Page 18 of The Crown of Nyx

“Angel, we’re here,” Elias murmured, voice thick with emotion. “Rowan and I are right here.”

She sobbed out something I couldn’t understand, and it broke something inside of me.I’m so sorry, my love. You never should have had to see something like that,I said down the bond, hoping my words would at least cut through the panic, that she would hear me through her own fear.

But Ivy buried her face into Elias’s chest, and she cried for what felt like hours. All we could do was gather around her silently as the sun rose over the ocean, and give her what strength we had left.

The crying stopped after a while,and by the end of it, Ivy was exhausted. Her eyes were puffy and sunken, and there was an emotionless look behind her dark eyes that terrified me. Terrified everyone.

I left her side for only a moment to receive the incoming supplies. When we returned from the Old World, I’d have to thank the guys from Jay’s team. Somehow, that half-demon jackass knew his agents, and he was the one I trusted most from the compound.

When I returned with several bags of supplies, Ivy hadn’t moved, her stare still barely focused on the ocean. Several boats had gone out onto the water, which remained eerily calm despite everything else going on.

It was hard to see her so…still. I handed off the bags, until only mine and Ivy’s remained. Exhaustion wrecked the entire group, but they didn’t let it show.

Adrian stopped me before I could reach her, resting a hand on my shoulder. But like me, his eyes were on her. “She still hasn’t spoken a word,” he murmured. “I don’t know what she saw, but?—”

“It was bad,” I finished, voice tight. “I know.”

For a moment, he watched me, and not for the first time we escaped the palace, I noticed the despair written clear across his face. “Do you think she saw one of your visions?”

I pressed my lips together and shook my head. “I think she saw something far worse.”

Adrian let go of my shoulder and stepped back, returning his attention to Ivy. “You might be the only one she listens to.”

Then he took his bag and started for the SUV, where everyone changed into gear and prepped themselves with weapons and new charms. I rolled my shoulders back,tightened my grip on Ivy’s bag, and started towards her. Elias, who stood with her, glanced at me briefly and sighed. He murmured something to her before leaving, passing me without another look.

My heart thundered in my ears as I stepped in beside her. The emotionless look in her eyes made a lump form in my throat, but she didn’t react to my presence. Her dark eyes remained on the ocean.

I let my gaze roam her body; tears stained her cheeks, but no more fell; her hair was pulled back and messy, the pins that had been keeping it in place now falling from her head. The dress itself was ruined; the once magnificent gown that had been perfectly crafted for her now hung off her frame, tattered and destroyed. A hole in her side revealed a now healed wound, bruised and discoloured.

I bit down on the new rage building within me. I forced myself to look away from the gaping hole in her dress and instead dropped our bags to the rocky ground.

“Does your head hurt?” I asked carefully, kneeling to poke through gear someone provided for her. She had all the essentials, including a number of weapons for herself, a tactile belt charmed to hold a shit load of essentials, and gear. Part of me still hated the idea that she had to be protected in this way, but now, I was more than happy for her to have it. I’d put her in Fae armour if I could. Bubble wrap her and hide her away if it wouldn’t get me in trouble.

For a long moment, Ivy didn’t respond, but from the corner of my eye, I watched as she wrapped her arms around herself. “There’s a pounding in my skull,” she choked out, her voice hoarse. “Like someone is in my head trying to break out.”

I nodded slowly and rose, holding her new gear in my hands. “That’ll be the worst of it,” I replied. “Butthere’s a chance it might knock you out for a few hours. Let it, because it’ll only hurt more if you try to push through it.”

Ivy blinked, but she didn’t meet my stare. “Are they always so real?”

I hesitated a moment before sighing. “Sometimes. Usually, when I have them, they’re like flashes of a potential future. But…” I trailed off and shook my head. “When I met you, they became clearer. More real.”

She shuddered, arms tightening around herself as she released a shaky breath. “It felt so cold.”

I stiffened. “Were you?—?”

“I was in a cage,” she whispered. “And what I saw terrified me. It was the future if I failed, Rowan. And it was horrifying. I can’t—I can’t let it happen.”

“What did you see?” I asked quietly, reaching for one of her hands.

But she flinched away from me, ducking her head as she finally took her gaze off the horizon. “I can’t—” She stopped and tilted her head towards the sky. “I can’t say it.”

“Why?”

Her throat bobbed as she swallowed. For the first time since she came out of the vision, she looked at me. Whatever the vision was, it had broken something within her, something I worried she wouldn’t get back. It took all my strength not to pull her into my arms, to hold her and promise her that the future she’d seen wouldn’t come to pass.

But that would be a lie. The truth was, I didn’t know if it would or wouldn’t. If she’d had a vision similar to mine, then it was possible that whatever Dante planned would happen.

We would fail in protecting her, and she would fall victim to his power.

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