Page 75 of Heir of Blood and Moonlight

I nodded, shoving past my conflicted emotions and taking a deep breath to steady myself. I closed my eyes and worked on blocking out the disturbing noises, focusing on the feeling of Bastian’s arm around me and the weight of Ash’s presence on my other side. I could sense Gavin nearby as well. He felt cold and calculating through our bond, so different from the impassioned man I had grown so close with over the past two days.

I reached out with my senses, focusing on what I could feel further out, beyond the fog. It was difficult with Bastian, Ash,and Gavin nearby, like their stronger bonds drowned out those that were weaker and further away. But if I looked past them, if I extended my senses, I could feelsomething.

Bastian’s arm fell away as I slowly turned in place, aligning myself with what I was picking up on. I sensed hopelessness. It was like a flicker in the darkness, but it grew as I focused on it, transforming into a deep, suffocating despondency. I couldn’t tell if it was coming from Javier or Thane—or both. I wasn’t even sure if I would be able to sense Thane’s emotions, since we didn’t share a true blood bond. Regardless, if they were both down there, they were too close together to differentiate.

“There,” I said, pointing toward the floor in front of me, no clue which direction I was facing. “They’re down there.”

Bastian nodded. “That’s the east dungeon.” He looked past me to Ash. “Do you want to tell Gavin, or . . .”

Ash cocked his head to the side, listening. A moment later, he nodded. “He heard,” Ash said. “The others are falling back to our position.”

A whisper of noise alerted me to the vampires surrounding us, though I couldn’t see more than shadows in the toxic fog.

I blinked, and suddenly Gavin was standing in front of me. He scanned me with cold, gray eyes like he was searching for injuries, then turned his attention to Bastian. “Lead the way,” Gavin said, angling his body to the side and sweeping his arm out for Bastian to take point. “We need to get moving before the shifters on the other levels realize we’re here.”

Bastian nodded and stepped forward, leading us in the general direction I had indicated, though the hopelessness was coming from far below us. Gavin fell in on my left, taking Bastian’s place. We passed through a heavy door into a stairwell with cement walls and stairs, all reinforced by steel. The fog of the hypnos gas followed us in but quickly dissipated once we were all in thestairwell and the door was shut. The horrifying sounds muted to mere memory, and I exhaled a sigh of relief.

Stopping three stairs down, Bastian yanked off his mask and turned to look up at Gavin. “This stairwell is the only access point to the east dungeon.”

“No other levels can access it?” Gavin asked. When Bastian shook his head, Gavin glanced at Jin, who stood behind us with the other vampires crowded onto the landing. “Triple ward the door.”

“Done,” Jin said, turning on his heel and wedging through the press of bodies to reach the door.

Gavin faced me and raised his hands to my mask, gripping the lower edge to pull it up.

My eyes widened, and panic flitted across my chest as my mouth and nose were suddenly exposed. I instinctively held my breath and scoured the floor for the deadly fog, but there was no sign of it.

“It’s safe,” Gavin said, pulling my mask off all the way. He hooked the mask’s straps to a carabiner on my tactical vest. “By the time they get through the wards and open that door, the gas will be long gone.” He raised one hand again, and his fingers curled around the side of my neck, the pad of his thumb pulling down my lower lip. “Breathe, Sophie.”

I glanced at Bastian, who nodded, a gentle smile curving his lips.Heclearly wasn’t locked in a waking nightmare, which meant the air in the stairwell was safe. Relenting, I pulled in a shaky breath—and nearly gagged. The stench of mortal waste and unwashed bodies filled the stairwell so thick I could practically taste it.

Bastian flashed me an apologetic smile. “Sorry, Soph. I should have warned you.”

“It’s fine.” I cleared my throat and blinked rapidly. The stench was potent enough to make my eyes water.

Nobody spoke as we descended the stairs. The hum of the caged wall sconces grew louder and faded again as we approached and left each landing. The only other sounds were the beat of our footsteps on the concrete stairs as we hurried down and the sound of our harsh breaths—or maybe justmybreaths, since everyone else seemed perfectly composed. The undead vampires hardly needed to breathe anyway.

As we neared the bottom of the stairs, Bastian raised one hand, signaling for us to stop on the last flight, and Gavin and I stood together on the last step. Bastian claimed a key ring holding old-fashioned iron keys from a hook on the wall, and I peered around him through the doorway beyond.

A long hallway lined with rusted metal doors stretched on into the shadows. The walls appeared to have been carved straight out of the bedrock, and the flickering light from the intermittent electric sconces made everything between the shadows look washed-out and sickly. The stench was stronger down here, the air heavy and oppressive.

Déjà vu from my prophetic vision lent a dreamlike quality to the situation. I had been here before.

“The cells on either side hold queens,” I said with absolute certainty as I stepped down the final stair and continued onward, winding around Bastian and into the dungeon ahead of the others. But, at the moment, all I cared about was the barred cell door at the end of the long corridor. The one I couldn’t yet see but knew was there. The sense of absolute dread emanating from that cell, of failure, gripped my heart and knotted my gut.

Bastian caught my wrist, holding me back.

I peered at him over my shoulder, my brow furrowing. I had honestly forgotten anyone else was with me. That this wasn’t a dream and I wasn’t alone.

“Let her go,” Gavin murmured. “Can’t you feel it? The goddess is guiding her.”

Bastian released me, and I continued on, delving deeper into the dungeon. I could feel the stares of the other queens on either side of me, but not even their attention could pull my focus away from the cell at the end. From the man within. From Javier.

My heart hammered, not only audible, but palpable. Each step brought me closer to him. It had been so long. I had thought him dead. But now, I couldn’t deny the sense of him hidden in the shadows beyond the bars of his cell door. I supposed Thane was in there too, but Javier was everything.

With each step, the tension wound tighter within me. The need to reclaim what was mine.

46

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