Page 165 of The Crown of Nyx

Adrian’s eyes finally met mine, and he bowed his head.Let me go first, he said, voice stern even through the bond.If anything happens, go with Damon.

My heart skipped a beat.I will not leave you. Not under any circumstance, Adrian. There will be no self-sacrifice today. Do you understand?

A half-smile played on his lips. Before I could move, he swept me into his arms, claiming my mouth with an earth shattering kiss. His lips burned against mine, each soft press a sweeping reminder of how much he loved me—and how much we had to lose.

When he pulled back, his eyes were dark. My magic sparked beneath my skin, a smouldering ember in my chest.

I love you, he said, pressing his forehead against mine.I will always love you.

A lump formed in my throat.I love you, too.

There was something about his words that unsettled me. That made me worry that this really would be goodbye.

But I couldn’t let him sacrifice himself.

If anything happens,I said, directing the thought to Damon alone, get him out of here. I meant what I said before, Damon. I will not let Dante get hold of any of my mates.

The demon king touched my hand, but he didn’t respond. Even though I couldn’t read his emotions like I could my bonded mates, just that touch alone told me that he didn’t want to respect that decision. That he would sooner pull me out of that cottage than let me sacrifice myself to that bastard.

But I also knew that he would do it. He would do as I asked of him. Because in the end, he did respect me. As his wife, and his Queen.

Thunder rumbled across the sky. I glanced up to see it had darkened with the deep grey clouds coming from the mountains. The air immediately cooled as lightning streaked across the sky.

I summoned that energy, pulling it from the well within me and allowing it to flood me.

Adrian nodded to me before raising his gun. The swords Damon wielded came up again, bracketing me on both sides. With one last glance at the world around us, we started for the opening of the cottage, the space of darkness where a door would have once stood.

Each step made my heart pound harder, anxiety twisting around my insides and pressing down on my lungs.

Adrian entered the darkness first, and I slipped in behind him, breath catching in my throat.

“Hello, brother,” Dante mused, looking up from the skull in his hand. “Thank you for bringing her right to me.”

67

Elias

The stench of death clung to my fur, filling my lungs. When it was over, I would have to bathe myself in Ivy’s scent to wash away the rotting flesh smell that followed me.

Thethraxwere doing their job. Maybe a little too well.

The mages and Fae working for the bastard king were fighting with all the magic they had against the beasts. They barely even noticed me, Grey, and thePrimalas we walked by.

I breathed in, searching for Ivy’s scent. But the smell of death was overwhelming. Where the fuck was she? I knew she’d found the location of the skull—Maeve had said as much when Ivy touched base with her, but where was my mate now? Her end of the bond was quiet, a block carefully constructed in her mind. Likely out ofworry that Dante could use the bonds against us, but I didn’t like that she hadn’t left a way to check in on her.

It made everything within me recoil. Especially after what happened at the ball, when Dante had so easily been able to cut us off from her—not once, but twice.

I’d gone with the plan of splitting up because it had made sense to draw the army away from Dante. He was powerful, sure, but not nearly as powerful as Ivy. He wasn’t a king—he was a mind mage with too much arrogance born of self-importance and a belief the world—no,Nyx—owed him something.

I couldn’t wait for Kingsley to trap him in his new hellish prison. To strip him of his powers, turn him human, then throw him in the worst prison our realms had to offer.

It would make my fucking day to see him powerless. Useless. Weak without the ability to mind-fuck his way out of it. Maybe that would save a whole lot of creatures here now.

The shifters mostly fought thethrax. The zombie-rats were almost the same size as their largest bear. Though the living dead weren’t smart, they were harder to kill.

Grey stopped in the middle of what used to be a courtyard of sorts. She lifted her nose to the air, eyes shifting from blue to red as she scented the area.

“She was here,” she said, glancing at me. I shifted from wolf to male, stalking to her side. “It’s faint, but she, Kingsley, and the demon were here recently.”

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