Page 103 of Trapped to Tame
‘Are you saying Ceres is a god?’
Priest shrugged. ‘If he is, we best find Eve and get the fuck out of here.’
They crept up the large staircase and were met with a door.
Fie put his ear to it, hearing Eve’s voice accompanied by a much deeper one that did not sound like Gerling. The voices went quiet and, after a few moments, when he heard nothing else, he nodded to the others.
Drax opened the door with a very soft click. Behind it was another sparse room with a desk and a small chair. They went in cautiously, but there was no one there. Corridors bled into each other, leading to other parts of the fold. The windows showed only black.
‘Do you feel her?’ Fie asked, and all three of them looked towards one of the many halls. She was down there.
‘Let’s get this done before we’re found,’ Drax muttered.
Not wasting any more time, they went down the hall and immediately saw her huddled in a tiny cell built into the end wall only just big enough to sit in. There was nothing else down the corridor at all. Only the cell.
She stood as she saw them. ‘How did you find me?’
She seemed surprised that they'd come for her.
Fie picked the lock and the door of the cell opened.
‘This is too easy,’ Priest muttered.
‘Where is Gerling?’ Drax asked.
‘There’s no time. I’ll tell you everything later. We need to get out of here now. Ceres is—’
‘Did you really think you’d escape so easily?’ a voice said from behind them. ‘You fae are entertaining, I’ll give you that.’
Fie turned to find the largest male he'd ever seen. He put his sword up and the male waved aa hand through the air in almost an afterthought.
Fie was thrown through the air and into the wall, falling to the floor with a thump.
He groaned, edging up the stones to get to his feet.
Priest stepped forward and said a word in the old tongue. A wind began to whip through the corridor, pushing Ceres back a few steps, but all he did was give a chuckle.
‘Run!’ Fie yelled but wondered where they could actually runtothat a god couldn’t find them.
But Eve grabbed Priest, who was closest to her, instead, and a portal appeared in front of them. Fie ran for it as she and the others were pulled through, hurling himself over the threshold and into the tunnel headfirst.
He found himself on the floor, staring up at a ceiling he recognized. They were back in their house in Kitore.
‘You can control your conjures,’ Priest wheezed as he sat up.
‘An unintended gift from my father,’ Eve replied, standing and brushing herself off. ‘Ceres can't follow us here. That's what he needed me for; my Light Realm blood and my father's magick, so that he could get around some magickal pact.’
Drax clenched his fists. ‘Fucking Gerling. I’ll bet he’s back in his fortress already, untouchable as always.’
‘No,’ Eve said. ‘He’s dead. Ceres killed him.’ She looked down, her brow knitting. ‘Gerling was the one who allied himself with the First Scholar who took the children. He helped the Library’s men attack the Underhill.’
Fie ran a hand through his hair. ‘I knew it! I fucking knew it was him! He was the one who let Kitore’s soldiers in to kill the warriors. It could be no other! When it was done, he probably appeared like a savior and told the females to take the children to Kitore for safety. He was fae, on the Council. They would have thought he was trying to help them and then they got to Kitore and were imprisoned, their children taken from them …’
‘And Nixus murdered them all as he siphoned their magick from them,’ Priest finished, looking sick to his stomach.
‘How could one of our own do such a thing?’ Fie asked.
‘I’m sorry,’ Eve said. ‘I’m so sorry for what he did.’
