Page 75 of The Crown of Nyx

“You don’t have to?—”

He cut me off with a look that made me press my lips into a firm line. “It would look bad if I did not leave with you, my Queen. We are married now, after all.”

I clenched my jaw, glancing either side of me at my mates. Maeve fisted her hands, eyes shining that familiar red. Through the bond, the briefest impression of annoyance and protectiveness came over her.

On my other side, both Elias and Orion stood tensely. Neither liked the forwardness of the demon king, but all understood why I had to do what I was doing.

Jaw still clenched, I grabbed his hand. Our shared tattoo lined up for a moment and the mark tingled, but the feeling disappeared when he helped me to my feet.

He didn’t let go of my hand, not as he guided me into the crowd, and certainly not as the crowds parted to gawk at us as we passed.

It was so different to me actually meeting a new mate. I knew it, and my bonds knew it, too. It wasn’t as simple as jealousy, what I felt from them. It was a deepdesire to protect me from someone who was a threat to me—a threat to our mate bonds.

Part of me felt it, but another was strangely open to whatever it was the male beside me had. It was hard to understand even in my own brain.

I don’t like him,Rowan said, his discomfort almost palpable.I really, really don’t like him.

I know, I replied. Guilt tightened like a vice in my stomach.

I really owed them for all they were dealing with for me.

31

Thor

They kept us in cages.

The other ones fought. They threw themselves against the iron bars infused with magic that hurt when you touched them. Their howls of pain and yips each time they tried again to break free only made me close my eyes against the memories of doing it myself. The agony meant they would continue until they were forced to stop, their minds clouded by the pain.

Watcher whipped the ones he could through the bars. The ones who tried to fight.

My lips pulled up, like I could speak to the other beasts in their cages and tell them it was not worth it. But they were smarter than that. They had to know that if they kept fighting, they would die. And death was better than this.

I closed my eyes instead as one of the smaller beasts cried out before being silenced. Watcher laughed, bitter and sadistic, as he always did when one could not take the pain anymore.

“There are ways to keep them awake, you know,” a male said. His scent was dark and rotten. But I did not move to hide my nose from him as he walked by my cage, his footsteps soft on the wooden deck of the ship.

“This keeps them trained well,” Watcher replied. “That one there can attest to that.”

The weight of their glares fell on me, but I remained passive. Silent.

Soon enough, I would find the sweet release of death. It was only a matter of time. They would find me useless soon enough. A burden, rather than a weapon.

How much more destruction could I take before they broke me completely?

The ship rocked sharply, and the cages groaned. But they did not move. They couldn’t. Watcher had already said that if the ship went down, then we would go with it. It was easy enough to replace the beasts; there were hundreds trapped in the mountain wherehekept us.

I hoped it would go down. Take Watcher and the rotten one with it.

“Do they not know how to sail a fucking ship?” Watcher snapped.

The rotten one sighed. “Dante knew the risks of taking this passage. It is only a matter of time before we reach the Gorgon Isles.”

“And then we deal with the fucking monsters.” Watcher drew the end of his whip against the bars of one of the cages. The smell of burning leather drifted through the air from the wind coming off the water.

“You are a demon of pain,” the rotten one said, voice dull and unimpressed. “And you fear rumoured monsters?”

Watcher made a sound in the back of his throat. “I’m not stupid. The Old World isn’t accessible for a reason.”

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