*Ryatt*
I blink, and there’s nothing but unfamiliar faces all around me. Faces covered in dirt and soot, old and young. All of them stare down at me, their voices mingling into one as my head pounds and aches.
“Get him some water. Be quick about it,” says a female voice nearby.
“Ella-” I reach for her, my finger’s curling around someone’s wrist, but the face that comes into view isn’t my Ella, not even remotely close. I yank my hand back and sit up, my head swimming as the room goes dark.
“Get him back down, now!”
“Get off–GET OFF!” I shove at the hands trying to pin me to the cold, damp ground.
“Ryatt,” Westfall says nearby, “you need to calm down now. Listen to me.” He kneels beside me, grabbing the shirt I’m wearing, a shirt that doesn’t belong to me.
“Where are we?”
“An outbuilding near the river. You passed out.”
“Obviously.” I run my hand over my face and peek through my fingers at the odd group of people hovering over us. “Who are you?” I ask them. They take several steps back as I shove Westfall away and sit up. My stomach pitches. I feel like I’ve been hanging upside down for hours. My entire body is reeling from trauma I can’t quite make sense of, but then it hits me, the force of the cold, hard truth threatening to drag me under again as I reach for the mate bond and find it… severed.
“Ella,” I choke. “Oh, gods.. She’s dead. She and the baby–”
“Ryatt, get yourself together!” Westfall hisses, grabbing my face again and pulling me toward him so we’re nose to nose. “Look at me, boy. She’s not dead.”
“I heard–I heard her begging–” I can’t catch my breath as panic sinks its claws into my chest.
The woman I heard speaking earlier thrusts a glass of water at me. The water isn’t clean, by any means. Neither is the cup.
Westfall eyes her skeptically as she backs into the crowd around us, her small, mousy brown eyes wide with worry.
“Listen to me,” Westfall whispers, “Ella is here, in Rifthold. I don’t know how, I don’t know when it happened–”
“What the fuck are talking about?”
“She’s in the castle,” he says with a pained sigh. “The dungeons.”
“No–” The word leaves my lips before I can stop myself from saying it.
“The coven is gone, Ryatt.”
“How? They shouldn’t have even reached–reached it yet–” I rub my aching temples, squeezing my eyes shut. “How long have I been out?”
“Over a day,” Westfall says regrettably. “I thought you were dead for a time, you stubborn fucking bastard.”
“You forget who I am–”
“You won’t have a kingdom left to rule in a matter of hours unless we do something–now,” Westfall says hurriedly. He kneels, handing me the water. I drink it, wincing at the sharp, Sulphur taste. I open my eyes and scan the crowd of starving, dirty people.
Westfall goes on to explain everything. These people are part of a resistance in Rifthold, trying to undermine their king from the inside. They have access to a secret tunnel system that will lead us directly into the castle.
Westfall found out that Ella had been in the castle from a scout sent by the group to locate the king. How she came here, no one knows, but after hearing about what happened at the coven, things start clicking into place in my head. She must have used her powers in a way that drained her enough so that he’s too weak now to resist. Her powers would have been sensed by my father, and he would have had the power to spirit her to him here, in Rifthold.
Someone broke through my wards on Moonrise, and now I know it was Petra, that fucking bitch. That jealous bitch.
Westfall tells me of the little news he’s received through the mind-link about the coven. The mystic’s have taken over and tried to reinstate shields around the lake and what’s left of their city. Granger and Amanda are alive and safe. Hannah and Cassian are gone, and Ella…
“I need to find her. I can’t waste any more time.” I look around at the people still watching us, then rise. My power thrums through me, but I feel emptier than ever. “I can’t feel the bond anymore, Westfall. What are the chances she’s still alive?”
“She was alive as of three hours ago,” says a male voice nearby.
I turn to look at the man, who is close in age to Westfall. They exchange a glance, and I can’t help but wonder if they know each other personally. When Westfall meets my eyes again, he says, “Let’s end this and get Ella back.”
