchange for something.”

A boom so big rocked through the cavern. Candles whooshed out and some toppled to the ground. The vibration was like an omen, shaking through Tovi.

“We’d better keep moving.” Tovi’s throat went dry as she forced the words.

She was tired, too tired to dive any further into what her brother fought for or wanted. She had an inclination, and an ache bloomed across her. She’d been the one to take it from him in the first place. If Riven fought for what she feared, he would fight until the ends of this world to get it back.

Even if it was a lie, a false hope.

But Evelyn wasn’t following behind. She’d stayed at the altar.

“She showed me a memory,” she said. “Of you.”

Tovi stilled—the candles flickered in a wave of light. Her friend’s stare dug into her back, but words turned into ash on her tongue.

“Whatever you saw, it was not real,” she whispered. “Let’s go before a real threat finds us.”

Neither said another word as they hurried onward. The last bit of cold from the tunnels was overshadowed by a promising fresh-yet-spicy scent. Tovi’s baser instinct rose—a calming reassurance settling over her. A familiar handsome face came into view, and the world stopped. Jade connected with emerald, and the chaos inside Tovi’s mind ceased. She swore Eldrick’s usually stoic expression relaxed.

“Stars above, the plan worked,” he said.

“Why do you always doubt me, wolf?” Tovi said, her voice coming out far more cheerful than she intended.

Eldrick rolled his eyes and grunted .

Such an alpha response. Tovi smiled, a warmth in her belly, one so fierce it spread down to knees to elbows, made her feel like she might melt into a puddle. Now was certainly not the time. They had to keep moving and—Tovi halted. Standing beside her, Evelyn’s brows had risen so high they almost touched her hairline. Her head swiveled back and forth between them, her mouth gaped open. Goddess , she’d noticed.

“Evelyn, this is Eldrick, Kade’s older brother,” she said.

Eldrick smiled. “It’s good to finally meet you.”

She nodded. “It’s good to meet you, too.” She tugged Belle behind her and turned down the bend of the tunnel. Eldrick turned to follow, but stopped, eying Tovi’s angled body.

“What are you doing?” he asked.

“I have to go back and do one more thing,” she whispered.

“No.” Eldrick’s alpha tone echoed in the tunnel. “That wasn’t part of the plan.”

“I know, but I need to know if I’m right about something.” She shook her head. “If I am, Riven is the threat we have feared.”

Eldrick searched her face, jaw ticking. “If you go see him, you might not make it back out. It’s too much of a risk.”

Sincerity coated his every word. Not accusation. Not judgment. Concern for her.

He gestured around them. “You got Evelyn out, you got out. Let’s go before—”

Tovi took one mighty step towards Eldrick, the urge to do something she’d wanted to do for days propelling her forward.

She grabbed his breast plate and tugged him down into a kiss.

Their lips crashed together, a heat zapping between the two of them. After a second, Eldrick’s shock passed, and the two sighed into the other. Their lips moved together, so in sync it was like both had imagined it enough times, it really wasn’t their first .

Two beings blissfully intertwined.

Eldrick’s hands fell to Tovi’s hips, pulling her closer. Tovi groaned, the taste of him like a forbidden fruit—sweet and wrong and delightful. She put everything into her kiss, the way she moved her lips with his… she was telling him, assuring him, getting drunk off him.

I’m coming back.

Eldrick’s lips were needy and hungry against hers, his hold on her hips almost painful, demanding. Tovi had thought his gaze made the world fall away, but this kiss, them coming together, was unmatched. It transported them to a different dimension, one filled with whispers.

You and I.

Tovi’s memories and sense of wretchedness fell away. It was only Eldrick. She and him. Lips molding together, gasps, and their flesh searing against the other. As they broke apart, breathless and wide-eyed, courage swelled within her.

“Trust me,” she breathed against Eldrick’s swollen lips.

He shut his eyes, shuddering. “Alright.”

With that, Tovi left him, running through the tunnels, determined to return from her mission to set her people free, and back to the werewolf alpha.