The Wild Moon by Riley Storm
Chapter Fifty
There was no dreamland visit this time.
One moment I was awake, kneeling over Vir’s unconscious body, and the next, I was shooting back to awareness fueled by a headache vicious enough to give a god pause.
“You know,” I growled through the anger rising in me. “I am getting really sick and tired of being knocked out. Do you people not realize that brain damage is a thing?”
When there was no response, I tried to sit up. My head was on fire, and I was nearly blinking back tears. I could feel Johnathan around somewhere. It was his father, Lars, who had appeared in the tunnel out of nowhere, but my Soulbond pulsed with my mate’s nearness. They were both close.
Closer than I thought.
I got halfway up into a sitting position before I could go no farther, the bonds on my chest and wrists holding me down. I thrashed and tried to get free, but I couldn’t. Grunting, I strained, trying to pull my wrists apart, using all my shifter strength.
“Don’t bother,” a familiar voice said from nearby in low tones. “You won’t rip them.”
“Vir?” I called.
“Yes. They’re silver bonds. Your strength means nothing to them.”
I groaned, lying back down on the cold stone, using its cool touch to soothe my aching head. My vision was returning now, and it dropped into the lowlights. There was light emanating from somewhere, but I couldn’t see from what. Still, it allowed me to look over and see Vir.
He was trussed up on top of a slab of stone. Glancing down at myself, I could see I was likely on a similar stone, pedestal-like spot.
“Where are we?” I asked. “Any ideas?”
An unfamiliar sensation fluttered through my chest. I glanced to my left, but no one was there.
But something is, I realized. That was the direction I was being pulled in. The one with its purple power. In my imagination at least.
Whatever it was, it was close by now.
“We’re in Shuldar,” Vir said. “The true Shuldar.”
“What? What do you mean? I found Shuldar,” I said. “I ran down a street, I know it. You’re telling me that wasn’t it?”
“It was,” Vir said. “In a way. But the true Shuldar resided below the surface. Only a few places were aboveground.”
“Oh.” I felt slightly cheated. “So, where I came through the barrier?”
“That was in my temple.”
I worked my jaw a few times. “Right. Of course you have a temple. You’re a god and all that.”
I groaned in pain as my Soulbond kicked it up a notch.
“He’s close,” I said. “I can feel it. I can feel both of them. Whatever that other thing is, Vir, it’s close. I can barely concentrate. Oh, god, it hurts so much.”
Tears were falling down my face now, and I couldn’t wipe them. They ran down my temples and into my hair as I stared up at the ceiling.
“You must hold on, Dani,” Vir urged.
“I’m trying,” I whispered. “I don’t know how much longer I can hang on.”
Vir was silent while I fought my mental battle. The thundering in my temples went on and on, a ceaseless assault on senses. My stomach was upset, threatening to be sick, though I hadn’t eaten in who knew how long at that point. My limbs were practically shaking. I wanted to claw my eyes out.
Anything that would stop the hurt. Anything. I even considered giving in. Accepting Johnathan. I could do it. I could. It would be sad, but anything was better than the pain. By now, I swore I could feel each individual step as he grew closer, the drums hammering in time with his footsteps, or so it felt.
“He’s close,” I heard myself say. “Close to…wherever we are.”
“We’re in the temple of Terrano,” Vir supplied helpfully. “One of many scattered throughout the city.”
I went still, a cold fear sweeping over me.
“Terrano? You’re sure?” I asked.
There was no reply.
“Of course, you’re sure. God. He was your brother, I guess. Of course you’d know. Right. Good. Okay. Um, correct me if I’m wrong, but wasn’t Terrano the god of rituals? I didn’t know much about him, but I’m pretty sure I’m right about that.”
“Yes,” Vir said.
We weren’t on pedestals then. Rather, we were on altars.
Sacrificial alters.
They stood in the center of the rectangular room. A trough ran between them, up past my head, where it dropped into a deep depression in the ground. A bowl, I realized, to collect the blood.
Above the bowl was a raised altar with two doorways set into the wall behind it. Wrenching my head around, I spied stone slabs set in rows leading back to a large, double-wide doorway that must be the entrance for the audience. The doors above my head would have been where the priests entered.
The walls were adorned with carvings, but my eyes hurt too badly from the pounding of the Soulbond to focus on them in any detail. But I could see enough. Vir was right. We were in the ritual room. Probably.
“Okay, that could just be a coincidence, right?”
“Could be,” Vir agreed, but he didn’t sound positive.
“Shit. What can you tell me about his rituals?” I asked, not sure I wanted to know.
“The more blood, the stronger the ritual you could enact,” Vir said, somewhat disgusted. “Terrano would bless people like that. A sacrifice would garner special attention.”
“Crap. What ritual do you think they’re after?”
“I don’t know,” Vir said. “But I don’t particularly want to find out.”
“Me neither,” I said, my heart racing as fast as the pounding in my head. “We need to get out of here. Like now.”
Vir said something, but my head chose that moment to go into overdrive. I thrashed against the bonds, a thin wail escaping my tightly clenched teeth. The Soulbond. It was coming. It was coming!
“Can you break us free?” I struggled to say, my words broken and choppy. I was nearly out of time.
“No,” Vir said. “They were smart and prepared. Silver works on gods as well. I am as helpless as you.”
A third voice broke in. “Guess it’s a good thing for your grumpy, old godly ass, then, that she isn’t helpless, isn’t it?”
My head turned so fast my muscles locked up on me.
“Aaron?” I gasped.
