Page 34 of The Powers of Nyx

“Stay here. I’ll check in with the others, and let Elias know you’re in here and are safe.”

Ivy’s gaze drifted from Maeve’s to meet mine. “Thank you.” Through the bond, she reached for me, letting me know she appreciated me for what I was doing.

I gave her one last smile before going back the way we came, climbing through the wreckage of the SUV and out onto the grass. In the time since we’d entered, the sky had drastically changed, and lightning illuminated the horizon, inching closer to the bloodshed remaining from the fight.

Rounding the side of the car, I searched the damage; the team that came to rescue us was cleaning up the bodies of the enemies, with Hawk directing them. He’d pulled his wings back in, though a large cut on his forehead still bled. He gave me a questioning stare, but I shook my head to indicate everything was fine.

Or as fine as it could be.

“Kingsley!” Elias’s voice was both a roar and a growl, one that would send anyone else running. But with the bond now fully settled within me and Ivy’s power tethered to mine, his bark barely scraped over my skin.

I turned towards him with a grimace and held up my hand. “She’s okay. More than okay.”

The stormy expression on his face didn’t move. “She’s not responding to me,” he growled. The shift was clearly close; his skin rippled as he held back the beast.

I sighed. “I know. She’s preoccupied. She accidentally completed the bond with Maeve.”

Elias stilled, and his eyes darkened with understanding and confusion, followed by fury. “Ivy didn’t know how vamps completed the bond.”

My stomach twisted. “No, but—”

“I’ll kill her.”

He pushed past me and started in the direction of the wrecked SUV. This wasn’t Elias in control—it was the wolf, and the wolf only cared about Ivy.

Fuck. I rushed to catch up to him and grabbed his arm. “Maeve did nothing to endanger Ivy, and you know it. You really thinkMaeveof all people would evenrisksomething like that? She had no idea it was evenpossible they could be mates, let alone that Ivy might accidentally trigger the bond.”

Elias’s eyes were a dark, luminous green when they met mine. His chest rose and fell with sharp, ragged breaths, but he tried to regain control of his beast.

“You know she’s not in any danger, and that she needs to be with Maeve right now,” I added. I mentally prepared to send Ivy a warning about this, but I had a feeling he would get his emotions under control.

“I know,” he growled, closing his eyes. “I just—”

“You were split from your mate for days and you’re worried about her.”

He chuckled darkly and shook his head. “That’s not even the half of it.” When he opened his eyes again, they returned to their normal shade of green, and his skin no longer rippled with the need to shift. His features smoothed out, and the anger I’d felt radiating from him dimmed, though not completely gone.

I looked at the SUV and reached for the bond between Ivy and me; for a while after the crash, I hadn’t been able to feel anything from her, not her emotions, her pain, fuck, I wasn’t even sure she was alive. But the tether between us pulsated with warm, comforting light now, forever guiding me towards her.

“How did you get here so quickly?” I asked, turning back to Elias. “You were hours away.”

His jaw clicked, and he looked towards the SUV before meeting my stare. “I felt it, the moment you crashed. She’d tried to block me, but I knew as soon as the block was down, because our bond felt...broken.”

I blew out a shaky breath. “I felt the same thing.”

Elias’s eyes hardened, and he crossed his arms. “Turns out, when you crashed, it was like a beacon had been lit. We were all alerted to it; Jay’s team, us, and every other undercover agent within a certain radius.” He motioned towards the gathered black vehicles, nodding in their direction. “Ivy’s power also signalled for help.”

That explained why so many people were here; Hawk was still in control of the situation, but Jay was at his side, barking orders and sending agents out for clean-up. Any enemy soldiers who weren’t killed were rounded up and being processed by the members of Hawk’s team, though from the looks of it, one was missing. I couldn’t see Rowan, but I had to assume he was still with Thea and the kids, keeping them occupied.

Hawk stalked in our direction, brows drawn in a deep frown. “Everything okay?” he asked.

He glanced at the wrecked SUV quickly before looking away, and his jaw tightened as he awaited our response.

“Nothing you need to worry about, Nash,” Elias grunted. “We need to move a vehicle so Ivy and Grey can be safely transported out.”

The other team leader narrowed his eyes, but he didn’t say anything. I didn’t expect him to. If there was one thing to rely on Hawk Nash about, it was compartmentalising about our work.

A shout sounded behind us, and a flurry of magic created a cloud around a group of agents and their prisoners. A switched flipped in my mind, the part of me attuned to my status as an agent flicking on. I activated a protection charm on my gear; it buzzed along my skin, settling against my flesh. I did the same to Elias and Hawk, before striding towards the commotion.

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