Page 55 of The Bonds of Nyx

“For lots of reasons,” I said. “But she’ll be okay.”

For a moment, Ginny didn’t move. Her eyes were on me instead of Kerry, wide and sad, irises filled with uncertainty. But after a few seconds of tense silence, she nodded, and I released a heavy breath as she let me wrap an arm around her.

Maisie crawled up to rest her head on Kerry’s shoulder, and she whispered things in her ear I couldn’t quite make out. But by the look on her sweet little face, it was her way of saying goodbye.

I pressed my nails into my palms to stop myself from breaking down. It wasn’t my turn, and they needed me to be strong. They needed to know I was there.

While Eloise talked to Kerry, I dredged up the good memories I had from my childhood. The memories were usually shrouded in resentment. But I cleared that away and focused on the happiness she had brought me—the first time she let me hold a sleepover and the fun activities she’d planned for me and myfriends. A shopping spree where we celebrated her new job. The nights she held me while I cried over a man I’d never met.

The first time she’d acknowledged me as more than a disappointment when I’d told her how I thought no one would love me, and she promised someone would, no matter what.

I let those memories, the happy and the sad, come to the surface as I settled Ginny beside me and leaned over to press a kiss on Kerry’s forehead.

“We might not have always seen eye to eye, but you were still my mom, and I’m going to miss you.”

When I looked up, I nodded in Marion’s direction. “If you could take the girls into the other room,” she said softly, “I’ll prepare her for Avalon.”

With a shaky sigh, Thea and I gathered the girls and pulled them into the adjacent bedroom. They cried themselves to sleep as magic filled the room. Later, Elias whispered in my mind that Kerry had been transported to Avalon, Marion soon to follow, but he hadn’t given me much insight into the magic. Just that Kerry, not being…alive, could be sent to Avalon directly, unlike the living.

And after all was done, I pulled Eloise to my side and kissed her head. “You can let it out now, El,” I whispered, “you don’t have to be strong anymore. I’m here.”

Her cries were no longer silent as she clung to me, and I held her in a way I hadn’t since she was a child.

With each heart-shattering sob, I felt something swell inside her. Something that both frightened and scared me. It reminded me she wasn’t human. And soon, she would understand that, too.

19

IVY

I DIDN’Tmove until the crying ended, and even then, I found it almost too difficult to leave the room and face the rest of the house.

Pain laced every breath as I held back my own sobs. Eloise was finally asleep in my arms, her breaths sharp with her now-dried tears. Ginny and Maisie had fallen into their own fitful sleep, the silence broken by their whimpers and the rustling of sheets as they restlessly tossed and turned. Their little hands reached for Kerry subconsciously, and all I could do was stare at their grasping fingers and wait for my mother’s hand to appear.

I squeezed my eyes shut. My chest burned with a familiar fire that threatened to explode. It rushed beneath my skin, igniting each nerve and tendon, a flurry of intense agony fuelled by fear. It scorched a path through my body, threatening to burst out of me at any moment.

I knew I needed to escape. To run. To get myself as far away from my sisters as possible. If I didn’t, I risked hurting them and everyone around me. The team had warned me of the risks of not being anchored, of what my magic could do if it weren’t tied to my mates. What could happen if my emotions became too much, and the magic took over.

And now, I understood their fears.

I was dangerous. The energy building within me was powerful, a storm of untameable magic that could not be held for much longer. It wanted release.

Are you alright in there, Angel?His voice. It should have calmed the raging storm inside me, but even as his concern trickled down the bond, it did nothing to the electricity tingling at my fingertips or the voice—that sharp, horrible voice from my nightmares—giving me warnings of death. My wolf’s bond was there, a bright light in my mind, a sharp tug in my chest, but fear propelled me away from the bridge between us. What if I hurt him? What if I played with the bond too much, and the magic did something to him?

I lifted myself from the bed the children shared and looked down at my trembling hands. Purple light wound around my palms and over my fingers like snakes, teasing and threatening me with what I could do if I lost control. If I wentnuclear. That’s what everyone feared, wasn’t it? That I couldn’t control the power Nyx was flooding my body with?

Maybe they were right to fear me, to fear this power.

It was the magic of a Goddess, and I was no God.

Without another thought, I ran. There was no one in the hallway to stop my escape. I took it as a sign from the Goddess herself that I needed out. Needed to be free from the confines of this house. The house where I let my mother die. The house where I failed my sisters, where I couldn’t protect them from the atrocities of the world we were being dragged into.

Bile rose in my throat as I descended the stairs onto the main floor. The soft drone of conversation ceased, and I felt the burn of stares on me as I started for the back door.

“Ivy?”Hisvoice. My mate. There was a softness to it, a caress in the way he spoke my name that should have eased the pain throbbing in my skull.

I felt him approach. Felt the bond between us strengthen, the chord pulling tight, urging me towards him. It was tempting, the promise of safety. I would have taken it. I should have.

My vision grew blurry as I took in the gathered teams and their worried—fearful—expressions. Through the haze of magic, I could make out my mate. His tall, powerful frame edging closer. The careful shift of his eyes from their forest green to the bright green of his wolf. He reached for me, his hands strong. I remembered what they felt like against my skin, the comfort and safety I felt when he was near. The burning softened to an ache the closer he came, the fire of my magic dulling just enough to allow me to breathe.

---