Page 95 of The Crown of Nyx

There were three clinging to the walls. One with silver eyes, one with red eyes, and one with gold eyes. They all had a smoky, black, opaque look about them; more solid than shadows made by the sun, thick like heavy smoke from a fire. They were almost wispy, too, in how they looked, especially around the edges.

And they were unlike anything I’d ever seen before.

Based on the reactions of the rest of the team—and Damon especially, whose barely concealed shocked expression made my heart twist—they’d never seen something like the three shadow-creatures, either.

There’s a reason why we call this the realm of monsters,Rowan said, his voice thick with tension even through the bond.

The shadow-creatures didn’t move from where they watched us, their eyes unblinking. My skin prickled with awareness, like they weren’t the only ones watching us. But I was scared to take my eyes off them.

I fortified the protections around us just in case. My fingers tingled with power as the bubble of magic turned from a soft purple hue to an electrifying violet that crackled with the intensity of my lightning.

The creatures didn’t even move. They remained where they were on the walls, watching, as if they knew we wouldn’t move until they did.

We’re sitting ducks,I said to no one in particular.There’s something else here. I know it.

Elias brushed my hip with one clawed hand.I know, Angel. We all do. But if we go out in the open, we’re fucked.

We can’t risk going back into the tunnels,Ry added.They could already be flooding it now.

My stomach dropped, and I gritted my teeth.Then we need to do something other than just stand here. If they don’t attack us, then Dante could find us and do it himself.

There was no response to that. We were stuck either way. There was the enemy we didn’t know, and the one we did. And I didn’t really want to take chances on either.

The optimistic part of me wanted to believe these creatures were curious. Why else would they just watch us? But I also knew that in this world, anything was possible. Despite being humanoid in shape, they could be anything but.

Something in another hallway made us all turn. It could only be described as the sound of metal scraping against stone. I cringed, pushing myself into Elias’s back as the sound grew louder. My shifter mate growled low in his throat. The clawed hand that brushed my side before now gripped my hip in warning, holding me as close to him as possible.

No way was I going to try and face whatever the fuck was out there. I was sort of confident in my ability to protect myself, to fight now that I had all the power of one of Nyx’s Queens. I just didn’t know how to use it effectively—or without hurting someone I cared about. I was not going to dumb-bitch my way through this one. And no amount of calming energy from my mates would help, either. That ship had sailed into a storm and sunk dramatically below the waves ages ago.

Still, though, I brushed my fingers over Maeve’s dagger. It probably wouldn’t help much against the shadow-creatures, but whatever was in the other hallway…

No, it probably wouldn’t help much there, either.

Time to rely on my magic. That’s why Hawk was forced to be my mentor at the academy. Why he pushed me so much to stop running from my power.

At least there was something I could thank him for.

I rolled my shoulders back, summoning the magic I knew all too well. The sky rumbled, but there was no rain that came with the dark clouds covering the stars. A chilling wind swept through the ruins, carrying with it the stench of death and rot.

My nose crinkled. I tried not to cover my face with my arm as the smell overwhelmed us. Goddess above, had they dragged a rotting carcass in with them? Or worse, were they zombies?

I doubted I could handle more zombies. It didn’t matter what Maeve called the ocean dwellingrevenants, they were zombies, and whatever was coming for us now might have been the same.

Vampires, shifters, witches, and a number of other things were real.

But why zombies?

Focus,a mhuirnín,your thoughts are spiralling, Maeve said, her voice stiff, but not in her normal team leader way.

I understood what she meant. No panic. We did not have time to be dealing with whatever the fuck these monsters were, and me having a panic attack.

I pulled myself out of my thoughts, focusing on what was around me. The dark, unending sky. The three shadow-creatures watching us from the walls. But even they shifted. Like they didn’t like the rotting death smell either.

It was different to the scent of death that Damon carried with him. Oddly enough, his was always comforting.

But what came from the ruins was…something else.

The thing in the other hall made a sound that could only be described as flesh hitting the ground. It reminded me of when Thea would accidentally drop a chicken breast on the floor back home. Or the whole pound of ground beef that one time during a storm. A gross, wet,smackagainst the tiles in our little kitchen.

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