Page 78 of The Daughters of Nyx

eyes wide, as her hard eyes fell on the redness of my cheek. “Holy shit. When the call came through, I didn’t think—”

I shook my head. “Where—Rowan?”

Thea frowned, and her gaze snapped to the door, then to the rest of the alley. “I haven’t seen him since we got here.”

Frustrated tears burned behind my eyes as she continued, “Tommy said we could both take off since it’s quiet. I’ll try Rowan’s cell.”

As she pulled out her phone, my thoughts consumed me. Had something happened? Had hellhounds attacked again? Was he out here, bleeding out somewhere, and I was too panicked to notice? Had someone grabbed him inside the hotel and carted him off to Gods know where?

Fear and something else coursed through my veins. Something that felt like electricity, but not.Lightning, something whispered in my mind. It felt like lightning. I tasted a storm on my tongue, smelt the crackle of power before it exploded around me.

I screamed and fell to the cold cement. Thea shouted something and tried touching me again, but she cursed and from the corner of my eye, I watched as she stumbled back. Her eyes, which were always a mix between blue and green that reminded me of the ocean, flashed gold.

Shadows danced at the edges of my vision, some looking more like gnarled beasts, while others resembled people with swords.

Thea shouted again, her voice muffled in my ears. She fell, tumbling to the asphalt in a heap.

But I couldn’t speak. No words were forming on the tip of my tongue. The shadows descended, and I was plunged into cold darkness.

28

ROWAN

PAIN unlike anything I’d felt beforescreamed through me. The dagger that had been plunged into my gut burned, but the poison it had been dipped in—because there was no doubt whatever bastard was chasing Ivywoulduse poison to incapacitate me—was being burnt out of me.

Fire replaced my blood as it ran through my veins, disabling the poison before it reached my heart. I pulled the knife from my stomach as my eyes focused on the darkness around me. The smell of garbage and shit cloyed my nose.

So, I’m still in the fucking alley. I slowly climbed to my feet, swaying as the poison’s effects almost took me to the hard cement again.

My eyes squeezed shut, and dark, doe-like eyes appeared, fear darkening the chocolate of her irises.Ivy.

My cell was smashed to pieces, but I didn’t need that to alert Adrian. A rune tattooed on the inside of my wrist activated after several laboured breaths, warm to the touch and glowed with what little magic I had to spare.

I pulled my lips into a thin line as I stumbled out of the alley. Over the stench of garbage, blood met my nose. Ivy’s sweet perfume was hidden within the assaulting scents, and like a buried memory, I could hear her scream echoing in my ears.

No, no, NO!I ground my teeth together as I collapsed to the cement, my heart a shattered creature in my chest. My magic, although weak, reached out for her, searching, but it didn’t get far.

I wasn’t sure how long it took for the others to arrive. Minutes, hours…time was sluggish as I stared at the small splatter of her blood.

My head was ripped back, and Elias, fury written across his hard features, filled my vision. But it wasn’t Elias in control—it was the wolf.

“Where is she?” he—it?—growled, throwing me to the ground.

Maeve and Adrian were there a moment later, the former throwing the wolf back with a strength only a vamp could have, the latter kneeling beside me. Adrian’s eyes fell on the blood still soaking the front of my shirt, the cotton almost dry.

I must have been out for a while, I thought, frowning.

“What happened?” Adrian asked quietly, jaw clenching.

I opened my mouth to respond, but the words caught in the back of my throat. I wasn’t even sure what had happened.

One moment, I was in the staff hallway, keeping an eye on Ivy. She’d looked bored out of her mind, so I’d gone into the staffroom to grab her a coffee. Her manager hadn’t even noticed me.

Then that familiar magic, mixed with something else, had hit me, and I was no longer in the rotting room. Suddenly, I was hidden in the darkness of the alley, and through the haze of pain caused by the poison, I’d heard her cry.

Darkness had pulled me under, then nothing.

I shook my head. “They came for her,” I finally mustered. “Got to me first. I don’t—I don’t know what else happened.”

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