Page 150 of The Crown of Nyx

And here I was, thinking they were some sort of glowing mushroom or something.

Damon, though, snorted. “They are not spirits. I can sense the dead, as it is my domain to oversee, and these are not the dead.” He did, though, pause, and we all stopped walking as he approached the side of the road.

“I would not leave this path. You might not believe they are the dead, but those who have entered the woods do not return,” the creature growled.

“Damon,” I said, gaining his attention. “Maybedon’ttest whatever he knows.”

The demon king smirked and straightened. “Worried about me, wife? And here I thought you might be wanting to get rid of me.”

There was something about the way he saidwifeand the possessiveness behind the word made my heart flutter. It even had my stomach tightening in a way it certainly shouldn’t.

I grunted, turning away from him. “You’re still the only one who can shadow jump us all out of here,” I reminded him.

“Ah.” Maybe it was just me, but it sounded like he was disappointed in my answer. Damon didn’thavethose kinds of feelings, or at least, that’s what he claimed. “I fear he may be half right, anyway. Those are souls, but not of the dead.”

Shaking my head, I sighed. “I don’t even want to know.”

The demon chuckled, but walked back to our group, we started our long walk once more. “Are you sure, my Queen?” His voice was teasing, but it was clear there was something he wanted me to know.

I rolled my eyes. “Fine. Because I doubt you’re going to let it go. Why is it important to know that there are souls in there?”

Damon chuckled again. “Because I believe those are the souls of creatures who didn’t make it out of thewar.” Beside me, Adrian tensed, and even Elias cut him a sharp look.

“Why do you assume that?” Maeve asked from the front of the group. Her accent gave away how frustrated she was. I’d noticed how it bled through thicker more when she was stressed or wasn’t paying attention.

“Souls have ages,” he replied flippantly. “As do we. But that’s not what’s important. It’s that a witch must be the one to capture souls. Ancestral witches sometimes have this power. But whoever is doing this would have to be a soul witch.”

“A soul witch?” I’d never heard of someone with that power. And based on the confusion that came through the bonds, neither had anyone else—including Rowan and Adrian. “You’re making it up, aren’t you?”

“Why would I?” The marks that bound us warmed unexpectedly, and I shot him a dark look. The snake around my thigh shifted, the movement like a soft vibration. Damon met my stare, smirking proudly. “Soul witches were…well, I would say outcast, but that isn’t quite it. It is theorisedtheybrought about the mages, but there is no proof.”

“How can that be theorised if no one knows soul witches exist?” Adrian muttered beside me.

Good point, I replied quietly, sharing a look with him.

“Do you have a point?” Rowan asked. “Because so far, I’m not hearing one.”

Damon sighed likewewere the annoying ones, and he wasn’t being totally vague at all. “I’m just saying, we now know how Asael was able to come to us. A soul witch had to do it. I thought maybe Pandora had been able to, but that never sat right with me. She didn’t have the power to keep his soul tethered to that place,just in caseyou found it.” He stalked towards the edge of the forest again,though made no move to cross the boundary between road and trees. “And if souls are still going missing, then we can assume a soul witch has lived long enough to keep doing it. I mean, she could have reproduced and birthed more daughters to carry on her work.”

I shuddered. “Is this some sort of bedtime story you tell demon children? To keep them in line?” If so, it reminded me a little too much of Hansel and Gretel.

“Not at all, wife. Just a warning that we may want to escape this forest before she finds us.” I shot him a look as the amusement left his red eyes.

We passed beneath an opening of branches and were finally greeted with the sky. Black clouds covered what would have once been stars and the moon, giving us no sign of where we were—and what time it could have been.

“I know how to read stars, not this,” the shifter said. He’d been so quiet walking behind us and during Damon’s ramblings about soul witches, that I’d almost forgotten he was there.

But we all stopped beneath the gap in the branches. “Fantastic. I’m guessing you would have been able to tell how far in we are, right?” I asked, glancing at him.

“It doesn’t matter,” Hawk said. He was always quiet, so hearing the deep purr of his voice sent shivers down my spine. My magic tingled as he pushed his way towards me from the front of our group. “I can fit through that.”

I swallowed hard. Right. The wings. But anxiety twisted through me, coiling around my stomach. “You would have to be quick. If anyone saw you…”

He lowered his head, dark eyes finding mine. Something shifted in the depths, but he took a step back and let his wings unfurl.

I’d made fun of them the first time I saw them, only because he’d gotten on my nerves. But up close, they wereamazing. The feathers were black, though under certain lights, they shined like there was another colour hidden in the mix. At first, I thought it might be a deep blue, but it looked almost purple in colour.

Hawk spread his wings, groaning as he did. “We need to see if we’re going in the wrong direction,” he grunted, meeting my stare. “Don’t you want to know if we are close?”

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