Page 43 of Fated In Forever
We’re getting there. Using the phone to navigate, but it’s slow going…too much rubble…we’re clearing another cave in.
Keep going. We’re gaining ground on Romulus.An errant blast screamed over my head, collapsed more of the ceiling, trapping us in this closed space together.Should be joining you soon.
I was planning to spin another lie, when Finn looked at Nikolai and something passed between them. A silent agreement that had my gut twisting.
Finn drew back his arm to throw again, Nikolaisummoned a plume of fire, and even though I thought I might be hallucinating, glowing blue runes danced down his arms, shining with an iridescence I’d never seen before.
The resulting blast shook the corridor.
Power and steel surged outward, a fusion of two incompatible forces that became something else entirely—a weapon forged from pure magic that struck Romulus square in the chest.
He flew backward, crashing into the far wall with a sickening crack, buried under a storm of shattered stone. Silence.
The three of us panted, choking on dust, tendrils of rampant magic twisting in the air before they slowly faded away to nothing.
Romulus did not rise, crushed beneath a cascade of stone, only his head and one arm and shoulder showing. His skull was caved in, he wasn’t breathing. Dead. Could the bastard really be dead?
“We should really cut his head off.” Finn fingered the edge of his knife as he eyed Romulus, one foot already braced on the pile of rock. “Just to be sure. One less enemy, in case he survives…that.”
“We have to go.” I urged. “We’ve wasted enough time.”
But Nikolai crouched down to get a closer look at Romulus. “He looks a bit like him, don’t you think?”
“A little.” Finn agreed, sheathing his knife. “Around the eyes. And that hooked nose, couldn’t mistake it for anyone else.”
“What are you two talking about?” Then I ground my teeth together, because it didn’t matter. “We’re wasting time. We need to be up there,” I threw my hand toward the cave in. “Trying to reach Evie, stopping whatever the fuck is happening in that room.”
“Romulus is related to Magnis. A mage.” Nikolai tipped his head to the other side. “The mage who nearly killed my mate and destroyed our clan. They share the same magic. But why is he here? What is Ravok planning?”
I grit my teeth together. “If we get the fuck out of here, you can ask him yourself, because he’s with Evangeline, andfuck knows what he’s doingto herright now.”
“We seal him in here, in case he does wake. He’s too dangerous for us to take any chances.” Nikolai decided. “Come, we’ll join the others.” One blast of fire melted a hole straight through the cave in, and I shook my head.
“You couldn’t have done that earlier?”
“Nikolai’s not exactly known for being a team player.” Finn elbowed me. “But he’s learning. A work in progress, you might say.”
I coated the steaming hot rock with my shadows, and we crawled through, one at a time. The air on the other side was cooler and infinitely more breathable, and we watched as Nikolai melted the pile into a solid sheet of magma. A tomb Romulus would never escape.
Then we raced into the darkness, to catch Riordan.
19
MALACHI
The portal pulsed like a living thing.
There was no light through that opening—only a darkness that came alive, ready to gobble me up. This was the kind of dark that lurked inside your worst memories, waited in the corners of your nightmares, whispering lies into your ear, dressed up as promises.
Everything in me rebelled against getting any closer.
Not that I could move, trapped within the blood oath, held captive by Ravok’s will as he pressed the point of that knife in so deep Evie’s red blood welled up around the tip.
I will kill him for touching her, shred him, tear his eyes out and feed them to…
“Now.” His tone was pleasant, his eyes like chips of ice. “We will try this again, and this time, you will both listen and obey. You will bend to my will, and when this is over, well, perhaps you will survive. One never knows.”
His words echoed over the quiet chamber, the still pool, once again a smooth sheet, but darkened in spots, like the sheet of pure silver, smooth enough to rival any mirror. I thrashed, trapped in a dream I couldn’t wake from. The runes above us flared and dimmed in a rhythm I recognized all too well—a heartbeat. Every second felt like a countdown.
