33. Chapter Thirty-Three

This place was a goddamn maze. How was I supposed to find anyone in here, let alone someone who wasn’t technically alive. Heartbeats I could hear alarmingly well now, thanks to Mordecai’s little plan, but Iveri wasn’t alive.

It didn’t help that every corridor seemed to look the same. Guess décor wasn’t high on the list when it came to dungeons.

“Can you sense her?”I asked my demon hopefully.

Yes. But she seems to be beneath us.

Great. We were heading lower. Just wanted I wanted to hear as we walked down the dark corridors in a dark dungeon. Just fucking peachy.

I turned to Jasper. “We need to go deeper.”

He nodded, his back straight, head on a swivel. “Okay. Let’s go.”

I found some stairs and we descended all the way to the bottom. “I think this is as deep as we can go.”

She’s here.

What I didn’t get was why Iveri had been put all the way down here. It wasn’t like the place was overflowing with prisoners. “Something doesn’t feel right.”

“Agreed,” Jasper said curtly. “Up ahead.”

A strange red hue started to glow brighter the further we advanced down the corridor. I didn’t like this. As we got closer, Jasper tugged me behind him.

“Hey—” I started, but he cut me off with a flat look. Fine, if he wanted to go all protective, then who was I to stop him.

He held his hand up and stopped. His broad back rippled under the Elite shirt he was wearing, but he was blocking the tunnel.

“What is it? What do you see?”

“Iveri.”

I pushed him to the side, scurried past and came to a halt when I saw Iveri. Well, what was left of her.

She was suspended a foot off the ground, arms and legs spread wide, and she was fading. Her skin had turned translucent to the point where I could see right through her to the ground below. White tendrils of magic were wrapped round her limbs and pulsing like a heartbeat. They were like vines, growing from the earth below.

“Violette must be syphoning the magic,” Jasper said, his gaze assessing the scene.

Of course. With the witches and their magic vanishing, Violette must have felt her powers weaken. The magic Selene used to create Iveri was old magic. Ancient and powerful.

I stepped closer. “How do we get her out?”

“I don’t know, but I don’t think it will be easy.” He pointed to the runes marking the floor which glowed the same bright white as the vines. “It’s all connected.”

“Can you help?”I asked my demon.

She frowned and pursed her lips. Maybe, but I’ve never seen anything like this before.

“Well, we need to try. I can’t leave her.”Not like I had last time.

The Sin Reaper stepped into my skin, the coolness of her touch sending a shiver down my spine. “I’ll never get used to that sensation.”

Maybe you don’t have to.

“What?”

We could always assimilate.

“Wait. What?”

She huffed in annoyance. Don’t you remember the Shadow Fiend talking about it?

I did but that was when we thought the Sin Reaper was just a demon, not Iveri and a whole other soul. “Yes. But I thought—”

I don’t like being separate.

“Oh.”

I feel incomplete.

“Oh.”

Is that all you’re going to say?

To be honest, I didn’t know what to say. I’d never thought about assimilation since Iveri first arrived with me and I didn’t know how I felt about that now.

“What would happen to you?”

She snorted. Trust that to be the first thing you ask. I’d still be here, just part of you. You’d still be able to feel me, but it would feel more like an emotion or gut instinct.

“Okay. Can we talk about it later?” Jasper was starting to give me funny looks and I felt like this was a conversation to be had in private and not when we were standing over a magical circle about to possibly die.

Yes. I’d like that. Now get your scythe and let’s save Iveri.

I reached into the shadows and pulled out my scythe. It had been a while since I’d used it. And God, how I’d missed it. The weight of it in my hand was comforting, like welcoming back an old friend.

Jasper eyed me hungrily as I reacquainted myself with the lethal blade.

“See something you like?” I asked saucily.

“Yes,” he growled, sparking desire in my veins. “Behave. We have work to do.”

I turned back to the magic circle and focussed my energy on trying to understand it. I called to my shadow magic, hoping that it too could aid me. The dark wisps reached around the runes, testing for weak spots but all I got was a stinging sensation travelling along my skin.

“Maybe it isn’t about destroying the circle,” Jasper mused.

“Huh?”

“If the circle is there to keep Iveri from getting out, what’s to stop us from getting in?”

That was a good question. Ah, fuck it.

I took a step back and leaped into the circle.