Page 44 of The Crown of Nyx

My heart stopped as I stared at the hand, flickering my gaze between her lifted fingers and dark eyes. My lips parted as if to ask about Ivy, but I held back. Maybe that was what she wanted. For me to question her about the Queen of Nyx.

Had Dante already clawed his way into the good graces of the demons? Had we just handed our mate over to him blindly?

Had I made the worst mistake of my life, stepping back and pushing her away?

The demon side of me could have helped her with this world, the power of House Pride a new weapon in her arsenal.

But I’d fucked up. I kept pissing her off and I didn’t knowwhy.

Orion Black’s words filled my head.Selfish. Selfish. Selfish.

Rage turned into despair as I stared at the demon. “The vampire,” I bit out after a moment, throat tight. “Where is she?”

A smile unfurled across the demon’s lips. I couldn’t get a read on which House she belonged to. Prayed to fucking Nyx that I hadn’t just put Grey in danger. Maybe this was a pain demon from House Wrath. But if anyone could withstand what they were notorious for, it was Grey.

“She sleeps like the rest of them.” With a shrug, the demon dropped her hand. “The wolf, the mage Prince, the Seer, and the dreamer. All around you.”

I blew out a shaky breath, careful not to take my eyes off the demon. “And the crew we were with?”

“Bargained their way out.”

Traitors, I thought. Ivy wouldn’t think so. She’d accept that they wanted to free themselves and wouldn’t hold it against them.

But if I found them, I would make them regret ever leaving us—for abandoningher.

“You could too,” the demon sang. “There’s a reason you are awake.”

I narrowed my eyes. “And how would I do that?”

She grinned, revealing a row of pointed teeth I hadn’t noticed before. A flash of colour entered her eyes, a silver circle. “You meet with the Mistress, of course.”

My stomach bottomed out as the chains clicked open, freeing my hands.

Mistress. Not King of the Elysian Fields. One of the Sins, then.

Fucking Sable, I thought, rising to my feet. Rubbing my wrists, I looked down at the demon, eyes narrowing. “Take me to your Mistress.”

The demon,Cyra, kept the shadows around us as she guided me to hermistress. The only thing it told me was that Cyra was a lower-level demon. Nothing truly powerful. Basic shadow manipulation was common amongst all demons of the Underworld.

And unfortunately, I was no different.

But I followed the demon quietly. I had no sense of where I was, and the last time I’d been in the Underworld, it’d been on a mission assigned by Ya’Dahir almost fifteen years ago. Nothing special, either; just a drop in before entering the human world on a hunt for a few missing creatures.

I hadn’t even been born in this realm. Aither was my home, the Court I identified with, the power I controlled. I had no other connection to this realm other than blood, and rarely did I even consider that enough.

I purposefully kept my thoughts clear of Ivy. The last thing I wanted was to give them any idea of her. Maybe, during the attack of the sea monster, she’d escaped. Iremembered nothing other than her magic wrapping around me as the creature attacked.

From whispers, I knew it was a defence mechanism. One I hadn’t anticipated.

We should have been prepared, but the timeline hadn’t allowed for that. The damn Seer hadn’t prepared for it, either.

My jaw clenched. The sound of my boots hitting the ground was the only thing in the dark hallway. The ground beneath me was hardwood, not stone like the cells. There was also the occasional soft breeze, so at some point, we passed open windows.

Cyra was a steady presence ahead of me, her footfalls silent, her long, silky dress a whisper against the ground. Maybe we’d made it to the House of Lust. The home of sex demons. It would explain the way Cyra treated me, her teasing nature. But why would they lock us in a dungeon?

The demons of Lust were all about free fun and orgasms. They fed off of sex and the pleasure it brought one another. Keeping their captives asleep achieved none of that.

The demon glanced over her shoulder, a half-smile playing at her lips. “We’re almost there, Son of Pride.”

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