25. Chapter Twenty-Five

Chapter Twenty-Five

Raevyn

M y eyes opened to thick, unnatural darkness. I took a breath and realised there was no air to breathe. Panic bloomed in my chest as I threw my hands out, trying to find some sense of where I was but I couldn't feel anything. I had to remind myself that I didn't actually need to breathe, but I could still feel my body rebelling at the idea. Like it was still an alien concept that was going to take some time to get used to.

"Hello," I called out, my voice echoing in the empty space.

Raevyn…

I turned in the direction that the voice from my dreams sounded and saw a small speck of light. I walked towards it, hoping that I was dreaming and nothing terrible was going to happen if I walked towards the light.

It got brighter and bigger the closer I got to it, until it burst into an explosion of light, momentarily blinding me. I scrunched up my eyes and waited for the bright light to settle. Where the hell was I? The last thing I remembered was being with Rook, and then…

He bit me and everything spiralled. The pain. The darkness.

The voice.

"Raevyn?"

My eyes flew open, and I winced at the change in light. It took a minute for my vision to settle, but it became instantly clear that I wasn't standing in the dark anymore. I also wasn't on my own anymore.

A man stood in front of me, someone I'd never seen before, and my magic went haywire. It burst to life beneath my solar plexus, almost trying to reach him, to claim him as ours.

And he was beautiful .

"It's you," I said, confused by how I got here. Wherever ‘here' was.

"How did you get here?" he asked, a confused furrow dipping between his brows.

"I don't know… I…" I looked around the space, which was a large open space with no interior walls and no windows. A soft, sheer curtain lined one side where I could just about make out a bed beyond it and there was a wall of books, a small kitchen and a seating area big enough for two. A piano sat in the corner opposite the bed, and I had a sudden urge to sit down and play. Which was weird because I'd never played the piano in all my life.

"Raevyn, you shouldn't be here," he said again. "It's impossible."

"And yet here I am. Who are you?"

"No one important."

I snorted at his response. No one unimportant had a living space that looked like a million pound apartment. "I find that hard to believe."

His frown deepened into a scowl. There was a ruggedness to him that captured my attention and held it unrelentingly. His hair was blacker than pitch, so dense that it seemed to swallow the light, and it sat just above his shoulders in thick, messy waves. He had a fringe that obscured his eyes, but they seemed to glow beneath the shadows of his hair.

"You need to get out of here, Raevyn. This place should be impossible to breach."

I folded my arms across my chest. "And how do you suppose I do that, Mr. Unimportant?"

He pursed his lips, and I noticed how plump and soft they looked. They were the only soft feature on a face that was all sharp angles and harsh lines. He shouldn't be beautiful, but the combination of all those edges was quite breathtaking.

"I don't know."

"Mm-hmm," I sassed and flopped down on the comfy velvet loveseat. "Well, neither do I. Why don't you join me down here and you can tell me all about how unimportant you are."

A small curl tugged at the corner of his mouth. It was almost a smile and I wondered what he'd look like if he laughed. There was a tension to him in the rigid lines of his shoulders that it made it seem like he carried a serious burden. I knew this wasn't a luxurious pad I was currently standing in. Yes, it felt and looked beautiful, but a gilded cage was still a prison. I had been in my own long enough to recognise the signs of one.

"I'll make us a drink," he finally grumbled when he realised he agreed with me. I didn't know how I got here. I still wasn't sure where I was and considering there were no doors or windows, I didn't think escaping would be on the agenda.

The space was neat and tidy, not that there seemed to be much here other than the books and a few simple trinkets decorating the shelves. I studied him as he poured the drinks and wondered what he'd done to end up here. He didn't feel evil, but I'd clearly never been a very good judge of character seeing as how I was murdered by my own grandmother. He was dressed in dark slim fitting combat trousers and had a knee length sleeveless black tunic over his torso. He also wore a leather type harness around his chest and waist which cinched in the tunic to show his shape. He was slimmer than the other guys, slightly shorter too, but I could sense the power coming from him. It flittered around him and brushed against my skin with a cool touch, which reminded me of Hades a little. An ancient power that vibrated in the very fabric of the world around me.

"You're staring," he said as he walked towards me, a crystal glass in each hand.

"Sorry. Just trying to figure you out."

"It's okay," he said as he handed me a glass and I got a waft of the most beautiful smell. "I haven't had anyone stare at me in a long time."

"How long have you been here?" I took a sip of the drink and holy mother of fuck. It was the most amazing thing I'd ever tasted. It was like a sweet honey doused in the spice from the whiskey. It both burned and soothed my tongue at the same time. I moaned as I swallowed it and cursed the gods for letting me live without tasting this before.

He sat down next to me on the loveseat and his thighs brushed mine. "Good?"

