“Ivar,” she said softly, her voice full of warning. I turned my gaze toward her, trying to discern if she knew him too.
“Dyna, you know what we have to do. The Ghost would expect us to return her to my brother, especially if he has been allowed to claim her as his,” Ivar continued, looking at Dyna with a sense of expectation that revealed that they both knew each other quite well.
“Wait,” I whispered. “Are you both members of the Brotherhood?”
Dyna’s eyes flicked to mine, her lips a tense line of anxiety. She didn’t answer, but she didn’t have to because her knowing gaze said it all.
“What branch of the Brotherhood does Vikar lead, Ivar?” she asked carefully.
I didn’t say anything at all because I wanted to know if he recognized the alpha that had claimed me as his, the one that I missed so much that it hurt my soul.
“Vikar is the Sage of Oslin. I served him for a long time until I was captured by the Cult. They never suspected my identity however because no one trusts the ravings of a madman,” he smirked. He moved even closer and I began to study the resemblance between the two men even more closely. His cheekbones were just as strong as my alpha’s. The ridge along his brother’s nose was identical and the way he lifted an eyebrow to wait for Dyna to answer was just the same as Vikar’s. I thought he appeared younger, but it was difficult to tell in the light of the dim lantern.
Dyna swallowed heavily.
“If she stays here, they will kill her,” she murmured quietly.
“I know. The Cult has no use for a bonded omega. To them, she is worthless, but to us and Vikar, she is everything,” he replied. His assessment of the Cult sounded cold, but I knew he was right. My father wouldn’t be able to sell me. A claimed om
ega was useless to the Cult and once my father found out what he wanted to know, I would be as good as dead. As far as I knew, he’d already decided to leave me here to die.
“We need to get her out of here,” Ivar pressed.
“They’ve taken my daughter. We can’t leave without her,” I sobbed.
Ivar said nothing. In silence, he reached up and gripped the chains that held me captive. He ran his fingers along the metal loops and finally cleared his throat.
“We will find her. Right now, though, we need to return you to your alpha. Then we will put every single resource that the Brotherhood has to offer into finding and rescuing your daughter,” he answered. “I promise you that.”
I stared at him for a long while.
“How long have you been here?” I asked.
“Two months,” he replied.
“Why are you here? What did you do to anger the Cult?” I continued, unable to quell my curiosity.
“I was placed here by the Ghost. He told me that the gods foretold the capture of a special omega, one that was destined to be the beginning of the end of the evil that has tarnished this world for centuries. The fates brought me here for you, Luna. The Ghost gave me a directive. I was directed to steal something at the right time in front of the right people. As punishment for my crimes, I was sentenced to years of imprisonment, but I’ve learned the layout down here since then, and have been looking for that fated omega ever since. The Cult never bound me as they did you because they underestimated me as a lunatic. When I saw them come with you, I wasn’t sure you were the one I was looking for until now. The moment you said my brother’s name, I knew,” he replied. “Now, all three of us are going to escape the clutches of the Cult. Together, as an alpha, a beta, and an omega.”
He lurched the chains upward and I cried out as the metal cut into my wrists for a brutal instant before it relaxed entirely. The metal chains disintegrated into a cloud of rust and he chuckled softly under his breath.
“The Cult thinks they can hold anyone down here in these forgotten dungeons, but they never think to check how much water and metal don’t mix. It’s strong enough to keep a malnourished omega at bay, but these chains aren’t designed to hold an alpha in his peak form,” he explained.
“What are we going to do now?” Dyna asked quietly.
“I’m going to show you the way out. I’ve been down here in the darkness for a long time. There aren’t any guards posted down here, only at the entrance, because they are overconfident and never think to check on what occurs in the dark depths of their very own dungeons,” he continued.
“How are we going to get by them?” Dyna responded.
“We aren’t. We’re going to escape in a way they would never expect. Before Luna was captured, I spent weeks exploring the depths of these dungeons.” He paused and captured a droplet of water on his fingertip, bringing it in front of me so that I had no choice but to focus on it. “You see, the moisture that’s been dripping from above you has to find a way out. Water has a way of carving through stone and there is nothing that will stop it. The passage of time reveals just how true that is. Beneath Ravenrath and all through the bedrock surrounding us, there are rivers that have been cutting through stone for centuries and in some of the long-abandoned cells even deeper in this dungeon, there are tunnels leading into underground caves that they don’t even know exist,” he explained.
“Why didn’t you let me out sooner?” I asked impatiently, rubbing the skin around my wrists. He knelt down and picked up a rock off the floor. Before I had time to react, he smacked it against the clasp of the cuff and it snapped open, releasing my wrist from captivity. He did the same with the other and I couldn’t hide my sigh of relief at finally being free.
“I had to make sure you were the right omega and that you have nothing to hide,” he responded coldly. “I know enough now. You have nothing to do with the Cult. You’re a victim of their cruelty and to know your own father sold you into it is most disgusting of all. I also wanted to ensure that they wouldn’t come back for you and since they’ve sent Dyna in your father’s place, it means that they have no intention of dealing with you any time soon. Something else more important has likely taken precedence. That, or they had already decided to let you die.”
Dyna cleared her throat, as if she knew exactly what he was talking about.
“There’s whispers of war,” she said softly. Her fingers trembled and she tightened them into fists so hard that her knuckles turned white. Ivar stared at her for a long moment in silence and an anxious feeling arose in the pit of my belly. Something was happening. Something grand and so incredibly dangerous that it would change the world we live in forever.