Page 17 of The Queen’s Shadow

It wasn’t just warm.

It was wet.

I glanced down and gasped. The fingernails were missing from his hand, and he was bleeding so profusely it was dripping onto the floor.

“Amon!” I cried out in shock. Everyone stopped to look at me. I blinked. The blood was gone, and his hand was completely fine.

“What is it?” He asked, clearly concerned. I shook my head, biting my lip. What was going on with me?

He touched a perfect thumb to my bottom lip, gently pulling it out from where I had clamped down on it between my teeth. Quietly, so no one else would hear, he breathed into my ear.

“Do not bite your lip like that, unless you would like me to show you how to bite it properly.”

I shivered as he pulled away, the heat in his eyes making things tighten in my core. I smirked at him.

“Maybe after dinner,” I teased. “We haven’t had a lesson in a while.”

A devilish smirk curled across his beautiful lips. “You’re a wicked little thing.” He murmured, dropping a devastatingly soft kiss on my mouth before pulling me into the kitchen. My lips burned where he touched me and I shivered against him. “Let’s help set the table then, so that the end of dinner might come sooner.” His eyes were shining with mischief. “I have so much I still would like to teach you.”

I set the table with wine glasses while Rycon and Dossidian brought out the food. Amon and Meredith took care of the cutlery and dinnerware, while Clair got Kasha settled into her highchair. Jeremy got to work carving the turkey at the head of the table as we all tucked in to eat.

I chose a seat between Clair and Amon, across from Rycon, who had settled down next to Kasha. He cut her food up into tiny bite size pieces for her. She beamed up at him, reaching her tiny hands out to touch his face. He smirked at her and gently tugged one of her pigtails affectionately.

“Eat what you can,” he told her, “I know it’s hard but try to eat a little for me.” Suddenly, he looked terribly sad as the tiny Kasha turned her attention to her plate. Her brandy eyes were haunted. I frowned and was about to ask what was wrong when Clair passed me the plate of turkey. I smiled at her gratefully and piled my plate high with dark meat before passing the dish to Amon on my other side.

I noticed a dish filled with juicy, purple pomegranates on the table in front of Conrad and my mouth watered. What a great twist on the traditional cranberry sauce.

“Conrad, can you pass the pomegranates?” I asked, reaching forward to grab one. Clair snatched up my wrist and shook her head, smiling.

“It’s too early for pomegranates. The night is young, we don’t want you falling asleep before we read the story.”

That felt like such a strange thing to say, but before I could ask what she meant, Jeremy tapped his knife on his wine glass and cleared his throat.

“A toast,” he said, looking fondly around the table at all of us. “To chaos,” he said. “May we always be there to save one another.”

“To chaos!” Dossidian bellowed, and we clinked our glasses together.

“Oh!” Clair exclaimed, as she dropped her glass. The red wine splashed across her chest, staining the front of her shirt. It dripped down her front in an angry crimson stain. “Shoot!” She exclaimed, reaching forward for a napkin to dab at the stain.

The dining room was illuminated suddenly with a flash of lightning and we all jumped at the crack of thunder that followed.

“Mom!” I cried, unsure why the sight of the purple wine had struck me with such a strong feeling of panic. She chuckled and brushed me off.

“Nothing to worry about sweetie, just a little spill.” She waved her hand in an attempt to clear the mess, but nothing happened. She frowned at her magickless fingers, her face falling in disappointment. Jeremy buried his face in his hands. I watched as his shoulders shook with grief.

The rest of the table fell silent and we finished our meals to the methodic drip, drip, drip of the wine as it continued to leak onto the floor.

Raven

After dinner, we gathered in the living room. Jeremy turned on the electric fireplace and handed a copy of ‘Twas The Night Before Christmas’ to Rycon. Jeremy usually read the story, but he smiled at Rycon, cuffing him on the shoulder before settling down in one of the armchairs on the opposite side of the room to listen. The shifter smirked at him, pulling little Kasha into his lap and opening the book up so she could see the pictures.

I curled up on the floor between Amon’s legs to listen as Rycon recited the familiar words of the poem that I knew by heart.

‘Twas the night before Christmas,’ Rycon began. ‘And all through the house, not a creature was stirring…’ he paused, looking down at Kasha, tapping a finger on her freckled nose. ‘Not even a mouse.’

As Rycon continued to read, Amon floated the gift he had brought to me from where I had placed it under the tree. He wrapped his arms around my shoulders and kissed me on the side of the head.

“Open it,” he whispered into my ear. I grinned and looked back over my shoulder at him.