Page 186 of The Queen’s Shadow

“You definitely moaned.”

I opened my mouth to argue again only for him to shovel another spoonful of stew into it. It tasted so good I didn’t even have the heart to get mad at him for stuffing it in my face. I just swallowed the warm, delicious mouthful and watched as he diligently scooped up some more.

He carried on spooning stew into my mouth until the bowl was empty, and neither of us spoke for the rest of the meal. I pretended that it wasn’t totally weird and pathetic that he was spoon feeding me like a toddler. If I was being honest with myself, I didn’t have the energy to do it myself, and it was delicious.

When the stew was gone, he set the empty bowl next to my half-finished teacup on my end table and leaned over to tug my blankets up around me. He tucked me in so I was nice and snug on both sides.

“There. That wasn’t so bad, was it?” He asked, smirking down at me with that cocky little smile that made me want to both punch him in the face and kiss him at the same time.

“If you tell anybody about this when I get my powers back, I’ll blast your head clean off your shoulders.” I warned him.

He leaned in close, pressing a kiss on top of my head before grabbing the dirty dishes on his way out.

“I would love to see you try, Kasha.” He didn’t say it like it was a challenge. He said it like he really did want to see me try, and something about that made me smile.

Just a little bit.

“Why do you keep doing that? I asked.

“Doing what?”

“Kissing my head when you’re about to leave the room.”

He frowned at me, looking like he was mulling over his answer. Finally, he responded. “I don’t know. I like doing it. Do you want me to stop?”

It was my turn to think for a minute before speaking. It was weird, and definitely not something friends did, but the more I thought about it, the more I realized I liked it, too.

“No. You don’t have to stop.” I said, cuddling back into my pillows.

Rycon gave me a small smile and a curt nod. “I’ll keep doing it, then.” He said softly, before slipping out of the room and closing the door quietly behind him.

As I curled up in the warm and safe cocoon he had tucked me into with a full belly, my eyelids began to feel heavy and I let myself drift off. He might be an asshole, but that asshole definitely was an excellent chef.

I would give him that much.

Raven

Iwas so fucking sick of sand. It was everywhere, all the time. It was in my hair, my ears and my origindamned mouth. I was constantly rubbing it out of my eyes, digging it out from beneath my fingernails and finding it in the hairline seams of my armor.

I had cast a shield around us as we flew, but it still managed to find its way in, rubbing against every single one of my already frayed nerves.

Doing my best to follow Dossidian’s directions, I flew us onward tirelessly, but by the third day, I began to grow tired.

It wasn’t that I was running out of power. I was never at risk of that. The endless rush of darkness that I drew from in the center of my chest only seemed to grow deeper and stronger the more I drew from it. It was my body, which seemed to be losing the strength it needed to wield my magick.

We had stopped to eat and rest several times; however, we were forced to ration the food we had brought with us, not to mention the water. Conrad had filled his armor and Dossidian had packed several lambskin bladders filled with water, but it wouldn’t last forever.

The sun had begun its descent at the end of the third day and I lowered our team to the ground to make camp. The one redeeming quality this desert seemed to have was the sunsets. The sun grew in size as it slid to the belly of the sky, washing it with a crimson glow that met with the warm embrace of the sandy sea that stretched around us. However, it was difficult for me to enjoy the view, knowing that it would soon be followed by a long cold night, filled with whispers that relentlessly tried to draw us out into the dark.

“Should we set up camp here?” Dossidian asked and I tried not to scowl.

“It’s as good a place as any,” I replied dryly, gesturing to the endless expanse of identical sand dunes. He shot me a look, letting me know I was being kind of a bitch, but he didn’t say anything.

Meredith glanced back and forth between us nervously, before crouching down and using her green magick to call several buried pieces of wood and kindling from plants that had long since dried up.

She went to work setting up the materials and stood back, giving me space to blast it with a small quasar, igniting the wood to make us a fire. Dossidian pulled out several small discs that I had learned were portable magickal shelters, and with a snap of his fingers, they popped up and settled themselves around the campfire. They formed large canvas domes, tall enough to stand in and equipped with everything we might need on our trip. Each one had a roll out mattress, cookware and a small amount of storage for clothing and other items that didn’t fit in our packs.

Conrad used his water magick to pull water from the lambskin bladders and with a twist of his hand, heated it to a boil. He summoned several camping mugs from one of the domed shelters Dossidian had set up and added tea bags with a flick of his wrist. Floating a mug to each of us, he flopped down by the fire and gave Dossidian a lopsided grin.