Page 117 of The Crown of Nyx

My eyes locked onto the small body of a child lying atop an adult. She had brown ringlets and full cheeks.

That could have been Maisie. She couldn’t have been any older than my baby sister. A doll lay beside her, raggedy and old, precious to her even in death.

My breath caught in my throat as tears burned behind my eyes. Arms wound around me, forcing my gaze off the scene.

“It’s not her,” Elias murmured, holding me tight to his chest. “Maisie is safe.”

I nodded, though the visual was burned into my brain. “I know,” I whispered. “I know it isn’t her. And I feel awful even thinking it. That poor baby?—”

I couldn’t hold back as bile turned to vomit. Elias held my hair back as I leaned over and puked up the remnants of my last meal. It felt like acid in my mouth, burning its way up my throat. At least it blocked out the death.

Oh, God. Who would have done that?

Dante, of course. I knew it was him. That he and his army had already come through here and paved a path of destruction. Maybe my magic had sensed it and that was why it’d brought me here. It wanted me to see what was at stake.

These people weren’t a threat to him. They wouldn’t have done anything to him.

And yet he’d slaughtered them, like they meant nothing. Like their lives were meaningless.

Puking turned to dry heaving once there was nothing left. My stomach tightened uncomfortably, throat burning, but I couldn’t stop.

“It’s alright,” Elias said as he rubbed a soothing hand down my back. “It’s okay.”

I shook my head, wiping my mouth with the back of my hand as I rose. “No, it isn’t,” I said, my voice hoarse. “He did this.”

Elias sighed, but he didn’t respond. My eyes strayed to the bodies again, but this time, I found myself staring at what looked like bullets in the snow.

If I had anything else to vomit, I would have doubled over again. “He executed them.”

“It appears that way,” Elias said. He kept one arm around me as he tried to move me back into the building, but I planted my feet in the snow. “Angel…”

“I can’t run from this, Elias,” I whispered, staring at the death. “I can’t turn away. He did this because of me. Heexecuted themand left them here for me to find.”

Elias made a sound in the back of his throat that was part growl, part whine. “Ivy. I love you, but this is not your fault.”

“He wants to be king,” I replied. “And I am the only thing standing in his way. Of course, it’s my fault.”

Elias had no way to respond to that, but I didn’t expect him to.

Even if he wanted to deny it, there was no way he could.

Dante wanted to send a message. And he’d done so perfectly.

He would slaughter everyone in this world for my crown.

Smoke,thick and dark, billowed into the sky, turning the clouds a deep, unforgiving grey. The smell of it clogged my lungs, but it was better than the smell of rotting flesh and decay.

He’d used magic to make the corpses rot. I wasn’t sure why. Maybe he’d hoped the rabid, zombie beasts would find them. Maybe he’d planned for it to be some kind of trap.

I didn’t care anymore.

Fire leapt at the sky, red and angry, fuelled by my own emotions—my own rage.

“They have moved on to the Elysian Fields,” Damon declared, his voice disrupting the mournful silence. “They are at peace.”

I shook my head without looking at him. “They won’t be at rest until Dante has been stopped,” I replied, my voice thick with emotion.

Worry flooded through the bonds. It even radiated from Hawk. They were concerned about my state of mind. My resolve. I couldn’t blame them.

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