Again, I expected to feel pity. Remorse. Sadness. But instead, there was a fire burning in my chest that needed to escape, and he wasn’t worth its wrath. Not anymore.
“This was never your power,” I said, stepping back. His hands, broken from the rot, fell from the skull. “And it was never going to be yours, no matter how hard you tried.”
Dante watched me for a long moment, the two blades still sticking out of his shoulder and chest. “He said it would work.”
The chill that rolled down my spine was the only reaction I could muster. “Who?”
“Emris,” he whispered, tears rolling down his face. “Emris said it would work. He said the power would be mine. He said?—”
Those final words were cut off by a collar snapping around his throat. Dante’s dark eyes rolled into the back of his head, and he fell, slumping into the wet stone.
I finally looked at the figure behind him, drawing in a sharp breath as Hawk came into focus. “I remember everything,” he said, not meeting my stare.
“And?” I asked, mouth suddenly dry as I took in my mate’s bloodied, soaked form.
Hawk looked at me with pursed lips. “I remembered how much I hate this fucker.”
106
Ivy
For a moment, I felt relief. But it was quickly overshadowed by the pulsing power in my hands. Nyx’s skull burned with a violet light, reminding me too much of my magic. The hollow eye sockets went from an eerie black to something else, like it’d been lit from within.
My hands trembled, but I couldn’t tear my eyes from it. On the breeze, I heard a whisper.Choose, it said, sounding like Nyx herself.
Choose what?I asked, the power flickering inside me, matching the flickering of the skull.
Your destiny.
What choice was there to make? I had to be Queen—that was what Nyx made certain of. And the creatures of Nyx…they would want that. Especially after everything Dante had done, wouldn’t they need me to take my place as Queen? Like Pandora and all the women who came after her, wasn’t it my turn to do what they’d done and rule?
But it wasn’t what I wanted. It was the last thing I wanted.
I didn’t want my babies growing up like Adrian, feeling like they didn’t matter. I didn’t want to place this kind of burden on them. And I didn’t want to bring my baby sisters back into a world where there would always be a threat against me. I couldn’t do that to them again.
Being Queen was the one thing Ididn’twant, but I would do it if it meant what was best for everyone. But I knew the creatures didn’t need a Queen unwilling to rule them, who did it because she had to.
They didn’t needme.
What would happen?I asked silently, closing my eyes.
On the breeze, I felt a comforting warmth.The power will always be yours, until another is born to take it, Nyx said quietly.But the time of Queens could be over. If you think the world doesn’t need you.
I shuddered, feeling tears slide down my cheeks as I lifted my face to the sky.And if I think they don’t?
Then we will see how strong our creatures truly are,she replied.Perhaps the era of my Queens must come to an end, as it was always meant to. But not for all.
My skin prickled as power swelled, lifting my hair.What does that mean?The skull in my hands started to chill, though I kept hold of the bone.Nyx? What are you doing?
The world I first built needs a Prima,she replied.So summon one.
Tears continued to fall from my eyes as I searched the magic for my connection to the Old World. The creatures known as Primals, born from what was left of Nyx’s power, who fought tirelessly for their homes, were exhausted. They were losing their will to fight the terrifying creatures hunting them.
I remembered Xerxes’s story about the Prima. How they needed one for their world, how they thought birth rates had dropped because another had not made herself known.
There was only one female pregnant with a little girl. One who could hold the title of Prima for Xerxes’s people.
So, I touched the unborn child with the magic she needed. Guilt washed through me, pain burning deep in my chest as I passed on something I no longer wanted to hold onto another who had no choice.
