Page 30 of The Daughters of Nyx

I swallowed hard. “I should go, see if I can help with the heater.”

Ivy smiled and backed into her apartment. “Good luck. But you should probably text Franny. This place might be falling apart, but she knows how to keep it afloat.” She went to turn, but paused, hand hovering over the door handle. “And keep an eye on your windowsills. There’s a ledge outside

the window that stray cats have been climbing, and they get kind of violent at night.”

I frowned. “What do you mean?”

She shrugged, her lips pursed. “My windowsill is all scratched up from them. Completely destroyed the paint.”

Stiffening, I tried to smile, but it felt forced. A sinking feeling in my gut told me it wasn’t cats. “Well, once we’re settled in, I’d be happy to touch it up for you.”

Her frown disappeared as she shook her head. “Oh, don’t worry about it. I’ll let Franny know. It’ll be in animal control’s hands by the end of the week.” Finally, I stepped out of the doorway, and watched as her door closed. “I really did have fun today, Adrian.”

Nodding, I stepped back. “So did I.”

The door clicked shut, as did the two locks. I sighed, worry twisting my gut, and quickly whispered a reinforcement under my breath, focusing on the locks so they wouldn’t break under any force—physical or magical.

Next, I sent my magic outwards and let it flow over her apartment. Closing my eyes, I released a breath, and felt for the darker magic I suspected might linger at her windows. I prayed to Nyx I would find nothing, but…

Right where Ivy told me it would be was the faint trace of demonic magic. Hellhounds, notoriously bad tempered, and easily controlled by the magic of their masters—demons, or their offspring.

I spread a protection spell over the rest of the apartment as Elias returned. “I do believe most women would find that creepy,” he said, a hint of amusement in his deep voice.

“Demons were here,” I replied quietly. “I’ve set up a protection spell and reinforced her locks.”

When I turned, I found Elias’s eyes darkening, and the wolf threatening to rip free.

Interesting.

I pushed him into the apartment and locked the door behind us. The furnishings were sparse, but we didn’t need much; a couple of plain, brown boxes spilled out of the two bedrooms and into the living room, a pull out couch still covered in plastic, two single beds set up dormitory style in each room, designed only for sleep and nothing else.

Elias breathed in deeply as his eyes turned black. “I can smell the demons. Powerful magic.”

“Anything you recognise?” I asked.

He shook his head, releasing a breath slowly. “No. But when Archer gets here, he’ll need to assess the magical signature and see if it’s one he recognises. If it’s the same one from his vision.”

“Right.” Worry twisted in my gut, and my eyes flickered to the door. Ro’s vision played in the back of my mind as I helped Elias with warding the rest of the apartment, adding protections to not only it, but the rest of the building.

Seer Sable had been right to worry. There was someone else looking for Ivy. But why would they go against Nyx and her rulings so brazenly? What was this person’s purpose in stalking the next Queen? Hurting her?

I shook my head, the final ward in place. My mother hadn’t been totally forthcoming with this mission, and I was beginning to see why. Did she have an idea of who was behind this? And if so, why wasn’t she telling us? Tellingme?

The door across the hall opened and closed, and voices filtered across the hallway. A smile tipped my lips as Ivy’s face appeared in my mind. Another thing I wasn’t entirely sure about. Why was she making me feel this way? How?

The more I let the silence grow between Elias and I, the more the questions seemed to grow. And with those questions came no answers.

Once the apartment was ready, we called Maeve and Ro, letting them know everything was ready. They said they’d meet us there with the rest of our crap from the hotel, and that we’d be formally checked out in the morning. We’d given Maeve a short report on what we suspected, and she ordered us to stay put.

I slipped into one of the bedrooms claimed for Ro and I and fell onto the bare mattress closest to the door. I almost considered calling my mother and asking her what was going on, but instead, I pulled out my phone and sent Ivy a quick text.

ME:hope the cats don’t wake you up tonight

I waited with bated breath as a text bubble appeared; my heart sang as her reply appeared.

IVY:we’ve planned for that. Aluminium foil. Cats HATE it.

IVY:at least I think they do. Thea’s idea. I’ll update you.

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