Chapter 36

"How?" Lionel boomed, though his voice didn't mask the fear I could feel rolling from him at the sight of the son he had thought he'd put in his grave. "This…explain this to me."

He whirled around, his stare going from Darius to a man I almost hadn't noticed lurking behind him. He stood beyond the throne on the far side of the room, his skin ashen and almost translucent, the aura surrounding him making my breath catch in my throat.

For a moment I thought I'd located the source of the pain which had lured us to this place, his otherness too much to deny, but there was no agony clinging to this creature. No, he was more like a void, a chasm which held little to no emotion.

I tightened my hold on the shields around myself and Darius, the air magic tight to our bodies and utterly impenetrable. This game we were playing was one of cunning. One which we had practiced since our magic was first Awakened in case we were ever stolen away from the safety of our families. The Heirs of the Celestial Council could have been powerful motivation tools for ransom, and we had been well schooled in what to do if we were outnumbered or taken hostage either alone or in groups. In this situation, I would shield and Darius would attack. All I had to do was focus on keeping us alive long enough for us to get out of here.

Focusing was easier said than done though while the eyes of twenty Dragons fell on us, their malicious intent simmering in the air. But even as I felt their desire for our deaths, their fear and their aggression, I noticed other emotions in the room too. The terror was easy to spot as Vard hastily slipped behind the throne, shadows building around him while he constructed an illusion to keep himself hidden from view. The rest of Lionel's advisors were aiming a mixture of horror, fear, and loathing our way, though as my eyes fell upon Linda and Ellis, I felt a distinct lack of anything from them. Linda still had control of her Siren gifts I supposed, and she had always been a wall of emotional nothingness when it came to me trying to read her.

The cold, pure horror took me longer to locate, but beyond the creature who Lionel was addressing, my eyes fell on a young, startled-looking girl.

"My wife, one of the True Queens, strode into death and stole me back from the hands of fate," Darius replied before the…thing Lionel had addressed could make any comment. "She and her sister are more powerful than you can comprehend. They are capable of far more than you could even imagine. And they are coming for you."

Lionel's shock shattered into fury and Darius barely managed to throw a shield of ice up between us as he shifted, a Dragon's roar rattling the cavern that surrounded us followed by a blast of Dragon fire flaring over the dome of ice.

"Ready?" Darius said to me, looking at me expectantly and I pushed my hand into my pocket, gripping the bag of stardust, ready to pull it free.

But I couldn't.

"I need to stop that agony," I ground out, the weight of it pressing down on me as the screams of whatever was suffering in this place threatened to drown me in its terror.

"Seriously?" Darius asked incredulously, and I threw out a shield of air to bolster his ice as the rest of the Dragons in the room joined the attack.

"It's somewhere over there," I said, jerking my chin to our left, my gaze falling on Tharix who stood watching us with interest, our shields protecting him too, though that hadn't been our intention.

"You can hear it too?" he asked curiously, like this was a tea party and we were all sitting down, ready to tuck into some fucking scones.

"What is it?" I demanded, the desperate need to go to it damn near consuming me while Lionel's roars filled the cavernous chamber and fire blazed violently across our shields.

"Salvation," Tharix replied. "Perhaps."

"You want salvation?" Darius snarled at him. "Then start by making a path for us to get to it."

Tharix blinked at him, seeming to actually consider that, then the whole world fell to darkness and silence snuffed out everything.

I gasped for breath, feeling as though I might choke on the sudden, oppressive thickness to the air, the shadows which had spilled from him snuffing out everything and everyone in an instant. We were dead. Done for. Lost and at the mercy of a monster, yet I could still feel Darius's aura right beside my own and when I reached out, my hand latched around his arm.

"Fuck," Darius cursed as he appeared at my side as if I hadn't been looking properly until I caught hold of him and he had always been right there. "What the-"

"You should run, brother." Tharix's voice was a hot breath on the back of my neck, the desperate souls who suffered within him crying out for my help, but none of them screamed so powerfully as the thing which had drawn me to this place.

I kept hold of Darius and broke into a run, dragging him with me across the room, unable to see anything but knowing where to go simply by following the pull of that agonising pain.

I slammed into a small body and cursed as the young girl went flying, my hand snapping out and catching her in air magic before she could hit the ground.

I stared at her, feeling that emptiness, sensing her loss and the broken, jagged pieces of her soul which had suffered so much that they had simply stopped functioning.

"Bring her!" I yelled at Darius, giving him no option as I propelled the child into his arms with my magic then dove into the shadows again.

They were lightening now, first onyx then charcoal, shifting to a storm-cloud grey.

The Dragons were snarling behind us and a flash of fire lit the shadows from within. We had seconds, moments, little more and yet I couldn't force myself to take the stardust from my pocket.

"I'm working on the wards," Darius said at my back as we threw ourselves through a narrow doorway and began to sprint along the corridor which lay beyond.

Stairs met with my feet, the shadows lightening to pale grey now, Lionel's bellows of fury echoing out in the throne room behind us. We had to be almost out of time. They would find us before long, and yet I couldn't face escaping. Not yet.