The Alpha's Unclaimed Mate novel Chapter 120

Chapter 120: Boo, Little Queen

Serena woke up in a cell.

Or at least she thought she did.

The walls were damp stone, slick with moisture and something darker. The air was thick with the smell of iron and rot. A single torch flickered on the far wall, casting shadows that danced.

Fin Shadowclaw hung from the ceiling by his wrists, iron chains biting deep enough to show raw flesh beneath. His head lolled forward, dark hair matted with blood. His shirt had been torn away, and his torso was a map of wounds, old and new, some still weeping.

But the worst was the stab wound in his side, still seeping crimson.

"Fin!" Serena ran to him. "Fin, can you hear me?"

He didn’t respond. His eyes were closed, and his breathing was shallow and labored.

She reached for him, but her hands passed through his body like smoke.

Horror clawed up her throat.

She turned, searching the cell for something, anything, and that’s when she saw him.

Hyran hung from chains on the opposite wall.

His face was barely recognizable beneath the swelling and the blood. His robes were shredded, and dark bruises ringed his throat like a collar. He was unconscious, his body limp, his breathing so faint she could barely see his chest rise.

"No." The word came out broken. "No, no, no."

Serena looked down at her hands. They were solid. Real.

She fabricated a dagger and dragged it across her palm. Blood welled up immediately, bright and gold.

The odds of this actually working were low, considering she couldn’t touch him. But she was going to try.

She squeezed blood from her hand onto him. To her relief, it didn’t fall through him like air. Instead, her blood landed like gold paint on his wound.

For a moment, nothing happened, and her stomach dropped, because if this place had different rules, if her blood didn’t work here, she had nothing else.

Then she saw her blood sink into his flesh like water into parched earth.

She let out a breath she didn’t realize she’d been holding, and watched his wounds close.

The worst stab wound took the longest. After a minute, finally, its edges knitted together.

Fin’s eyes flew open.

He looked down at his side, at the wound that was healing itself, and his brow furrowed in confusion.

His gaze snapped across the cell, sharp even through the pain, scanning every corner.

Then he went still and his nostrils flared.

His head turned slowly, like a predator locking onto something it couldn’t see. He inhaled again, deeper, and his expression shifted from confusion to recognition.

"Serena?" His voice broke on her name, rough and desperate, and the sound of it split her open.

She was right in front of him. Close enough to count his lashes. And he was staring through her.

"What the..." His voice was hoarse and cracked from disuse or screaming or both. He pulled against the chains, turning his head, still tracking her scent. "I can smell you. Where are you?"

She tried to touch his face. Her fingers passed through him like air, and the absence of him tore a sound from her chest she didn’t recognize.

"I’m here," she whispered, eyes reddening. "But you can’t hear me."

She took a steadying breath and crossed to Hyran, who was in worse shape. She squeezed her bloody palm, gold dripping on the worst of his wounds. A gash across his ribs that had gone deep enough to show bone.

Her blood sank into him the same way it had with Fin. But it was slower. His body resisted it longer, the damage deeper, and she watched the bone disappear beneath new muscle before the skin finally knit shut over it. .

Hyran stirred, color returning to his ashen face. His eyes opened slowly, unfocused and glazed with pain.

He saw Fin watching him from across the cell.

"Shadowclaw?" Hyran’s voice was a rasp. "What..."

"Tell me she’s not here," Fin rasped.

"She’s not here. You are imagining her again," Hyran said. But there was a note in his voice that didn’t quite commit to the lie.

Fin opened his mouth to object, but at that moment, their cell door groaned open.

She scanned the dimness of the room, her heart stopping as a silhouette at the foot of the bed sharpened into focus.

The High Emperor of Orosia looked exactly like he had no business being in her bedroom at this hour, which, based on the faint amusement on his face, was precisely the point.

He stood with his hands clasped behind his back, examining her the way someone might examine a particularly interesting specimen pinned under glass.

"Boo," he said.

It would have been scary, but Serena was expecting him to do something like that. So, she ignored him, closing her eyes, trying to go back to sleep.

He’s not real. Just my imagination or something fucked.

She reminded herself.

"Riveting performance," the High Emperor said, circling the bed with the casual authority of someone who owned every room he entered. "Truly. The way you’re lying there, pretending the most powerful being in all continents isn’t three feet from your face. Remarkable commitment."

Serena lay there for another minute, ignoring the comments. She was not about to have a conversation with a hallucination while lying next to her mate in a silk chemise.

"You know, most people scream. I appreciate the variety," he said, sitting on the bed now. Making himself right at home.

He continued talking. Something about the futility of mortal denial and the inevitability of his will. Or possibly he was critiquing the décor. Serena wasn’t paying close enough attention to tell the difference.

She rolled her eyes.

Fine. If she was losing her mind, then so be it. But she wasn’t going to lie in the dark and wait for answers to come to her.

She gently slid out of Dex’s arms, careful to not wake him. She pulled on boots and her cloak and left the room, headed for the library.

The High Emperor kept pace beside her, his footsteps making no sound on the stone.

"The library," he said, and something in his voice sharpened. "Interesting choice. Tell me, little queen. What exactly do you think you’ll find there?"

She didn’t answer him.

His smile widened.

"I’m already in your head. There’s no hiding from me."