Page 52 of The Crown of Nyx

At first glance, I could tell it wasn’t one of my men. Not Orion or Hawk or the rest of the team. But the lighting was awful, and from what I could see, all I knew was that it had to be a male. Demon, maybe. But I still wasn’t nearly as adept at identifying the creatures around me as I should have been, even with the new power from Greer—but especially because of the distance between me and the others.

I tried to take a step towards the stage, like an invisible rope was pulling me towards the male, but an arm locked around my waist, another around my shoulder.

I froze. There was only one person next to me. I’d never experienced someone with multiple arms, but as I glanced at the demon beside me, it became clear they hadfour arms. After everything I’d witnessed, this somehow had to be the strangest. Maybe not the weirdest, though. There were people with horns and tails, after all. And in the crowd alone, there were demons with more than just horns and tails; some had wings like bats spreading from their backs. Others had furry legs, like the demons of old myth. Some even had tusks.

The demon beside me, other than the four arms, looked oddly human otherwise.

“You cannot go up there dressed like that,” the demon hummed, voice light and airy. Silver hair fell in loose curls and tight braids down their back, framing their pixie-like face. “They will eat you alive.”

I shuddered, skin puckering as they tried to pull me away. “I’m not going anywhere with you,” I replied quietly. “I need to get out of here. I need to find?—”

Eyes like a snake met mine. They were the colour of cobalt, the iris slitted. “What you wish to find will only be presented if you play by the rules.”

If there was a time to play the ‘I’m your future Queen’ card, now would have been it. But before the words could pass my lips, the demon pulled me into a different set of curtains. I huffed at their strength, glancing over my shoulder to see the male on the stage again, but the curtains of the new room closed, trapping me within.

The smell of smoke was a lot thinner here, but perfume—sickly sweet and intoxicating—wafted through the air. I coughed, lungs and throat tightening from the smell, but the demons around me giggled. There were a few lights illuminating the dark room, a dressing room by the look of it. There was a small table with a mirror, which the demon shoved me towards, and from the dark corners appeared two more demons.

These demons were more humanoid in appearance, though they wore no glamour to hide their other appendages. One had wings with feathers of dark brown and antlers, while the other smiled at me with pointed teeth. Both shared the same unnerving black eyes.

I held my tongue as the demon with the four arms appeared in the reflection behind me. They rested two hands on the back of the chair I’d been forced into, and smiled at me, the curve of their lips sly.

“Rule number one: Mistress does not like it when Phoenix Agents are in her club. You cannot wearthathere.”

I tore my eyes from theirs and glanced down at my clothes. I was, in fact, in the gear I’d fallen asleep in. The black material clung to my body like a second skin, so light I hadn’t really noticed it. And where I should have felt the remnants of sea water—like sand between my boobs or irritating me between my thighs—I felt oddly…clean.

I frowned, meeting their stare again. “I think I should speak with whoever your Mistress is, because?—”

They cut me off with a snap of their fingers, and suddenly, I was naked in the chair.

All my insecurities came rushing back as the two other demons assessed me. I quickly covered myself as best I could, wrapping an arm around my chest, another over my stomach. If I could have, I would have sunk to the floor to hide. It was one thing, honing my body in front of my mates. There was little to no shyness left with them.

But the three demons surrounding me were strangers. Dangerous strangers who were working for someone holding me trapped…here. Whereverherewas.

And I had to bet it was the same person who had been in Orion’s head.

“Give. Me. My. Clothes,” I growled, glaring at the four-armed demon in the mirror. “I won’t ask again.”

“Rule number two: should you fight, Mistress will impart punishments upon the vampire, wolf shifter, divination mage, charm mage, Luna Fae, and Aither Fae in her possession.”

The colour drained from my face. My stomach bottomed out, and I sucked in a breath to control the panic and anger rising within me. I dropped their stare to the stupid table, where cosmetics appeared, scattered across the surface.

My mates were being held by some psycho demon chick with dream-walking abilities. Somehow, I knew I wasn’t asleep anymore. This felt too real to be a dream.

And I had to believe that my mates were likely being held in the same manner.

A lump formed in my throat. “Is she—are you working with the False king?”

There were gasps around me. I glanced up to take in the disgusted looks being shared between the three demons. “Goddess no,” the one with wings rasped.

“We would never betray Her,” the other growled.

The four-armed demon sneered, reaching for a brush left on the table in front of me. “Rule three: do not bring that irritating bastard up. He has been banned from Mistress’s club for a century. Nasty thing, he was.”

Dante, prince of parties, banned from whatever place this was? “What did he do?” I asked.

All three demons looked at me warily. I couldn’t tell if they trusted me or not. Did they know who I was? I toyed with Maeve’s ring, the silver band with the red gem, still around my finger. Was there a chance the charm that hid my power was still in effect? I tried to remember when Adrian had last touched it up, but couldn’t. But ifit weren’t working, then surely the demons knew who I was.WhatI was.

The winged demon with the raspy voice grabbed something off a rack behind her. It appeared to be a silk dress. It looked almost similar to the one I’d worn when I’d completed the bond with Rowan. My heart twisted at the reminder that he, like the others, were still trapped somewhere.

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