Page 20 of The Crown of Nyx

I pressed my lips together.I did keep a secret from you, though, and that has caused more than enough hurt.

She didn’t respond to that, sighing instead. “I feel way too exposed out here, naked and all.”

Adrian cracked a half smile, letting the rag disappear. “Alright. Let’s get you geared up. I also don’t like the idea of anyone catching you naked.”

I handed Adrian the remnants of Ivy’s underwear, which were about as good as it would get considering summoning anything from the palace would alert Dante and his men to our whereabouts. Ivy grimaced down at the fabric, but she didn’t protest as Adrian knelt and helped her into it.

“If we’re lucky, we’ll get replacements in the Underworld,” I said, helping her with the clasps of a bra. “If not…”

She glanced at me, eyes shining. “If not, I’ll deal with it. I doubt the Old World has lingerie stores.”

I offered her what felt like a genuine smile. “You’d be right about that, my love. Unfortunately, I don’t think any of us have sewing skills, either, or I’d offer to make you a pair.”

A wary smile cracked across her lips. “I suppose we’ll find out when we get desperate.”

My heart clenched, but we finished helping her into the gear. I grabbed a belt from her bag, one designed specifically for Ivy. It had a sheath for the dagger Maeve gave her, as well as places for other items she could use for spell work. Whatever happened out there, I vowed to ensure she would be prepared for battle. Nothing like what happened at the ball could happen again.

I had to make sure of it.

9

Ivy

“How are we planning on reaching Hell?” I asked carefully, crossing my arms tightly as the rest of the team formed a circle around me. There was a tense energy about everyone, a dark vibration that tingled across my skin. Now that the effects of the vision were finally wearing off, I was starting to feel more myself.

The anger over not being told about Rowan’s visions still simmered within me, though not nearly as fierce as it had been when they first explained them to me.

Now, exhaustion weighed me down. My bones and muscles ached with a deep tiredness. I wanted to slip into oblivion and not wake for a century. Part of it had to be my magic; the eternal being living within me mourned the previous Queen. It mourned Greer in a way that felt separate from myself, though at the same time, it was alsomy own grief. Now that I held all the power, I couldn’t quite tell what my own feelings were and what belonged to the magic.

Does magic even have feelings?I wondered. That would have to be a question for the Goddess. I doubted anyone around me would understand the strange disconnect happening within me.

Across from me, Hawk crossed his arms, head cocked. “We either find us a demon with enough power to take us through shadows?—”

“Or we find a ferryman,” Maeve said.

I looked between the two. “How would shadows take us there?”

“Some demons have the power to traverse the realms through shadows. It is a rare and powerful affinity, usually held by demons belonging to their version of the royal family,” Adrian explained. “My, uh…Griffon and his father, Onyx, have the ability.”

Through the bond, I felt his anguish at the memory of his mother. He’d been thinking about her. I caught the briefest impression of a memory, similar to the way I’d seen Orion’s at the ball. Of Greer standing by the lake at the bottom of the waterfall, wearing a long sundress while several of her mates swam in the water behind her. She had a hand on her stomach, belly swollen with pregnancy.

Silently, I offered Adrian some of my strength, a bit of hope.

He looked at me, eyes shining, and bowed his head.

“The only problem is our group is too big to travel that way,” Elias said. “There is no demon powerful enough to take us all to the demon realm, let alone the Old World.”

The energy shifted, darkening as we plunged into tense silence. My heart crashed against my ribs. In myhead, I felt the presence of the Goddess, her urgency pushing me into a deepening spiral of emotions: guilt and shame, but also perseverance and hope.

“We need a boat to the Underworld, then,” I replied finally, though a small part of me recognised that Elias was wrong. That there was someone who could do it. “We can do that, right? Without Captain Vale and the ferry?”

The Captain of the ship powerful enough to travel between the realms would be hard to find, especially considering we weren’t at a full moon. But from what I’d learned during my time at the academy, there were specialised ships for travelling between Avalon, Faery, and Hell.

We just needed to secure access.

“Captain Vale is loyal to you. He wouldn’t have access to the magic otherwise,” Maeve said. “The others, we don’t know. We have no idea who is loyal to the Nyx, and who is loyal to Dante.”

My stomach twisted. “How would we know? Dante has been planning this for years. He could have every captain on his side.”

---