* * *
“There’s a very good chance this is a trap,” says the man, Ezra, to Westfall as I stalk behind them through the man-made tunnels dug beneath Rifthold.
“Of course, he’s trying to lure Alpha Ryatt to the castle. That’s clear.”
Ezra looks over his shoulder at me. I glare at him, still fighting against the throbbing in my head. “What are you looking at?”
He shrugs, glancing at Westfall before saying, “He doesn’t look much like her–”
“Like who?” I sneer.
“Like your mother,” he snorts, a devilish gleam in his green eyes. “Pity, really. She was a beauty.”
“That’s enough,” Westfall says in a low whisper.
“How did you know my mother?”
“I was trapped here, the same as she was. A slave, a prisoner. Whatever you want to call us.” He shrugs again, and I notice Westfall giving him a warning look, which seems to confuse him. We reach an old metal door that’s heavily rusted and slightly ajar. “This is as far as I go,” Ezra says in a growl.
“Have your people prepare to cross the river. Get them out of Rifthold immediately.”
“They won’t agree,” Ezra says, a soft smile touching his lips. “They’re still as stubborn as they’ve always been, Adrien.”
No one calls Westfall that name. I watch the men clasp elbows, staring into each other’s eyes.
Ezra says, “I never got the chance to say that I was sorry for the way things happened.” He glances at me, then back to Westfall. “She was… she was an angel among us.”
He’s talking about my mother. A prickle of unease flickers up my spine as I watch Westfall’s eyes glisten for a moment before he shifts his expression back to pure ice.
They stare at each for another moment before Ezra turns and walks back in the direction he came. I watch him go, and he stops, turning around. He bows low to me, his eyes meeting mine as he rises. “You have always been our true king.”
And then he’s gone.
Westfall doesn’t make any moves toward the door, however.
“What is it?” I ask, my voice a soft whisper.
“I haven’t been in these caves for a very long time.” He exhales, turning to face me. “I trained you for this moment. I did the best I could with the resources I had to turn you into a weapon against the man you’re about to face. Whatever outcome, I want you to know that I–” He inhales sharply through his nose, his downcast eyes meeting mine. “I am proud of the man you’ve become. You and Ella will live a much better life than we–than we did, if you’re successful.”
I open my mouth to ask what he means, whom he means, but he throws open the door and draws his sword from his back. It looks like mine but doesn’t have the power mine possesses.
My sword used to be his, apparently.
That thought comes creeping back to me as I watch him walk into the darkness.
“Who are you?” I say, and he stops, his back to me. “Who are you, Westfall?”
He gazes at me over his shoulder and gives me a look I’ve seen in my own mirror so many times.
It can’t be.
“I was her mate, Ryatt,” he says softly, then he disappears into smoky shadows.
I step into the inky darkness, the dirt floor and walls turning to stone. I let my power curl through me as the truth settles in my chest.
I draw my sword and let my power consume me, and in a whisper of mist and shadow, I arrive in a cavernous space of dark stone lit by lanterns.
Water drips down the walls, adding to the numerous puddles that slosh around my boots as I walk deeper into the space. Cells fill the space on either side of us, their contents hidden in the darkness within.
Westfall stands nearby, his body obscured by a wall. I round the corner finding myself in a maze of jagged hallways, every wall lined with cells with rusted iron bars. We walk silently down the corridor, the only sound is our steps echoing off the walls.
A door at the end of the hallway is open for us, like we’re expected here. Ezra was right. This is a trap.
Westfall pushes the door open all the way and steps inside.
My fingers curl around the hilt of the sword as I see her on the cold, hard ground, her back to me. Her dark, lush hair falls over her back and spreads in tendrils over the wet stone.
She’s wearing a filthy dress that might have been white at some point but is now coated in dust and dirt and… blood.
“Ella!” I shout, my heart racing out of my chest as I run toward her.
Lanterns spring to life, illuminating the room. It stretches several stories high, and at the far end is a single throne made of pure silver. Skulls create an arch above it, the jaws of helpless victims of the king’s wrath open in terror and pain.