"So good." I took another large mouthful, swallowing it down and feeling the warmth spreading through my stomach. It made me feel happy and cosy, like I was sat in front of an open fire and wrapped in the fluffiest blanket. "What is this?"

"Whiskey and ambrosia." He leant back over the arm of the chair and smirked over the top of his glass. The amber liquid made his eyes look brighter. "Be careful though. It's potent."

"I'm dead. Not sure alcohol has the same kind of affect on me anymore."

"But this isn't just alcohol, love. Ambrosia is the nectar of the gods. It's what they drink to get merry."

I snorted and then hiccupped. Hmm, maybe he was right. My mouth started to tingle, and I licked my lips trying to disperse the irritation. He watched as the tip of my tongue darted between my lips and did he just swallow?

"You didn't answer my question," I said, taking another sip.

He raised his brow at me, clearly judging me for not listening to his warning about the liquid being potent. He could be as judgy as he wanted. It wasn't going to stop me finishing this delicious drink. Even if it was starting to make me feel a little dizzy.

"A long time," he drawled. "The last time I saw the outside people still wore tunics with pins in the shoulders."

My jaw dropped. "You've been in here for two thousand years?"

"Give or take."

"Wow." I wanted to ask what he'd done to be punished for so long but that kind of felt like a personal question. But I was curious. It must have been something very bad to warrant such a punishment. He didn't give me the vibe that he was evil, but then again, a psychopath could appear completely normal if he chose to. "When do you go free?"

He scoffed and took another swallow of his drink. I found it difficult not to get distracted by the bob of his Adam's apple.

"When Hades says I can."

"Fucking asshole," I grumbled. I still wasn't over the whole invading my mind thing and, even though I managed to throw him out of my mind, I still hundred precent believe it was a cuntish thing to do.

"Not a fan?" he said with a grin.

"Nope. He tried to scare me into submission, so I brought him to his knees."

"That's my girl."

"Am I?"

"Are you what?"

"Your girl?"

He took a breath and cocked his head to one side. "Have you ever just known something to be true, despite not understanding why?"

My magic swirled in my chest again, like it was telling me to agree with him and I thought about the connection I had with the other guys. "Like it's instinctual?"

He set his empty glass down on the table and leant closer, cupping my face with one of his large hands. "Raevyn. Sweet, precious, Raevyn. I don't know what I did to deserve this chance with you, but I thank the gods that I have a chance to know you."

"What's your name?" I asked, hoping he heard the plea in it.

"I want to tell you, I do. I just…" He swallowed and looked away for a second. "Raevyn, there are things I regret in my past. I made mistakes and it cost me everything. The woman I loved, my family, my freedom."

I placed my drink down and wrapped his face in my hands. Gods, he really was beautiful. "You can't tell me that you're the same person as two millennia ago, that you haven't changed. You talk about knowing something is true without understanding it, now, I don't know how I got here, but I know I'm here for a reason. I know you saved me and helped me, for a reason. That isn't going to change because I know your name."

A vulnerability swept into his eyes and the embers that had been bright sparks earlier, dimmed. He pulled a ring off his finger, placed it in my palm and wrapped my fingers around it. "Raevyn. Thank you." He pressed a quick kiss against my lips, hard and fast and full of promise. "You have no idea how much I needed to hear that."

My lips tingled like they'd been touched by fire. "I—"

A sharp pain sliced behind my sternum and a scream erupted from my throat.

"Raevyn? What is it?" he asked, fear dancing in his eyes.

"I don't know." My vision blurred as the pain intensified. "I don't… understand."

"Shit. Hades must know you're here."

"How?" I doubled over with another scream as the pain raged like fire through my veins.

"Because you shouldn't be here, no one but me should be here. He probably has some kind of ward or alarm."

I fell forwards and hands wrapped around my shoulders. "This sucks balls."

"I'll find you, Raevyn. I'll be in your dreams. Or speak to Corvus. He can carry messages to me."

The giant raven? How did he know about him? "I don't…" Fuck, it was hard to speak.

"Shush," he said as he brushed my hair out of my face. "It'll be over soon."

Darkness started to claim my vision as the pain intensified. It was like being ripped apart at a molecular level. I still wasn't sure if this was a dream or not. But you weren't supposed to feel pain in a dream, were you?

"Please," I begged. "Tell me your name."

He sighed deeply, like he was giving into defeat. "Promise me you won't hate me when you learn what I've done."

"I won't. I promise." Another stab of pain knifed through my chest.

The embers flared in his eyes for a moment before disappearing altogether. The thick swirling oil dark and mercurial. If the eyes were the doorway to the soul, then I wondered if his emotions played through the darkness with the varying flashes of fire. The stronger his emotions, the brighter the fire.

"Apollo," he said softly. "My name is Apollo."

I traced my thumb over his bottom lip and smiled softly. "Thank you. It's lovely to meet you Apollo."

And then, for the second time that day, my world faded to black.