Page 32 of The Crown of Nyx

“That’s what I wanted to talk about,” he said, folding his arms over his chest. There was blood on his fingers, but it looked as though he’d tried to wipe it away before coming here. Likely from dealing with the prisoner.

“Preferably with her,” he continued, eyes blank, “but you can relay the message.”

“Or you could just wait until she wakes, and tell her yourself,” Rowan offered, frowning. “You know she doesn’t bite, right? You can talk to her.”

His eyes darkened, and he shook his head. “You wouldn’t understand. You wanted a bond with her, I didn’t.”

I never expected to feel such rage at a comment. Maybe it was thewith herpart of the statement; the idea that he would be okay with a bond from anyone else but Ivy, that she wasn’t good enough forhim, really picked at something within me. I could understand if he hadn’t wanted a mate at all—he wouldn’t be the first to come out and claim that. But I couldn’t ignore the fact that he’d said that about Ivy. The woman I loved. Our future Queen.

Shaking my head, I slowly rose from where I sat by the far wall. “Get out.”

The half-Fae male swallowed, throat bobbing, and he sighed. “Look?—”

“I don’t care who you think you are. I don’t care what it is you have to tell her, or that you even have aclaim to a bond with her. But you will not stand there and disrespect her to our faces,” I said, pointing a finger in his direction. “If you think you can just come in here and tell us something like that and think we’ll accept you—thatshewill—then you would be wrong.”

Nash eyed me for a long moment before looking back down at Ivy’s still form. Through the bond, I picked up on the fact that she wasn’t sleeping anymore. She kept her eyes closed though, not moving from her position in Rowan’s arms. But she’d heard everything.

Her blocks were good, but I could still identify the barest impression of disappointment and sadness from his revelation. It only made me angrier.

“It’s time for you to leave,” Rowan said, voice dark with warning. “We can prepare Ivy for the Underworld. Your help isn’t needed.”

Hawk clenched his jaw and gave Ro a firm nod. “Understood.”

And yet he still spared Ivy a glance, even as he left. A look that revealed just how much his words had been a lie. I had no idea why he was so determined to push her away, but he was going to succeed.

“He can have his own opinion,”Ivy said, sparing me a glance as she brought the spoon to her lips. “It took me a while to even grasp the concept of mates and bonds. And I definitely didn’t want them.”

Rowan rolled his eyes before kissing her shoulder. “Yeah, sure.”

I brought a small portion of the beef stew to my lips and grimaced before saying, “You can say that until you’re blue in the face, Sweetheart. But we know better.”

Ivy’s garnet-brown eyes narrowed, but she didn’t respond as she stuck the spoon in her mouth and threw up a new block in her mind to keep me away from her emotions.

Good try, Sweetheart,I said, winking.That won’t keep me out for long.

She rolled her eyes. “As much as I appreciate you two standing up for me, you don’t need to. Hawk will…figure his shit out on his own.”

“What he said was entirely out of line, though,” Rowan replied. Our eyes met from where he lay sprawled out behind her. He wrapped an arm around her middle with a sigh. “We love you too much to let that kind of shit go unchecked.”

Ivy’s cheeks reddened, and she ducked her head. All I wanted to do was to reach out and pull her into my arms. Maybe lock her away in this little room and have my way with her for the rest of the night, reminding her of how much she is worthy of our love, our adoration. She didn’t need to be understanding in this situation, especially knowing she needed him and the power his bond would offer her.

“I don’t want him to be my mate just because of the power,” Ivy murmured, looking down at her stew, stirring her spoon around the thick gravy. “That would be totally unfair to him—to all of you.”

My throat tightened; gently, I reached for her hand and interlocked our fingers. “I would never imply that, Sweetheart. But this isn’t just about us—this is about our entire world.”

Her eyes flickered up to meet mine, and she swallowed. “I know. I—” She stopped, pressing her lips into a firm line as she shook her head. “What a way to complicate everything.”

“It’s not complicated though,” Rowan replied, sitting up and dropping a kiss to her shoulder. “He’s being a selfish prick. That’s all.”

Ivy tore her gaze from mine to look over her shoulder at Ro. “We don’t know why he’s like this. I won’t pass judgement until I have a conversation with him.”

“For now, it’s not something you need to worry about,” I said. “You have enough on your plate. In a couple of days, we’ll be in the Underworld.”

Her thoughts turned anxious, though I didn’t need the bond to know that. She visibly shuddered as she turned to meet my stare. “I didn’t interact with the demons much at Oberon,” she admitted. “So, how bad will it be?”

“Not nearly as bad as you’re projecting,” I replied, offering her a reassuring smile. “The demons are perhaps the most loyal to Nyx. They had to be, when their king stepped down and essentially handed her the crown.”

There was a reason my mother’s mate, Lazarus, considered himself the most loyal of her mate circle. He and Onyx, both demons—though of different houses—were fierce in their devotion to my mother because of the way they’d been raised in the Underworld. Back then, there had been more separation between the three primary realms of creatures. Maybe that was why I trusted Griffon so much with Thea and the children’s safety. He was his father’s son, and with that came loyalty to Nyx and her Queens.

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