Page 144 of The Crown of Nyx

“Careful,”another voice said. Female.“Too many times, and it’ll die. Our Kingdoesn’t want that.”

I coughed, spluttering. Was I in a vision? It didn’t feel like the one I’d had before, when they’d finally told me what Rowan saw in his own.

This felt different, dangerous. Too real.

The first voice laughed. Male, deep and unhinged. “Don’t worry. This one won’t hurt a bit.”

He stole the breath from my lungs again. This time, when spots danced across my vision, I thought I saw the light of death waiting for me.

I awoke with a start,chest burning with the remnants of the vision.

“You’re okay,” Elias said, his arms tightening around me. “You’re safe.”

I sucked in breaths that had once been stolen from my lungs. We were in darkness. Fear pressed down on my chest, coiling around my lungs as I struggled in his arms.

“Everyone, stop,” Elias grunted. And then we were on the ground. He set me down on hard, cool earth, and all I could do was breathe him in.

I tried to focus on my mates and not the way it felt to have the air stolen from me. Elias knelt beside me, his warm hand on the back of my neck, the other on my knee. Maeve dropped to her knees in front of me, worry lining her features.

“What happened?” she asked softly, her accent thick. “Was it a nightmare?”

I shook my head slowly, seeking out Rowan. He stood beside Adrian, who somehow looked worse. “No,” I choked out, my throat dry. “I think I was in another vision.”

Rowan dropped to his knees on my other side, agony flashing across his hazel eyes. “I am so sorry.”

“Don’t be.” From behind Elias, Hawk pulled a bottle from his belt and offered it to me, his lips pursed. Hedidn’t say anything, and I didn’t question it as I accepted the bottle with trembling hands. “It’s not your fault that I saw what I saw.”

“What happened?” Maeve asked, her voice a little harder now.

A chill rolled down my spine as I met her darkening eyes. “I was in darkness. Really thick darkness. But I wasn’t alone.” I brought the bottle to my lips, and let the cool water slide down my sore throat. It calmed the racing of my heart enough for me to continue. “There were two people there. One was…” I shuddered again. “He was cutting off my oxygen.”

“An elemental mage,” Elias hissed, his anger palpable. “What else, Angel?”

My eyes closed, and I was plunged into that same darkness again. “There was a female there, too,” I whispered. “She was telling him not to do it too much, otherwiseitwould die.”

“It?” That came from Damon. My eyes opened as he appeared behind Maeve. “They were referring to you?”

I swallowed hard and nodded. “I think so.” Who else could they have been talking about? Unless there was someone else in the room with me. But I hadn’t sensed anyone, though the lack of oxygen hadn’t helped me with my bearings.

I rubbed my throat and sat the bottle on the ground. “It felt so real. But I don’t know if it was a vision.”

Rowan rubbed a hand down my calf reassuringly. “It could have been,” he murmured. “Was there anything else?”

I shook my head again, wrapping my arms around myself. “No. Just them toying with me. But they mentioned Dante. That’s why I think it was a vision and not a dream. She saidour kingdidn’t wantitdead.”

Tension thickened around us, and when I looked up, they were all sharing looks of anger—of concern. I spied Orion in the back, and everything that had happened before came flooding back.

The death of the wolf shifter.

The realisation that if not stopped, Dante could potentially kill Orion, too.

My heart pounded as his eyes met mine. “We will figure it out,” Ry promised, though tension darkened his voice. “No one will hurt you like that.”

Why did I find that hard to believe?

For the first time since waking up, I actually looked around. The world around us was dark, but not like the thick sludge I’d been in during the vision. This darkness was caused by the eternal night we seemed to never escape in this world. Tree limbs overlapped above the path we were on, creating a canopy above our heads, blocking out the sky.

And the trees…

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