Page 34 of Fated In Forever
The stairs were too narrow.
The ceiling too low.
My talons caught on cold stone, the pads of my feet sliding on the worn steps. I had to twist my shoulders to fit, abrading tough skin along crumbling walls, hunching myself down into a ball until I could barely breathe. The air was thick with dust and foul magic and somewhere deep in the earth, the portal thrummed—hungry, waiting.
Waiting for me.
Waiting for Orcus to come home.
Every muscle of my new body ached to be back in that round room, the dark magic calling to me, telling me there was a reason I should be there, standing in front of that portal-to-hell that felt too familiar.
But every other piece of me—mind, will, resolve—fought the urge.
Because I knew once I stepped through, I could never come back. A ridiculous, paranoid notion, yet, nothing had ever felt truer.
The others moved ahead, quiet and smooth and I envied their agility. Blake muttered instructions to Nash as they checked the tunnel ahead, his answermuffled by the echoing dark. But nothing was secret to me, not their words, or their actions, or even their thoughts.
Especially Vicious’—hers were the loudest of all.
Her scent was the only thing keeping me moving, something Finn Forge had counted on when he’d given his orders. He came across like a bumbling oaf, but he was clever and well trained and most of all, a good tactician.
Putting me at the end protected their rear without risking his men, and dangling Vicious in front of me like a big, juicy carrot ensured I kept putting one foot in front of the other.
My heart was in pieces. Broken, irreparably.
Cutting off Vicious was like chopping off my arms, carving out my soul, removing the most vital piece of myself. That look of hurt on her face when I’d slammed the door closed between us…bile rose in my throat.Fuck, I hated myself right now.
I’d spent my life protecting her, and here I was…hurting her.
Causing her pain.
And soon, I would hurt her in a way that would destroy any chance of a future for us. Not that we had one, but…this ritual would be the nail in the coffin of what could have been.
For one level, then another, we continued unimpeded, except for the occasional shifting passageway, and one pitifully lame booby trap. By the time we reached the third subterranean level, torches flared to life along the walls, lighting our way.
Whether this was the magic imbued within this labyrinth, or something more sinister, I didn’t know, but everyone grew quieter, until even their thoughts went silent.
By now, we should have reached an impasse. A blockedtunnel, forcing us to divert around, an impassable cave in, walls too fragile to trust. Instead, the mountain was herding us straight where we needed to be, that round room.
The humming portal, which I now felt thundering in my chest like a second heartbeat.
Finn barked out a low order, and Riordan answered with his usual cold defiance. The scent of Evangeline drifted on the air—hot, desert winds and flowers—and my heart lurched faster.
She was so close. If I reached out, I could almost brush the top of her head. But I pulled my hand back. She would never be mine. Not in all the ways I’d dreamed, these past years. I wanted to take those dreams and shred them to pieces, because they’d made mehope.
They’d fucking made mefeel, and where I was headed?
It was best not to feel nothing at all.
I ducked to avoid a stalactite, the rough point brushing against my head, small rocks dusting down over us. No one looked back. Not even Vicious, her mouth set in a fierce, determined line.
I couldn’t blame her.
She was pissed by my rejection, but I’d been so close to spilling my heart out to her, and what would that have accomplished?Nothing. Better she despise me these last few hours, than get her hopes up I might somehow be magically healed.
That we had any kind of a future.
Because, she thought—with all the fearless confidence of the young—we had all the time in the world.
