Page 119 of The Crown of Nyx

“So, what now?” I asked, feeling more than a little helpless. “We’re pretty much trapped here without Damon. We can’t brave the storm, and we don’t know how long it’ll last out there.”

“Relax for a moment, Angel,” Elias said, his voice soft. “There’s nothing we can do right now.”

I shook my head and started pacing again. “Dante was right here…” I whispered, nails biting into my arms. “He couldn’t be far.”

“We cannot take a fight to him,” Orion said, the harshness of his voice stopping me in my tracks. I turned to him, eyes wide, as he lifted his head. “He has far too many bloodthirsty soldiers. I don’t think any of you understand the control he has over his creatures.” Violet eyes found mine, and he sighed. “I would die for you. Fight for you. But I won’t let you take a fight to him, as powerful as you are. Hewillthrow his soldiers at you. All of them. Deranged creatures who have been locked in cages for the last century.”

I released a shaky breath and dropped my arms. “He knows something we don’t. I can feel it. He has to have an idea of where the crown is.”

“Are you sure he’s going for the crown?” Adrian asked suddenly. We all turned to him, but he pressed his lips together. “Look, I know he isn’t the same guyI grew up with. He’s clearly a liar—a manipulator. He’s managed to influence a whole lot of people. But Dante isn’t a historian. He didn’t do well at the academy. He can’t falsify that.” My prince rose to his feet, though he visibly shivered as he did. One thing no one had thought to add to their magical belts: blankets.

“Then he picked it up from somewhere else,” Maeve replied. “There are a dozen archives in Avalon alone. The palace has one of the largest, with vaults under the library in the mountain.”

Why had no one told me about those?Damn, the palace held a lot of secrets. Secrets, I felt, I should have been told about during my training with Greer.

“You would have learned about all of it eventually,” Maeve said, eyes finding mine. “A lot of the secrets you are worried about come with clearance—clearance a lot of us don’t have.”

“And if he had somehow gotten access to the different Courts of Fae,” Damon added, “then who knows what they have hidden away. The Fae have always been the most hesitant about accepting Nyx and her rule. Desperation and the end of the High Queen’s bloodline had them bowing to Pandora, but only after their High Queen’s son made an example of their own usurper.”

“Dante always liked the flair for the dramatic,” Adrian said. “But all of this…”

I ran a hand over my stiff, cold hair. I hadn’t really stopped to wonderwhyDante was doing all of this. What motivated or influenced him. I’d been more than ready to blame it on some patriarchal and misogynistic bullshit he’d been fed. In Avalon, it’d felt different being a woman.But that didn’t mean it couldn’t exist in any of these realms.

“There has to be something else driving him, is what you’re saying,” Maeve clarified, speaking to Adrian. “You don’t think he’s doing this on his own?”

“Oh, he’s certainly doing this on his own. I don’t think there’s someone else pulling the strings, if that’s what you’re asking.” Adrian shook his head slowly, crossing his arms. “But he might have been influenced by something else. And for the record, he did spend a lot of time in the Fae courts. He never, though, spent time in Luna.”

All eyes fell on Orion at that. “Is there something in Luna that we should know about?” I asked carefully, brows furrowed.

“If there was, I would have said so by now.” He grunted as he rose, brushing his pants off. “I don’t know a lot about my father’s ties with Dante. Only that my father is a weak male who was just as easily influenced. As far as I know, Luna has nothing special, nothing of interest. Other than its shared shores with the old High Palace. But that is in total ruin. Not like the palace here, where there are walls and remnants of what once existed there, but total destruction is all that remains in Faery. Now, I knowthatpisses my father off.”

Before anyone could utter a response, Orion turned on his heel and walked out of the room.

“Ivy—”

I cut Maeve’s warning off with a look and started after Orion.I’m not letting him walk out there. Alone or angry,I told her.

Maeve bowed her head in understanding.Shields up. I’ll be listening in case anything happens.

I could accept that. This really wasn’t the place for privacy, anyway.

I followed Orion into another room, where the walls had been destroyed long ago, now open to the elements.

You didn’t have to follow me, he said, eyes bright as they found mine. His hair was almost the colour of the snow drifting through the air.

I approached him slowly.Yes, I did, I replied.We really need to talk.

Orion pressed his lips into a firm line as he looked between me and the path we’d cut through the snow. With the way the snow fell, our footsteps were covered now, leaving no trace of our presence. There was a battle in his violet eyes, a choice he was trying to make. But our bond gave nothing away. He was probably the most adept at hiding his thoughts from me. Had managed to figure out the best ways to open a line to communicate, but only that.

Please, Ry. Talk to me. I moved to stand before him. The tension in his shoulders loosened, and although his jaw ticked, something about him softened.We can’t keep dancing around each other.

You seem to be doing it just fine with Hawk Nash, he said, brow quirked.

I scoffed.He has made it clear that he doesn’t want our bond, I replied, trying to hide my hurt.So, I have no problem avoiding him. But you keep saying you did all of this for me. Which means you care more about our bond thanyou admit.

His eyes darkened. “My bond with you was the only thing that kept me alive. Knowing that you were safe, that he wouldn’t find you…that is the only thing I cared about. Do you want to know the reason I ran from him in the first place?”

My heart stuttered a beat, but I nodded.

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