My Hockey Alpha novel Chapter 413

A few minutes later, my neck prickled as we emerged abruptly into a massive cavern, firelight reflecting off of what looked like polished obsidian.

Far overhead, stalactites dripped onto intricate tiles spanning a dizzying distance.

This had to be an impossible buried fortress… or maybe a palace?

Suddenly, harsh unfamiliar words rang out. Masked guards crossed spears to block our path, their ax blades unwaveringly targeting our hearts. Our guide pleaded desperately in lilting phrases that I couldn’t understand.

Apparently we were on thin ice.

Luke pushed me partly behind him as the man spoke to the guards. I couldn’t make out what he was saying, but he was gesticulating wildly and speaking frantically, and kept pointing at my belly.

At first, the guards’ expressions remained impassive. But then, after an agonizing few moments, they finally stepped back. Our guide visibly relaxed his shoulders,motioning for us to follow him again.

But this time, he spoke in a hushed whisper: “Hurry!”

Luke and I raced to match pace with the strange man down endless obsidian passages… I gradually made out the swell of noise-raucous screams and inhuman roars that raised the hair on my nape.

“We’re close,” the man said. “Hurry, hurry!”

Before Luke and I could collect our bearings, the man broke into a run. Luke and I followed suit, sprintling recklessly around countless corners until stumbling through an archway into sudden shocking carnage.

Because there, across an arena slick with dark gore, swayed Mila in her half open gown.. hovering in front of my battered husband. My breath caught in my throat when I saw him. He was spattered in vivid crimson, silver ropes circled around his wrists and neck as he kneeled in front of her.

Nearby lay a mutilated corpse, vacant eyes eternally staring at nothing.

And up above, a curious crowd looked on. An invisible icy hand clenched my chest. What had happened here?

“Mila!” our guide bellowed. Everything froze.

Mila whirled a round, surprise written across her face. The surprise, upon seeing me, quickly melted into a pure and unbridled rage. Enzo’s head lifted slowly-but his once-burning eyes were empty, sending ice shooting down my spine.

What had she done to him? What was this carnage?

“How dare you interfere!” Mila spat. Emerald daggers speared us each in turn. “Guards!”

Suddenly, armored boots clinked across the floor. The man shouted something in that language again, his hands waving wildly. Mila stared at him with wide eyes, her irises blood red and her pupils stretched into lizardlike slits. She stared like that for a while.

Just as the guards were clamping their hands around mine and Luke’s wrists, the man pointed-straight at my belly.

Mila’s face fell.

In an instant, her hand raised and the guards froze. Luke shuffled closer to me, his arm looping protectively around me as his free hand began to spark with electricity. Mila just stood there, hand raised still, as her snakelike eyes darted back and forth between me and Enzo, who was still out of it.

“Very well, then,” she finally said after what felt like an impossibly long time.

*I will consider it.”

With that, she lowered her hands. I let out a breath I didn’t realize I had been holding, but it seemed it was futile; the guards clamped their hands around me. I screamed, and Luke shouted obscenities, and Enzo was hauled to his feet.

My eyes widened as I climbed to my own feet. “Fight to the death?” | murmured.

Enzo nodded and walked over to the back wall of his cage, the one wall where there was stone instead of silver. “Some sort of profane ritual,” he rasped. “Fuck, I don’t know. Like I said, she’s crazy. Crazier than Selena and the Luna and all the others combined.”

His words made my stomach sink. Luke and I exchanged worried glances again, and out of instinct, I found myself holding my belly as if that could somehow protect the baby inside.

“The man that brought us here,” I said, swallowing. “He said that she might see reason. Something to do with our baby.. Whatever it is, maybe we can use it to our advantage.”

Enzo scoffed again. “Yeah. Good luck with that.” he said quietly. I love you guys for coming for me, but. you’ve risked way too much by coming here.”

“Losing you risked far more,”I said, taking a tentative step forward. “Tell us everything you know, Enzo. Everything that happened. There has to be something we can do.”

Enzo took a deep, shuddering breath before finally speaking. Gradually. I managed to pry free the full nightmare that my husband had endured since he had gotten here-Mila pretending to be remorseful and apologetic, plying him with drinks, a sudden and unexpected hug…

“The next thing I knew,” he muttered,”I was waking up in the hotel room with these things around my wrists.” He held up one of his wrists, the silver rope glimmering in the dim light. “And then she opened a portal and brought me here. Turns out, she’s a goddamn Dragon shifter. The last of her kind.” Luke drew in a sharp inhale. “That explains everything,” he whispered. ” Dragon shifters are one of the most ancient species of shifters. They possess elder magic that was thought to have been extinct for centuries.”

“That’s why she opened a portal so easily,” i interjected. “So she can do it anywhere, regardless of how thin the veil is?”

“Seems like it,” Luke replied with a solemn nod. “That’s only scratching the surface of it. All of the silver, too; her people were known for their mining capabilities. They were the first to discover that silver is basically a werewolf’s kryptonite.*

“That explains why she’s got so much of it.” I shivered, drawing my arms closer around me. We were powerless here; at least, Enzo and I were. Luke wasn’t sensitive to silver like we were, but even with his own powers he didn’t stand a chance against the guards and the army that Mila had behind her.

Enzo shuddered, fIt’s not just that,” he said. “She claims that my blood contains traces of dragon DNA, She seems to be under the impression that Fim fated to help her reinstate her bloodline, It’s madness.”