Page 127 of The Crown of Nyx

Hawk took up position near what I assumed was the front door.

“Someone explain what is going on,” I demanded. “I just met the first Queen of Nyx in my dreams, so it’s clearly been weird.”

There was a beat of silence as everyone stared at me. Shock mixed with apprehension thickened the air, fuelling the tension that had already laid heavy between us.

“You may want to explain that, first,” Elias grumbled.

“Yeah…” Rowan pushed off the fireplace with a frown. “Definitely not what you leave us hanging for.”

“Nope.” I shifted again in Elias’s embrace so that my back was against his chest, and I could take in everyone. “I want to know what’s going onherefirst. You know, since we could be in immediate danger.”

“He won’t hurt us,” Damon murmured. His red eyes found mine when I looked over, though they remained unreadable. “Especially not now.”

“Why?” I asked, leaning into Elias as a wave of exhaustion hit me. Damn. Knocked out for four hours and I didn’t get any rest? My magic felt a little weak, like the explosion had drained me more than expected.

“Because,” Damon replied quietly, “hewasQueen Pandora’s mate.”

52

Ivy

Shocked was an understatement. I couldn’t even explain the waves of emotions rolling through me.

“Hermate?” I almost rose to my feet, but Elias held me to him tightly, stopping me from moving away from him entirely. “That’s impossible. That would make him?—”

“As old as I.” Damon smirked as he glanced back at the window. “Yes. I am just as shocked as you are.”

“How is that even possible?” I couldn’t even wrap my head around it. The Queen’s mates always died soon after she did. That was the cycle of a Queen and her knights. That had been hammered into me in my class on theQueens of Nyx. Every five hundred years, when a new Queen rose, and the last Queen fell, her mates went with her eventually. They essentially tied up looseends after the passing of the late Queen before eventually joining her in the afterlife.

But if one of Queen Pandora’s mates was here…

No wonder my magic reacted the way it had. It recognised him. And maybe his presence had triggered that meeting with the first Queen.

“We don’t know,” Maeve said. “But when your magic exploded, he seemed to have an idea of what caused it.”

I wrapped my arms around myself as Elias pressed a kiss to the top of my head. “We’ll work it out,” he said.

I shook my head, but fully let myself enjoy the warmth of his embrace and the comfort it brought me. “Pandora told me Dante isn’t going for the crown.”

Somehow, the tension grew heavier.

“What?” Ry asked. I glanced over to see him rise to his feet. “What do you mean?”

I swallowed hard. “The crown isn’t exactly the only thing he’s looking for.” Releasing a long breath, I explained the dream. Pandora coming to me, telling me he’d almost found it. I told them about the skull and the secrets she claimed had died with her, how she’d given up her power so that others could come after her.

There was an uneasy silence that followed my recollection of the meeting. I could tell Maeve was falling into her own thoughts, likely trying to find any other reference to the skull and crown within her own memory. Damon, who I expected to maybe understand the reference, only looked confused.

If Orion had heard his father speak of a skull, he didn’t let it show. Not on his face or through the bond. And not even Rowan, who had been seeing visions of a dim future, knew what the hell I was talking about.

But I vividly remembered the skull. Not from any recent dreams, though.

The nightmares I’d been plagued with before meeting the team. When Thea and I would have done anything to keep them at bay—like seeing a psychic. Nyx used to appear with it clutched in her hands, a skull that would always leave an impression in my waking thoughts.

“Could the dream be fake? By any chance?” I asked. Deep down, I knew it wasn’t. Not when I’d seen it before.

There was no response from anyone, the silence turning uneasy.

Maybe Dante had found a way to allow a dream demon or dream-walking Fae into my head to mess with me. To lead me astray.

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