Page 47 of The Daughters of Nyx

“Ugh.” I rolled over and sat up, rubbing my eyes groggily. Had I cried in my sleep? Yes. The overwhelming information had, in fact, threatened to send me into a minor panic attack. And once the tears had started, they hadn’t wanted to stop.

Thea scooted closer, keeping an eye on the door. “What do we do?”

My stomach grumbled, and the smell of coffee was justtootempting. “We can’t stay in here all day, Thea. Despite how much I want to,” I muttered.

“They have coffee.” She narrowed her eyes, then sucked in a deep breath. “And…breakfast burritos?”

At that, I perked up. “I mean, I might be willing to hear them out if they got us food.”

My friend slapped my thigh, shaking her head. “Yeah, okay. It helps that they aren’t bad looking. And they saved your life, so that gives them some brownie points.”

“Oh, you should make brownies,” I replied, ignoring everything else. My stomach did a little twist at her admission, and I wasn’t entirely sure why.

Thea nodded as if she agreed, but chewed her lip in contemplation. “Do youreallybelieve everything they’re saying?”

I shrugged and started playing with my nails. “I believe there is magic. I saw it for myself last night and I can’t deny it. But the Queen stuff?” I huffed and winced as I pulled off a piece of skin by my nail, grimacing as blood beaded against my skin. Thea grabbed my hand and glared. “I honestly don’t know. They mentioned dreams, said that would be the beginning of my power.”

“Everyone has dreams,” Thea pointed out. “Well, almost everyone.”

“But how do you explain me dreaming of them months before ever seeing them? Or the terrible nightmares?”

“They have magic, so they could have planted them?” Her hand tightened around mine. “Honestly, I don’t know. What else is meant to happen?”

The soft murmur of voices floated through the door, reminding me that we were not alone inside the apartment. I found some comfort in the fact that no one had burst into my room—yet—and that Thea and I could have this conversation.

“Maeve said my magic should start manifesting soon. That I’ll need…matesto help me contain it.”

Thea made a face. “Mates, as in,plural? Like in those werewolf romance books?”

I nodded. “Fated mates. Nyx supposedlycreatedthem for me before I was born. Apparently, I need to have three for my power tonotbe a danger. That’s why they want me to go with them to the heart of the supernatural world.”

My friend shuddered. “This makes no fucking sense. Also, Nyx? Isn’t she, like, a Greek God or something? Does that mean Zeus is real?”

“I don’t know,” I replied with a shrug. “I mean, I don’t think so?”

Thea didn’t respond straight away. Her lips twisted down in a pursed frown, brows furrowing as she continued to hold my hand. “We need them to prove it in some way,” she whispered finally, eyes flickering up to meet mine. “It’s not enough for them tosayyou’re meant to be Queen. They need to do something that proves it.”

I nodded. “I just don’t know what they could do for me to believe it, unless I heard it from the current Queen herself.”

Thea made a noise in the back of her throat. “Okay, yeah, that would be a good way to prove it…” she muttered, then sighed. “I’m coffee deprived and hungry. Ready to brave the vamps?”

I rolled my eyes. “Only Maeve is a vampire. Rowan and Adrian aremages,and Elias is a werewolf.”

“Oooh.” Climbing off the bed, my friend wagged her eyebrows. “Kinky.”

Before I could hiss at her to behave, she stole a pair of my leggings and threw them on. Actually, they might have been a pair that I had stolen from her. But before I had a chance to get out of the bed, she threw the door open and grinned over her shoulder at me.

Instead of giving her a response, I flopped back into the bed with another groan. Today was a day that wouldn’t end well—that much I was certain of.

“Good morning, strange people who do not live here,” Thea greeted, strolling out into the living room. “Please tell me there is coffee and burritos for those of us that actually pay rent.”

There was the sound of shuffling, a squeak of happiness, and the groaning of our couch as Thea threw herself down onto it. “They have provided necessary sustenance,” she called out, forcing me to sit up and look at her. In her hands, she held up a burrito still wrapped in foil, and a cup of coffee from a coffee cart down the street.

Standing across from her, Elias watched me carefully, his strong arms crossed over his chest. The same strong arms that had held me last night, and carried me all the way back to the apartment from the hotel. My cheeks flushed from the memory of burrowing my face into his chest, of breathing in his scent—pine and smoke, with a hint of whiskey—which still clung to the shirt I’d thrown into the corner of my room.

I looked away quickly. Now that Iwasn’tshaking over being attacked, I could appreciate how attractive it was to know thereweresome men capable of carrying a girl my size. Rare and few could handle us, and Elias was one of the rare ones.

Back in your corner, Horny Ivy.

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