Luna To My Ex Mate

Chapter 8: The Deal in the Dark

POV: Roxana

I stood in front of the tall mirror and brushed my long hair. My neck was covered in dark red marks from Magnus, last night.

I put on a high-collared blue dress to hide the marks from the vipers. If Victoria and Celeste saw them, they would laugh and call me a breeding animal. I picked up my crown from the table and placed it on my head.

A quiet knock came at my bedroom door, making me jump.

I walked over and opened it to find two young servants holding a silver tray with hot food. "Your breakfast, Luna," the first girl said, keeping her eyes on the floor.

"Who prepared this food?" I asked, keeping my voice flat and cold. I remembered what Magnus told me last night about food. I could not trust a single plate in this house.

"The head cook made it, Luna," the second girl whispered, her hands shaking. "The Alpha’s personal guard watched her cook every single part of it, and a maid also tasted it."

"Leave it on the table and go," I said, stepping back to let them in.

They placed the tray down quickly and ran out of the room like I was a monster. I sat down and ate the bread and fruit, needing to keep my body strong.

Once my plate was empty, I stood up and walked to the door. The two royal guards standing outside bowed their heads as I stepped into the hallway. "I am going to visit the dungeon to see the prisoner," I told them.

The guard on the left looked worried. "Luna, the Alpha said the dungeon is too dangerous for you," he said in a soft voice.

"I am the supreme Luna of this pack," I said, locking my eyes onto his. "I do not need permission to walk in my own house. Take me down there now."

The guard bowed his head again, too scared to argue with my new title. He led me down the stairs that led to the dungeon below the mansion.

We reached the dungeon door that Magnus had broken last night. A new, smaller door had been put in its place, guarded by two more men. "Open it," I commanded, and the guards quickly unlocked the chain.

I walked into the cellblock alone, leaving the guards outside the door. I walked to the very end of the hall where Hestia’s cell stood.

Hestia was sitting on the floor, her face bruised and her dirty hair hanging over her eyes. She did not move when she heard footsteps.

"You are still alive, I see," she said, her voice raspy and dry.

"I came to see if you are okay," I said, standing close to the bars. "I want to help you, Hestia, but you have to listen to me."

Hestia let out a sharp, angry laugh that ended in a cough. She stood up slowly, her chains clinking loudly. She walked to the bars and pressed her pale face against the pool, staring right into my eyes.

"You do not want to help me, Roxana," Hestia hissed, her voice dripping with poison. "You only came down here because you are scared. You are scared I will tell your big, scary Alpha about our past."

"I already told Magnus about us. Although I am still scared, because if you tell the elders, we both die," I whispered, looking back toward the door to make sure the guards were not listening. "This pack hates witches, Hestia. If the council finds out I practiced magic with you, they will demand my head and burn you alive, and even the Alpha won't be able to save me.."

Hestia’s eyes flashed with a wild light. "I do not care if I die, as long as I take you down with me," she said. "You sold my location to the royal guards to secure your shiny new crown, you traitor."

"I did not sell you out!" I yelled, my voice rising in anger before I quickly lowered it again. "I swear on my wolf's life, I did not know they were hunting you. I came to your cabin to find you, but the guards got there first."

Hestia stared at me, trying to see if I was lying to her. She looked at my high-collared dress and the crown on my head. "If you are telling the truth, then prove it," she said, her voice turning cold and transactional.

"How do I prove it to you?" I asked.

"Get me out of this cage," Hestia said, tapping her dirty finger against the bars.pool. "If you do not help me escape this place before the next full moon, I will scream your secrets to the Pack Elders when they come."

My heart did a painful flip in my chest. "The guards watch this door night and day," I told her. "I cannot just unlock your cage and let you walk out. Magnus would know it was me."

"Then you better find a clever way, supreme Luna," Hestia sneered, mocking my title. "You have exactly eighty-eight days to get pregnant, but I can ruin your whole life in five seconds. Get me out, or we both go to the execution block."

Before I could answer her threat, someone walked inside the dungeon hallway. I turned around and saw Magnus walking through the entrance. His dark eyes locked onto me, then shifted to Hestia.

"You are down here again, Roxana?" Magnus asked, his deep voice sending a shiver straight down my back. He walked up beside me, his dominant aura making Hestia step back into the shadows of her cell.

"I was trying to get the witch to help me, Alpha," I didn't tell a complete lie right? "I thought she might have hidden herbs in the forest that could help me prepare my body. But she is stubborn and refuses to talk."

Magnus looked at Hestia with cold, dead eyes that showed no mercy at all. "Witches are useless creatures who only know how to lie and steal," he stated flatly. "If she does not speak by tomorrow, I will have the guards hang her from the high trees."

Hestia let out a quiet gasp, her chains clinking as she shook with fear. She looked at me with wide, desperate eyes, silently begging me to save her life.

If she died tomorrow, my secret would get exposed tomorrow, and I might end up dying with her.

"Do not hang her yet, Magnus," I said quickly, grabbing his thick, scarred arm to stop him. "If she dies, we lose any chance of finding her hidden remedies. Give me some time to break her spirit myself."

Magnus looked down at my hand on his arm, then up at my face. His expression was hard as stone, totally unreadable. "You have three days, Roxana," Magnus said. "If she does not help you by then, she burns, no longer hanging.."

He took my wrist in his tight grip and pulled me away from the bars. "Come," he commanded. "The Pack Elders have just arrived at the front gates. They want to see my Luna, and we must not keep them waiting."

I looked back at Hestia one last time as Magnus dragged me out. She was staring at me from her bars, her pale face full of fear and anger. I had three days to save her life, or she would destroy mine.