Page 15 of The Daughters of Nyx

I forced myself to take another breath, pulling it into my lungs and holding it until the ringing in my ears softened to a dull thrum. As the panic faded into the back of my mind, warmth trickled into my veins, electric and powerful, pulling me deep into the darkness of my mind.

A flash of lightning crossed the abyss behind my closed eyes, illuminating a warped figure doused in crimson and violet silks. A crown of violet quartz and bone sat upon its head, a crescent moon, made of a dark, almost black metal, at its centre. Shimmering crystals followed the shape of the emblem and reflected the lightning crackling over our heads.

I should have felt fear, maybe tried to peel my eyes open and push this figure into the back of my mind. I recognised the crown it wore from my nightmares. Copper filled my mouth as I bit my tongue.

Another burst of electricity danced through my veins as the figure raised a skeletal arm in my direction. Yes, I should have felt fear, but the presence gave me a kind of ease I couldn’t explain. Like I knew it, and it knew me.

The arm dropped and my eyes flew open. Thea had her arm wrapped around me, huddled in the corner of the romance section. She continued to whisper positive things as I gasped.

“Are you okay now?” she asked, but she didn’t pull away.

I couldn’t find my voice, any words of reassurance locked behind my clenched teeth, but I nodded anyway.

How did I explain that the panic had been mostly washed away by the creature of my nightmares?

~

I fidgeted nervously with a plain, silver ring on my right hand as I spied Rowan’s dark-red hair outside theCamilla. He walked alongside the blonde, whose shy smile and kind, green eyes sparked a strange memory in the back of my mind.

Another fucking sex dream. It came to me in flashes that almost caused a migraine.

I was still suffering the effects of my panic attack; Thea had tried to warn me off my five-hour shift, but I’d needed to get away and not be inside my head. Images of the warped figure stained the back of my eyelids whenever I closed my eyes, and the crown, with its violet quartz, made unease wash through me.

And there was a part of me that needed to see one ofthemagain.

When Rowan and the blonde entered the lobby, I straightened and quickly returned to the paperwork in front of me. I tried to keep my breathing steady, but I could almost feel that strange warmth in my blood as their footsteps grew

closer. It tingled through me like electricity, somewhat like the warmth that had washed over me in the bookstore, but different. It quickened my heart beat and awakened something deep within me.

“Good morning, beautiful,” Rowan drawled. I looked up from the dry-cleaning invoices to find his face inches from my own. He smelt of coffee and something else, something totally delectable andoff limits.

My lips tightened into a polite smile. His eyes flickered between mine and my lips andoh hot damn. “Good morning, Mr. Archer. I hope you’re enjoying your stay at theCamilla.”

Beside him, the blonde snickered. “Mr. Archer is my mother,” Rowan replied easily, resting his chin on the palm of his hand. “Please, call me Rowan.”

He almost sounded desperate, and Ialmostfelt bad for him. But I wasn’t here to lose my job and act unprofessionally.

As much as I wish I weren’t stuck here.

I shook my head and laughed under my breath. “What can I do for you today?” I asked.

Rowan’s eyes darkened slightly as our gazes meet. “What time do you get off?”

The blonde elbowed him in the side and shook his head. “So unprofessional,” he said, rolling his eyes. “I’m sorry about him, he hasn’t been house trained yet.”

That deserved a giggle. Rowan wasn’t the first—and certainly wouldn’t be the last—man to hit on me while I was working. The cons of working the evening and night shifts meant I dealt with all kinds of nasty. Guys wasted, stumbling from the hotel bar, slurring their proposals of a quicky in the restaurant bathroom. Party-goers from the nightclub across

the street who managed to sneak past Moe the doorman and proposition me with a half-empty beer and whatever street drug they could find.

Even the occasional out-of-town businessman with the tan line from a wedding band, completely sober and one-hundred-percent sleazy, offering me a higher tip if I went up to his room after nine.

After a while, you’re forced to grow a thick skin. It was disturbing, but I had, unfortunately, gotten used to it.

But there was something about Rowan that made me hesitate.Brush it off with a laugh and chide him, the inner—smarter—voice told me. Usually, I could just about laugh my way out of most situations.

And those other times…

The last thing I wanted to do was use my body as the deterring factor, because most of the time, men didn’t see beyond the scope of the desk. They didn’t see the thighs of thunder or the belly. They saw big boobs and melted. They were both an asset and perhaps my greatest enemy.

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