I slide across the ground on my knees, ignoring the throne and the man seated on it with his legs casually crossed.
“Ella? Ella?” I pant, gathering her into my arms, letting my sword clatter to the ground beside us. I roll her over and find her eyes are open but unseeing, blood dribbling from her mouth. She’s cold to the touch, but her chest trembles with a ragged breath. “Look at me, Princess.”
Her eyes flutter closed, and she takes a breath, the corners of her mouth twitching into a smile, but it’s fleeting. She’s holding something in her hand. It shines in the lantern light. I reach for it, finding the necklace… My mother’s necklace. I remember the king ripping it from her neck one day.
“I knew you’d come for her,” comes a withered, crackling voice from the throne. “But I did not expect to see you, Shadowsynger.”
Westfall’s sword sings as he slices it through the air. “Get off your ass and face us like the warrior you believe yourself to be, Kane. Or will you bring out your wolves to do your dirty work once again?”
With a malicious laugh, Kane rises, his face coming into the light. Only the lower part of his jaw is visible beneath the startling moonstone mask he wears. It shimmers with red light.
It simmers with Ella’s powers.
I look down at my mate and instantly know what’s wrong. He drained her, sucked her powers dry and left her for dead for me to discover when I arrived.
“What a powerful little pet,” Kane croons. “Juicy, she was. So much power to harvest from such a little wolf.”
I drag Ella closer as Westfall approaches the throne. “Get up and face me, you fucking monster.”
“Adrien,” he drawls, stepping off the dais. He’s not a tall man. He’s a head shorter than Westfall, not that it matters now that he has Ella’s powers. “It’s been such a long time. Tell me, did you ever tell the boy how his mother died?” He walks a circle around Westfall. “Does he know the grisly details of her death? Her sacrifice?”
“Ella,” I whisper, trying to ignore the king’s voice as it tears through my ears. “Wake up, Princess. I’m here. I’m so, so sorry–”
“Look at him, Adrien. This must pain you see him begging for her life when you went through something so similar, all to hide my own son from me.”
“He was never yours,” Westfall sneers, dragging the pointed tip of his sword across the stones until sparks ignite. “He was always mine. Always hers. We weren’t going to let you have him–”
“And she died because of it, didn’t she? In your arms? Does he know his mate is about to meet the same fate? And oh, how sweet her powers tasted–”
Westfall shouts and sends his sword through the air, slicing deep and true. But Kane simply raises a hand and sends crimson light fanning through the air, cutting Westfall down.
He hits the stone with a crunch that echoes through the room, and the king turns to me.
“I’ll kill you for what you did to her,” I promise him.
“Stupid, insolent boy. You were always a fool, just like your mother. Just like her filthy mate. You deserved to die as an infant. I knew you were weak from the start. But I knew she’d never be able to give me another son, that fucking worthless witch–”
“Shut your fucking mouth!”
“But I didn’t need her in the end. It’s mine, this Firestone power I’ve been longing for. The power I needed to break the veil. And once I do, I will hunt her family down and take them apart piece by piece, and I’ll enjoy every bloody second of it. I’ll keep her alive to watch, of course.” He tucks his hands behind his back as I cradle Ella close, ignoring the fresh tears lining her lashes. She can hear every word. “I’ll keep her alive as long as it takes, and from her I will breed another, and another, sucking those precious powers from them as infants like I should have done with you. And you, Ryatt… You’ll watch from a cell lined with silver. You’ll be a slave, just like your worthless mother as I conquer the world..”
Ella twitches, her fingers digging into my arm. “R-Ryatt–” She begins to glow with a faint red light coming from her belly. The baby. Thank the Goddess and gods above, the baby is still alive and–
Light erupts from Ella as she screams, and the castle shudders as her power ignites and crashes into the walls around us. Kane, in surprise, backs away.
I reach for Westfall, who is only a few feet away, and grip his ankle. It takes all of my strength, but I pull him toward us, just as the ceiling caves in, and Ella’s power showers over us in a blur of red light.