Page 76 of The Crown of Nyx

“And yet you’re here.” The rotten one moved away, and it was like I could finally breathe again as he took his stench with him. “Don’t let your useless complaining meet his ears. You might be a good trainer, but you are just as expendable as these beasts.”

He left the cages entirely, his scent the only impression of his time here. But Watcher stayed.

“Fae bastard,” he growled. The whip slammed into the body of another beast, and it whimpered from the impact. “His own fucking son betrayed him for that cunt of a Queen. And he thinksI’mthe expendable one?” Watcher made a sound in the back of his throat as he released the whip again on a different creature. This one yowled at the impact before throwing himself into the bars repeatedly for relief.

“Disappoint me, Thor, and we’ll go through your punishments again,” Watcher hissed, appearing at the bars of my cage, the smell of tobacco smoke thick on his breath. “I’ll make you fucking regret it.”

I huffed through my nose, keeping my eyes shut. His torments and warnings were nothing anymore.

“He won’t have a chance to fail,”hesaid. I could not feel the rage I had fromhimbefore the new cage. Andhedid not smell of blood that was not his. “Once I’m done with him, he’ll be perfect. And he’ll be another bloodthirsty weapon against Nyx and her bitch of a Queen.”

My stomach sank. Pressure built in my head. Pounding in my skull. A whimper I tried so hard to hold back fell from my beast’s lips.

And when the world turned back, I saw her.

Beautiful. Peaceful.Dead.

My beast raged within me.

It wanted her blood, wanted her flesh, wantedher.

So didhe.

I couldn’t fight it. The command of death. The will of the male who kept me in my cage and from peace. His voice echoed in my ears until all I knew was his will.

Her death will be mine.

32

Maeve

The Elysian King still had Ivy’s hand trapped in his when we finally made it back to the chamber he’d given Ivy. My beast hated how he towered over her. A potential threat that held her with a gentleness I doubted even she noticed. She walked with a stiff posture and tried to keep as far a distance as she could without tearing her hand from his.But he moved with ease, comfortable in her presence.

I kept a close eye on the male in particular. Only rumours surrounded him. Whispers in the night. Nightmares and stories told by the bedsides of children.

Not even the demons of House Elysian knew much abouttheir King.

And now he had not only shown his face to the entire realm of Hell, but he had done it to create an alliance with our Queen.

As much as he claimed he wanted an alliance with the Queen of Nyx, I knew deep in my gut that wasn’t the only reason. Perhaps not even the reason at all.

The Elysian King stopped in the doorway of a chamber, though he did not release Ivy’s hand immediately. He brought her knuckle slowly to his lips, keeping his eyes trained on hers. Beside me, Elias bristled, the other males barely holding back their contempt. It was a rush of emotions that I never expected, but knew would be inevitable when having a mate.

A need to protect her washed over me, tightening around my lungs as he lowered her hand from his lips. “Rest. We have a long journey to complete tomorrow.”

Ivy’s brows furrowed as she finally took her hand back. “I thought we would be jumping through shadows.” She glanced warily back at us. “That is what we’re doing, right?” When she looked back at him, he smiled.

“Yes,” he replied, hands moving behind his back. “And with how large our party is, it may take…three jumps before we reach the shores of the Old World.”

Her eyes narrowed, but before she could respond, Adrian stalked to her side and wrapped an arm around her waist. “We can explain the intricacies of it to her,” he said, offering the demon king a stiff smile. “She’ll see you in the morning.”

The smile dropped from Rhadamanthus’s face as he straightened to his full, intimidating height. He was an imposing male at over seven feet, and when he stared down at Adrian, there was none of that softness in his gaze. Where he held Ivy in some kind of regard, whetherthat be because of their deal or something else, it did not extend to us.

My jaw clenched as the demon turned back to her without a word to Adrian. “I will see you when it is time.”

And without looking at the rest of us, he walked into the shadows and disappeared.

Ivy slumped into Adrian’s side with a sigh. “Please. I need to get out of this dress,” she muttered. “I don’t have the energy for anything else.”

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