Page 151 of The Crown of Nyx

I pressed my lips together, even though he was right. We needed to know where we were in the forest.

“Okay,” I murmured. “But if you see danger, come back down immediately.”

Hawk once again gave me that look, the one I couldn’t read. “You sound like you care, Princess.”

I sighed. “You might not want to complete the bond, but that doesn’t mean I don’t care,” I muttered. His nostrils flared, and he reared back. “Be safe.”

Adrian squeezed my hand as Hawk lifted into the air. The tension thickened as he flew into the opening, my heart skipping a beat as fear washed through me.

When Hawk breached the canopy of branches and leaves, he almost disappeared from sight. My breath caught in my throat, fear almost pushing me to dosomething, but a moment later, he dove back into the protection of the forest, dropping to the ground behind us.

Hawk clenched his jaw as he stalked towards the front of the group. “We’re close enough to whatever used to be the village. There are only ruins there, but I think it’s close to what you mentioned.” He didn’t look at me, but it was clear there was something else he needed to say.

“What?” I asked, dropping Adrian’s hand. “What did you see?”

He shook his head. “I think he’s already there.”

We ranthe rest of the way to the village. Shifted, I could run faster. And I took to the front of our group, Maeve at my side, to scope out whether the creatures in the village really were Dante’s men or Old World monsters. With each mile we ran, my heart pounded louder, threatening to beat out of my chest.

We couldn’t be too late. We shouldn’t.

But Dante had an advantage. Some way he managed to find the crown—and the skull.

I cursed myself for being so slow. For letting my own personal shit get in the way of this. We could have been here sooner if it weren’t for me.

This is not your fault,Maeve said as she kept pace beside me.You weren’t given all the information. And that is on our Goddess.

The last thing I wanted was to blame Nyx, but surely, she would have known he was searching for the skull. Surely, she would have figured that out, or at least warned me before it was too late.

If Asael was right, then if Dante got his hands on it, he could use it to steal my power and become King of Nyx’s Domain.

And destroy everything in the process, I reminded myself.

Fuck.Dammit. I pushed my wolf harder, faster, to get to the edge of the forest quicker.

The others weren’t too far behind, but Elias had to help Adrian. He was too drained to run himself, despite his claims that he could keep up.

The unknown shifter remained two steps behind Maeve and me, his scent telling me he was close. This time, the ground didn’t rumble with each step he took.

He’d claimed no one lived on the other side of the forest, that it acted like a barrier, and the rat-zombie things, as well as other infected creatures like them, roamed the lands north of the forest freely, and the forest helped keep them away from those like him.

When firelight flooded the road, we slowed. There were fewer glowing orbs this close to the edge of the woods, and the trees were thinning out, their trunks growing further apart, the branches above us revealing more of the dark sky. Maeve slowed to a stop first, and my wolf followed.

As easy as it was to run as the wolf, I still wound up panting when I shifted back. Yeah, human shaped me wasnotbuilt for that kind of thing. Even with help from my bonds.

Maeve handed me a water pouch from her belt without a word, and I guzzled it down, letting the chilled water spill down my throat. When I pulled the bottle from my lips,hewas there, coming to a stop and rising onto his back legs.

Together, we crept to the edge of the forest, trying to keep to the trees as much as possible without actually entering them. Damon’s warning replayed in my mind, and although I couldn’t tell if he was actually telling the truth or not, I still didn’t want to risk it. The idea of a soul witch haunting the forest made my skin crawl.

Old buildings made of stone came into view. There were walls, destroyed doorways—the remnants of what might have been a village many years ago, now reclaimed by nature.

In my dreams, the fields were open, but the landscape now was overgrown. Walls were covered in foliage, vines with pretty blue flowers creeping up them. The grass was thick, making it impossible to see a path.

And through the trees, I noticedthem.

Wolves and bears larger than they should have been. Males, mostly, from the different Fae courts, mages, too. A couple of vampires. There were a few demons amongst them, which I knew would piss off Damon. He was so sure of the demons’ loyalty that I wasn’t sure he would take well to the few dressed like Phoenix agents walking through the thick grass.

There were others, too. Females, mostly Fae, I realised. I couldn’t sense any witches, which for some reason made me sigh in relief. And I realised maybe one or two female demons. But otherwise, most of the traitor army were male. The shifters, I couldn’t tell.

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