Page 92 of The Bonds of Nyx

I swore under my breath. I called upon my own magic from the darker courts of Unseelie. It lived beneath my skin and begged for release, somehow louder than it usually was when locked away.

It ripped through me and slammed into the Spring Fae, tearing her apart. The vines, which had been propelling through the air towards our vehicle, fell in a heap.

Ivy gasped. I hadn’t realised she’d been watching. “Holy shit,” she murmured, “what the hell was that?”

I grimaced and sat back in my seat, spearing my senses out for any others waiting for us.

“Keep the enemy away from the ferry,” Sir Ya’Dahir said, pulling me back to the car. “They cannot know where the crossing is. We’ll lock it down for now.”

“Understood, Sir.” Grey moved like she was sighing as she turned onto the road leading into the small town a few miles from the safe house. “We’ll touch base once we reach the location.”

“Queen Greer will be alerted to the attack and the changed circumstances immediately,”he replied. “Keep the new Queen safe.”

The call ended without another word, leaving us in tense silence. My blood roared in my ears as I remained vigilant. We’d lost SUV one as soon as we made it into town, and we followed our own route onto the main highway.

“What now?” Ivy asked, her voice quiet. I looked up and met her stare in the rear-view mirror.

“Now we move on, and we await the other teams.”

She shuddered but tucked herself into her mate’s side. Again, thatthingdeep inside me grew uncomfortable seeing her so at ease with him.

Once again, I pushed it away and retrained my gaze on the road in front of us. But deep in the back of my mind, I was too aware ofher, and I didn’t know why.

~

We drove for nearly five hours before we made it to the city. It wasn’t one of ours, but it was one of the larger human cities. Plenty of human-passing supernaturals migrated to places such as these for the convenience of a human life—despite our laws on such.

Ivy slept, her head resting on Kingsley’s shoulder, while he wove charms quietly from the back seat. He pressed several into her skin while she slept, unbeknownst to her, but I said nothing. The tension filling the SUV was thick enough to cut with a knife, and I wouldn’t add my thoughts to that.

Grey drove easily through the busy streets, having let up the glamour as soon as we entered the suburbs. And as the only person with the location of the next safe house, I was forced to observe our whereabouts quietly.

My head ached from the power usage, but I ignored it as best I could. I wouldn’t get to rest until we made it to the next location, and even then, I was too wired to let myself relax.

It was a wonder Her Highness could sleep, though with the way her magic was expelling itself, it didn’t surprise me that she was exhausted. The silence had forced me to go over everything I’d learnt in my time with these people—withher—and it was clear something else was going on.

“You and I will scope the new safe house first,” Grey said, obliterating the silence. She didn’t look at me as she took a cramped side street that opened to a parking garage. “We’ll clear it, ward it, then let Ivy in.”

I nodded as she pulled the vehicle to a stop beside a box. The window rolled down, and she pressed the code in without any hesitancy.

The clunky metal gate rose, awakening our sleeping Queen. “Where are we?” she asked, her voice thick with exhaustion.

Grey pulled the SUV down into the garage without answering, only speaking once the car was parked in an unnumbered spot by a darkened set of doors. “Somewhere safe and off the grid.”

The vampire turned to me with a nod before looking over her shoulder. “Ivy, stay here while Hawk and I do a walk-through. Adrian will stay with you. We’ll return once we have confirmation that it’s safe.”

“Are the others here?” she asked.

Grey hesitated before shaking her head. “No. For now, it’ll just be the four of us. The rest of the teams will meet Rowan and your family at a second location to regroup.”

Ivy pressed her lips into a thin line instead of responding, barely nodding her acknowledgement. And only then did Grey and I slip from the vehicle. It locked behind us, the wards shimmering as we stepped away.

Grey breathed in, her chest rising and falling deliberately as she eyed the parking garage. There were several other cars, some expensive looking, others basic, filling the space. But she shook her head when our eyes met.

“Let’s go.” She started for the doors I’d noticed before. There was a keypad beside them, which she used to punch in another code.

“This doesn’t feel like a Phoenix safe house,” I muttered, watching carefully as the doors swung open to reveal a small lobby. There was no one else inside.

Grey stiffened slightly before entering, motioning for me to follow. “Because it’s not,” she replied quietly. The room was bare, save for what looked like a private elevator. The walls were a cold stone-grey, and the floor marbled. She walked up to the single button and pressed it. “This is a private dwelling.”

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