I snatched the few pieces of treasure I had hidden in the safe too, jamming them into my pockets greedily as the Dragon in me practically purred with happiness over being reunited with it.
“Holy shit,” Caleb breathed and I looked up, my flesh prickling at the fear in his tone as I spotted him by the window on the far side of my room which looked down onto the internal courtyard far below us.
I shoved to my feet and jogged over to him, tugging the curtains wider so that I could see down there too.
My lips fell open at the sight that awaited me there, and I could only stare on in horror as I took in the altar of coal black stone which now dominated the courtyard, a swirling vortex of shadows hanging in the air above it which pulsed and hummed with that dark power which I’d been able to sense since we got here.
But that wasn’t the worst part. My breath stalled as I looked down at the row of Fae who were lined up on their knees before the altar, their hands outstretched in what looked like an offering, their wrists cut and shadows latched to the wounds as they shuddered under the power of the dark magic.
I recognised the other Heirs’ parents and their siblings too, each of the spares latched to that vile thing by shadows which seemed to be drawing on the raw essence of their power before feeding it back out into the sky.
“Lavinia found a way to connect herself to the shadows again,” I breathed in horror as realisation dawned and the magnitude of this fucked up situation fell on me. “She must be drawing on the shadows via this, using their power to fuel the opening and allow the darkness to slip through to our realm once more.”
“Why isn’t it killing them?” Max ground out and I could tell he was on the verge of snapping and tearing straight down there to rip his father from the hold of the dark magic which contained him and freeing him from Lavinia’s power. But we all knew it wouldn’t be that simple. And who knew where the rest of their families were? There was no sign of Seth or Caleb’s fathers, and where were their other siblings? Were they even here in the manor?
“I think it is,” Seth whispered, pointing to a cloaked figure as he strode forward, his arms raised into the air while he called out praise to the Shadow Princess before descending on Caleb’s brother Hadley and angling his chin up.
Hadley’s face was written in agony and my heart hurt for him as I watched Vard forcing a vial of something into his mouth before a flash of green healing magic blazed in his palm and he pressed his hand to Hadley’s side.
“What the fuck is he doing to him?” Caleb growled, his grip tightening so hard on the window frame that a chunk of the wood shattered in his fingers beneath the force of his gifted strength.
“I think it must have been a blood replenishing potion,” Max said, frowning as he used his Siren gifts to feel for the answer. “He’s regaining strength rapidly.”
“They want to keep them alive to suffer on with this,” I growled. “They clearly need their power to channel the shadows to Lavinia and don’t want them dying.”
“What about their magic?” Seth demanded. “It isn’t endless. Once they’re burned out, then what?”
But the answer to that became clear as a Nymph strode out of a dark corner, a man clutched in his grasp who kicked and thrashed and started begging for mercy. Vard moved forward with a knife raised, cutting into the man’s arm and he screamed bloody murder as he was forced towards Hadley, the wounded arm shoved against his mouth.
Hadley tried to fight against his instincts, shaking his head and cursing in a raspy voice as he fought against the beast within him, but he was clearly in need of the magic and with the shadows latched onto his own power, he was growing frantic with the need for blood.
Vard shoved the man’s arm to his mouth again and Hadley snarled as he ripped into his flesh, drinking deeply as he recharged his magic, and the foul hold of the shadows tightened their grip on him to feed their queen.
“The Sirens are being fed with pain,” Max rumbled, pointing out movement on the other side of the courtyard where two Nymphs were torturing several Fae, their mouths parted in screams which must have been shielded by a silencing bubble because I couldn’t hear them at all.
“And they’re making my family run,” Seth said, the horror in his voice turning to rage as the ground beneath Antonia’s feet began to move under the power of an earth Elemental’s magic, creating a rolling wheel which forced her legs to move against her will, replenishing her magic as she ran beneath the moon.