Page 168 of The Crown of Nyx

Ashudder rolled down my spine as I cut down another Fae traitor. His body hit the ground hard, blood pooling from a slit in his throat made by my blade.

There was something about this scene that made me turn in a slow circle; Archer held his own against a mage who wielded a crossbow, which had been damaged in their fight. Blood dripped from a cut on Archer’s lip, which hadn’t even started the process of healing. There was a fire in his eyes, a burning desire to keep the male he was fighting down, to maintain control.

The Fae female I’d fought earlier was up and trying to tear at Orion Black with a vengeance.

Anger rolled through me at the sight of her, but there was something about it that triggered a strong sense ofDéjà vu. Not because I’d been here before, but because I knew something was going to happen.

I hadn’t an ounce of divination blood in me. The Fae didn’t see into the future like the divination witches and mages did. And neither did the demons.

That was a power uniquely witch born.

But I knew I had a feeling of being here before. Of seeing this.

No. Not seeing.Hearing.

Sable, in a vision, had warned me that a fight would either be my death, or my doom. A battle between two forces vying for the same thing. This was when she’d first pulled me into the fold of her mission. I’d had the memory wiped—by her and someone else, at the time—but now it was back.

Everything she’d been preparing me for.

The visits to old temples and scouring the remains for hints of a world long since hidden. The missions she would send me and my team on, where they had no idea what I was doing in the dark of night when they were asleep. Scouring the Fae Courts for signs ofthem.

Not Dante and his traitorous followers. But the remnants of an old society that had been born of a need to protect something valuable.

The ache of battle disappeared as Sable’s voice filled my head.Only you will know when the time is right,she’d said, sitting on the couch in her office, the one she used to have at the compound. Three days later, she’d had it dismantled, and I never understood why. Until now. It became Maeve Grey’s office when she’d been appointed a leader after being abandoned for years.

Doom will bring death upon all, and your death will mean protecting everything. I know you will choose wisely. You are not a selfish male,she’d continued.When you recover this memory, it will be time. You must protect the first.

The sound of battle hit me, forcing me from the buried memory and back to the present. It was only a moment. I blinked hard as my vision blurred between the fight and sitting in that office.

“Nash!” Archer shouted, his voice jarring me out of those thoughts. Before I could move, his gun went off, and someone behind me fell to the ground.

I barely glanced back to see a panther shifter now lying dead in the grass behind me.

Turning back to Archer, I blinked hard as he stormed up to me. “What the hell is your problem?” he snapped.

I rubbed a hand over my forehead. Sweat lined my brow, and when I licked my lips, I tasted salt on my upper lip. “I don’t know,” I said. “But I had a…memory.”

Archer frowned. “What type of memory?”

“It was the reason why your mother recruited me,” I whispered. “It was for…this. For this moment.”

Archer’s frown deepened as he reared back, shaking his head. “What the hell are you talking about?”

“She wanted to prepare me fornow,” I said, voice hoarse. “To sacrifice myself for…” I trailed off, my eyes darting off towards where Orion Black was meant to be fighting his father.

But the pair were gone.

“I have to sacrifice myself to save the first,” I muttered, eyes widening as I turned back to Archer. “I’m meant to die instead of Orion Black.”

The mage’s eyes filled with understanding and horror. “Fucking hell, it all makes sense now. Why you wouldn’t bond Ivy,” he whispered. “But my mother didn’t know you would also be her mate.”

It wasn’t that I didn’t want to complete the bond with her. It was the only thing I really wanted. But I’d been bound by duty, by the memory Sable wiped from myconsciousness. Deep down, I’d always known I wouldn’t live long enough to be the mate she deserved, and so I never let myself get close to her. I didn’t want her to love me and then lose me.

But I never expected to be the one to fall in love withher. She consumed every part of my heart, body, and soul. She was my fated mate.

And I had to choose who she would lose.

Me, or the first.

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