Page 26 of The Crown of Nyx

On the horizon,we spied our ticket out of Avalon, a small vessel shaped like a pirate ship.

“It’s not a pirate ship,” Rowan murmured, taking my hand as we waited for Hawk to reach the dark boat rocking lightly against the blue sky.

I couldn’t take my eyes off the half-Fae male. Couldn’t even make myself crack a smile. Anxiety was too simple a word to describe the chaotic storm swirling within me. And the magic…that was a different beast entirely. There was a heavy weight of knowledge pressing down on me. One that told me I would need to claim the male soon. Had to find the others Nyx warned me I needed to bond.

Swallowing hard, I shrugged. “I know. But that’s my only frame of reference,” I replied quietly, breathing a sigh of relief when I watched Hawk lower himself to the vessel.

We hadn’t been spotted—yet. I prayed to the Goddess that not only was he good at hiding himself, but that the ship was hidden, too. That Dante’s people hadn’t caught wind of our escape plans.

“To be honest with you, I don’t know what to call it, either,” Rowan said, squeezing my hand. “But it’ll be okay.”

At that, I finally tore my eyes off the ship and glanced at him. Dark circles underlined his hazel eyes, and though he had a light smile to his lips, there was a strain to it that made my heart ache.

“As long as we’re together, I know it will,” I replied, trying to offer him a smile, but it felt stiff on my dry lips.

From the other side of the small shack, Elias grunted. I turned in time to see him lower his wrist, the rune on his skin disappearing. “Nash made it fine. Found Grey and…Black…with the rest of the crew. The original captain was compromised, so someone else stepped in. Skeleton crew, mostly. Dante’s people got there and thinned the crowd. But it’ll be enough to get us to the Underworld.”

My gut twisted. The Hell realm, or better known as the Underworld, depending on who you asked, was home to the demons and the Houses of Sin. They had a King, though his domain wasn’t the demons—it was the fields of death known as Elysian.

I shivered, thinking back to the hellhounds that’d attacked me back home. My first taste of what this world could be: dangerous, dark, and more than it seemed.

Releasing Rowan’s hand, I moved to my shifter mate. His emotions were carefully hidden, so unlike him, but I didn’t need the bond to understand just how stressed he was. Scared over what might happen.

Everything was at stake now. We knew what our futures held if we didn’t survive this journey.

Elias tracked me with his eyes until I stopped in front of him. “Hey.”

The corners of his eyes softened, and slowly, he held out his hand. I took it with a sigh of relief and let him pull me into his chest. The last forty-eight hours hadn’t given us much time to be together. And as much as I needed him, I understood why he’d put up the barrier between us. Right now, he needed to be the soldier. The fighter. My protector. His need to defend me outweighed his desire to stand back and let others take the lead.

I circled my arms around his waist and buried my face in his chest. “Thank you,” I said, voice muffled by his gear.

“For what, Angel?”

“Just for being you,” I replied. His chest rumbled, and he stroked a hand over my hair. The quick braid I’d put it in after getting some help removing all the pins and pearls in my hair was messy, but it held for now. I would need to ask Maeve to fix it for me once we were on the ship.

“I can see the boat. It’s being rowed to shore now,” Adrian said from the dirty window of the shack. I forced myself to pull back from Elias enough to turn and face my charm mage. His emerald green eyes found mine, softening slightly, but tension wound his body tightly. “Not long now, Sweetheart.”

My body stiffened, tightening with a force that made it hard to breathe.Goddess help us,I thought, reaching into myself for the magic still slumbering in my chest. Gently, I tugged a small thread free; it reminded me of the magic I’d been able to conjure during the attack at the safe house, the dome of protective energy I’d summoned during our escape. Before, it’d been difficult to call forth. But now, it came to me easily, sliding across my skin invitingly.

I shivered as it settled over my flesh. All eyes were on me now, taking in the soft glow of magic settling over me. My wolf kept an arm around my waist and bent down to kiss the top of my head. “You don’t need to strain yourself, Angel. We’re protected.”

“I know,” I replied, breathing a sigh. “But I won’t be taking any more chances. Not with Dante out there hunting us. Not when he might have a way to hurt us.”

The tension in the room thickened at my words. But my fears weren’t unfounded; Rowan’s vision came to mind first. The fears my mates had shared concerning them. And then my own look into the future. The death awaiting us if we failed.

I squeezed my eyes shut to will away the images of my mates spread out in front of my cage, their unmoving bodies reaching for me. My heart raced, despite pushing the memory aside. Elias’s arms tightened around my waist, and he pressed another kiss to the top of my head, lips lingering for a long moment.

“I love you,” he murmured, soft enough so only I could hear. “We will make it through this.”

I shivered, leaning into him. His warmth enveloped me as we waited for the boat to make it to shore. I had to trust in his words, otherwise, the fear would set in.

And it wouldn’t matter how hard we fought, then. Because we would have already lost.

12

Ivy

There was only tense, thick silence on the top deck of the ship when we finally boarded. The few crew that survived Dante’s attack stood in a group by the main mast, their faces set in stony masks of apprehension and sadness. I couldn’t blame them. This whole situation was probably infuriating. Their Queen was dead, half their crew slaughtered, and they’d been made to choose a side. And they probably wondered if they, too, would be dead by the end of this voyage.

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