Page 172 of The Crown of Nyx

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Ivy

“What have you done to him?” I shouted. My mate had three daggers sticking out of his back, each one large enough to do real damage if they stayed there any longer.

I tried to break free of Adrian’s hold, but he dragged me away from Orion and the pair of Fae, both holding swords dripping with my mate’s blood.

Behind me, Dante cursed. “Hyperion…”

But the air crackled again, this time with my magic as the storm grew darker over our heads. “I will kill you,” I seethed, ignoring Dante as tears burned my eyes. “You will die, and no one will care.”

The Fae male—Hyperion Black, I assumed, because he looked too much like Ry—laughed. “You aren’t strong enough to kill me, just like your little bastard of a mate wasn’t.” His lips curled in a cruel smile as he pointed thetip of his sword at the back of Orion’s head. “But soon enough, we’ll be stronger than any ruler that came before.”

I gritted my teeth as Orion groaned. “Ivy…don’t?—”

The female Fae slammed her foot into his stomach, cutting him off, and all I saw was red.

Voices shouted, but they turned to static in my ears. My magic, once weighed down by the power of the runes, exploded from within me.

Lightning struck from the sky and into her body, sending her flying through the air towards Dante. He dove out of the way, but she crashed through the wall of the cottage, sending rubble onto the chest, coating the chains nearby. Dante shouted something, but my focus was on Ry. On the blood spilling from his lips, pooling beneath his gear.

Heal him, I thought, summoning my magic. It burned, but I couldn’t feel any of that healing energy that should have risen with it.

Both times I’d healed my mates from killing blows, I’d passed out. I’d healed them subconsciously.

So, why couldn’t I do it now?

Outside the cottage, Damon shouted, but I couldn’t understand what he was saying. From the corner of my eye, Adrian pulled something from his belt, but darkness shot through the air before he could do anything.

I was caught between my mates as Adrian was ripped away from me. His voice echoed in my ears as Damon, still in the doorway, rattled the walls of the cottage trying to enter.

But my focus fell to my Fae mate. To the blood spilling from his body. To the wounds my magic couldn’t heal.

Why can’t I heal him?

Orion’s violet eyes found mine, desperate and hopeful. “I love you,” he coughed. “So much. I’m sorry.”

A tear slid down my cheek as I summoned another bolt, this time for Hyperion. “Do not be sorry. You’re going to be fine.” But I couldn’t even believe my own words. Couldn’t feel the certainty in my own bones. My words tasted like a lie, bitter and acrid.

Ry shook his head, like he already knew his fate. “I love you.”

Those were the final words to pass his lips as Hyperion laughed, a bolt of shadows ripped through my mate’s chest.

I screamed, louder than I thought I possibly could. Adrian wound his arms around me as the earth trembled beneath my feet.As the walls of the cottage shuddered. As the sky opened with a flood of power.

Lighting struck the Luna High Lord too late. He flew backwards into the wall, slumping to the ground with a thud. He still had a heartbeat. I could hear it despite the thunder, despite the ringing in my ears, despite the males around me shouting.

Adrian appeared at my side, trying to pull me back, but my body made a move towards Orion, towards his bloody body, like I might be able to push life back into him.

“Enough!” Dante yelled, a different kind of power filling the air.

A wrong kind of magic.

Adrian’s grip on me loosened before falling away entirely. Numbness filled me as I collapsed to my knees. I couldn’t feel the earth beneath me. Couldn’t feel the pain in my knees or in my hands as I tried crawling towards Orion.

Adrian was out cold, but he had a heartbeat.

Ry was dead, his blood turning the petals of the purple flowers red. He didn’t have a heartbeat.

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