Page 91 of The Crown of Nyx

The weight of their stares had me pressing into Elias’s side and ducking my head.

“Up we go, I guess,” Rowan said lightly, pulling one of his enchanted daggers from his belt. “I really, really hope the giant spiders don’t live there.”

I stiffened, eyes widening. “Giant what?”

He looked back at me with a grimace. “You didn’t hear about those in class?”

“No!” I tried to pull my hand from Elias’s, but he held firmly to me, growling. “Oh, Goddess, I am not dealing with huge spiders. I watched all theLord of the Ringsmovies, and those things freaked me out the most.”

Adrian chuckled, shaking his head. “Don’t worry, Sweetheart, we’ll protect you.”

“You better,” I muttered, shuddering.I will not end up like Frodo.

Apparently, my disgust lightened the mood enough for the others. Weapons were drawn, a circle formed around me, and we approached the dark opening on the beach with bated breaths.

I prayed silently to the Goddess that what we were seeking resided in the ruins above us. But a small part of me felt like that would be too easy.

As I glanced back at the dark ocean, a different kind of chill rolled down my spine. My magic flared in warning, skin prickling with a wrongness I recognised immediately.

“He’s here,” I said. “He made it to the Old world.”

Everyone froze in the opening of the cave. I couldn’t take my eyes off the water. I wasn’t sure how, but I knew he’d arrived by boat.

Which meant he could have had anyone with him.

An army, even.

And that meant we were officially running out of time.

37

Hawk

Ivy’s words echoed through my head as we entered the cave. The tension returned almost immediately with her declaration.

Fucking Dante. That damned traitor.

I should have known he’d been planning something when I’d taken her into that training room. Fuck. Worse, how the hell had Sable not known? She’d given me a few protections, but claimed they were for Ivy’s magic. Not forhim.

I couldn’t even ask Archer if he knew anything. They weren’t allowed to know that I’d been working with Sable the last several years.

Years that felt like a waste now.

Not only had Dante found us,but we’d failed.

I pulled a witch light from my belt and flicked it on. Grey and I walked in front of the team, with Kingsley and Black at the rear. I felt the imposing, dark presence of the demon king at my back, a threat I really didn’t know how to handle. Ivy and Beckham were behind him, but I wished she were nearer.

But I couldn’t accept her bond yet. Couldn’t be the mate she needed. Not until I’d fulfilled Sable’s plans.

Even if that went against everything my own magic was telling me. Went against my own heart.

Selfish, I thought, the word echoing in my head. Or practical? Sable had me on a path, told me I needed to follow it—no deviation. Ivy would be a distraction. I knew that before, at the academy, and I had to remind myself of that now.

Swinging the witch light around the cavern, I followed the path upwards. Dry, unused stairs rose into the cliff ahead of us. Grey pulled her own witch light free and let the light of it shift upwards into the darkness above us.

Nothing stared down at us from above. There was only rock and what might have once been the remnants of old witch lights that hadn’t been activated in over a thousand years.

“No skeletons yet,” the demon king muttered.

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