Page 163 of The Crown of Nyx

“They are a plight,” Damon murmured. “Unnatural.”

I snorted, grimacing as the sweet, rotting smell that followed the creatures surrounded us. “Okay. We can’t keep standing out here in the open.”

As soon as the words left my lips, a tingle ran down my spine. It felt like I was being watched. I looked over my shoulder, seeking out any unfamiliar gazes. There were fights going on around us, mostly the invading army against the rats. It didn’t seem like anyone had noted us standing in the middle of the open field.

But I couldn’t shake the feeling.

It wasn’t easy to brush off, and my hackles remained up as we started on our path through the village ruins again. The light remained a fixture not just in my mind, but in my vision. It wound through what might have once been side streets, over an old bridge with a creek that barely had any water to sustain it, and into open fields.

In the distance, I spied the ruins of a large, old building. Only the foundations remained. It sat against rolling hills and more fields, but beyond was another smaller structure.

My breath caught in my throat as I followed the winding, purple magic right up to the small building.

The cottage.

Right behind the old orphanage, where Pandora grew up.

My heart skipped a beat as I realised there was a tent not far from the orphanage. It was larger than the others, and there were four surrounding it. They were far enough away from the line of fire Rowan, Hawk, and Orion had set that they weren’t touched by the flames at all.

It probably wouldn’t take long for the zombie-rats to reach them, but there was something about the tents that had an aura of power surrounding them.

Adrian tugged me back into the shelter of a wall, his eyes wide as he stared in the same direction as me. Damon slipped in behind me, his presence like a hard barrier between me and the rest of the world.

“That’s Dante’s tent,” Adrian whispered. “I can sense his power. It’s different, but his signature is all over it.”

We have eyes on Dante’s tent,I directed down each bond. Hopefully, they’d relay the message on to the non-bonded mates.His magical signature is all over it. And he’s not far from the cottage.

It didn’t take long for the others to respond.

Don’t go anywhere near those tents,Maeve said.We’ll direct thethraxto them, and pray they draw Dante out and distract him. But do not enter his line of sight or fire.

I swallowed hard.I know, I won’t. Fear, unlike anything else I’d felt before flooded me. There were two possibilities: either he had chosen that location by chance, or he’d already found the crown—and the skull.

Fuck, I prayed for it to be the former. That he’d made a strategic guess that it was the most secure place to pitch his tent, and that he had no idea how close he was to the skull.

But I also knew it would be too good to be true if that was the case. He’d figured everything else out first, had been several steps ahead of us since the very beginning. He knew things not even Greer had known, and somehow, he’d been able to use that to his advantage—had been able to start a war with it.

Our luck wasn’t about to start now. I knew that, deep down. And yet I still hoped that maybe, just maybe, we had the upper hand.

Be careful,Rowan said down the bond.We’ve got Hyperion Black. Or, well, Orion does. They’re battling it outnow, and I’m being very supportive. But I think you’ll find your mate is kicking his dad’s ass.

A small smile flickered across my lips.Be safe,I replied.

“We need to go to the cottage,” I whispered. “I want to believe he hasn’t found it, but the others don’t want us going anywhere near his tents.”

“Then we go around, close to the fire.” Damon reached over my shoulder to point out the direction we should be going in. It would take us the long way around the ruined orphanage, delivering us on the other side of the cottage.

Nodding, I cast the tents one final look. “We need to be prepared for anything. He’s probably already thought about what might happen if we come looking. There could be traps.”

Adrian pulled something from his belt. It was slimy and red. “The algae Orion had claimed could undo charms,” Adrian said. “He gave it to me, just in case we encountered any that might get in our way.”

My heart lurched, but I forced myself to nod as I turned my attention back to the cottage. Stomach twisting, I followed the path of my magic with my eyes, straight into the old ruins of the cottage. I could just make out what it once was because of my dream, but that hadn’t really prepared me for the hollow feeling that came with finally seeing it.

My magic recognised the place as something important. It triggered a strange sense ofDéjà vu. I knew I’d never been there before, that my dream didn’t really count, but it was more like my magic knew this place as being somethingmore.

And yet, even as I dug into my power, I couldn’t feel anything that might tell me where the crown was. Although the path still glowed before me, I expectedsome kind of spark of power from the skull. I should have felt something now that I was close. But I didn’t.

I let the magical path fall away with a sigh. We didn’t need it anymore, and I had to save my magic forhim.

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