Page 22 of The Daughters of Nyx

Closing my eyes, I sucked in a sharp, cooling breath.It’s just coffee. Adrian is right. I need to calm down. Maeve wouldn’t have given me this job if she hadn’t believed in what I’d said. Because I knew I was right: we couldn’t expect Ivy to leave with us without gaining some kind of trust.

If I could create a bridge between us and her, then I had to try.

The sound of my heart slowed, but not because I was finally getting over my nerves. A low groan passed my lips as a vision shuddered through me.

It was almost like stepping outside of my body; my eyes rolled back into my skull, head flying back so I was staring up at the ceiling. The world around me shifted, colours taking on a greyish hue, the bathroom slipping away to reveal a cold, dark room.

A scream shattered through the darkness, sending shivers down my spine. Pain cracked her voice, sobs wracking her body. I stiffened as she appeared, chained to a stone wall, body wrapped around itself. Blood splattered the concrete and her skin.

Dark hair, matted and wet, created a cage around her shivering body, but the warmth that filled my veins, that lifted the hairs on my arms and neck, gave away who was huddled in front of me.

My jaw clenched. Anger—fury—burned through me as she whimpered, her pleas broken by sobs. I took a step. There was nothing I could physically do—there never was—but fuck it, Itried.

I wanted to help her, to rip her from this darkness and carry her away.

A familiar magic washed over me, and I stiffened. She looked up then, and I noticed three dark lines that cut from her right brow down her cheek. My heart almost stopped in my chest. A fuckingcollarheld her back, chain attached to the

wall. And the bastard behind me, the one holding her there,chuckled.

Ivy made another whimpering sound, and before I could move, I was ripped away from the vision. The darkness came crashing down, enveloping me in its familiar embrace, before spitting me back out in the damned bathroom of our hotel room.

The first breath I took wheezed through me, harsh in my own ears. My head snapped back down and it took a moment for my vision to clear, and when it did, I was faced with myself in the mirror. Sweat lined my brow and upper lip, and redness blossomed along the lines of my cheekbones before spreading down my neck. Other than the flush, my skin was clammy. As I went to run a hand through my hair, my fingers trembled.

I need to tell Maeve. I need to call my mother.

Pushing away from the sink, I stumbled from the bathroom, throwing the door open. Adrian looked up from his phone, the smile once plastered across his lips slipping from his face. How many times had he been witness to one of my visions?

Already, a migraine pounded at my skull, dark spots dancing in the corner of my eyes. I fell onto the bed and tried to calm my breathing, but it felt like glass, each inhale crackling in my chest.

Adrian jumped from his bed and knelt on the floor beside me. “Ro? What happened? What did you see?”

I closed my eyes; her scream still echoed in my ears. “Get. Maeve.”

~

The boss paced in front of me, running a hand over her dark hair, fingers catching on the streak of silver running through the black curls. Her piercing blue eyes hadn’t landed on me since I told her about my vision.

“Tell me again.Exactlywhat you saw,” she said, pausing briefly to meet my stare.

“If I do, I won’t make my date,” I replied through gritted teeth. Like going will do any good, now. I could barely stay awake. Visions tended to drain a hell of a lot of energy. I wasn’t nearly as strong as my mother. Usually, mine didn’t last longer than a couple of seconds. A flash of a scene, like a photograph, or maybe a couple of words. Hell, a prophecy, if I was lucky.

But nothing likethat. Nothing likethathad ever happened to me before.

Maeve paused, her eyes narrowed. “Adrian. You’ll go. Tell Ivy he has a migraine, asked you to tell her himself. See if you can still sit down with her. Get her talking. Make it up to her.”

My best friend looked between me and our team leader, uncertainty playing in his sharp, green eyes. Usually, he’d be the one I go to with this shit. He was usually the one to be there when I woke up from a vision-induced headache.

“Go,” I said, closing my eyes and dropping my head. “Need to make sure she’s okay.”

Adrian squeezed my forearm before rising. “I’ll change. I don’t know how she’ll feel about this.”

“Now more than ever, we need to be keeping an eye on her,” Maeve replied. “We need to start watches, someone

always around her. We’ll rotate. I don’t want her alone. Let’s not alert her to anything, alright?”

Adrian muttered something before heading into the bathroom. Finally, I looked up, finding both Wolfy and Maeve watching me. With a sigh, I started recounting the vision again, taking myself back into that space. “I’m in a cold, dark room. Stone—concrete, I think. The first thing I hear is her scream. When I enter, she’s curled into a ball, half naked, chained to the wall. Then who ever has her comes into the room—I can’t see them, but—” I stopped and shook my head.

“What?” Wolfy asked, pushing off the wall. “What aren’t you telling us?”

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