Page 241 of The Queen’s Shadow

I winced, not wanting to explain that the reason Ash Nevra and her army even had the damn Flute in the first place was because of my poor choices.

“Well, I can’t take the credit, another member of our party is the one who had the idea. She’s not with us here, but she’s the smartest witch I’ve ever met.”

Niahmara waved as we passed a daemon sweeping the front porch of one of the pastel colored homes on the side of the road. “I would love to meet her one day, she sounds wonderful.”

“She is,” I agreed.

“I have several voidseed trees in the royal garden. They can also be found in the wild, but we keep some for cultural ceremonies. We find that spending time without our magick once a year allows us to deeply connect with the magick of the land. It’s tradition to drink a cup of voidseed juice on the night of hallowsmoons. You should return this year to celebrate with us, if you are able. It is quite the experience.”

I felt a thrill at the thought of getting my hands on the voidseed so quickly. It was finally starting to feel like our luck was turning around. If we could get these capsules made, all we had to do was find The Siren, then I could get Amon back.

I beamed at Princess Niahmara. “I would love to come back to celebrate hallowsmoons with you and my mate.”

Niahmara patted me on the shoulder. “I would love that, too.”

Rycon

We approached the unlit pyre to find the other shifters already waiting, sitting in the split log benches that lined the perimeter of the pit. Rhyalla and K’yen were at the northernmost bench, and Koda sat to the right.

Aiden flopped down into the bench on the left, as Kasha and I went to join my sister and her mate. Directly across from us sat the lions, Queen Neema and King Kafil. To their right sat Mei Lin, Xiaolan of the tiger shifters. On opposite ends of the circle, occupying the western and eastern sides of the pyre sat Azmarnar Malik, and Anaya.

The serpents did not have an organized community or elected leader, so Anaya, unlike the rest of the guests, did not have a title. Typically, for matters like these, one of the serpents either volunteered or there was no representative present. They were largely solitary and operated on their own set of rules, which is what had appealed to me about Anaya when I had first met her.

I had been in an entirely different headspace and had wanted to do whatever I felt like doing, without worrying about anyone else. We had made sense at the time. Looking at her now, I could barely recognize the person I had been when I had been with her. Something in me had changed, and there was no going back.

I made eye contact with her as I took my seat at the head of the circle, and pulled Kasha down to sit next to me, displacing Rhyalla’s seat to my right.

Every shifter’s eyebrows rose. Even Koda’s.

Kasha didn’t know it yet, but I had effectively just declared her as my Rhiannon.

By seating her to my right, I was telling every single shifter here that I recognized her as my mate. My partner. My equal in every way.

Predictably, Anaya hissed.

She leapt to her feet. “This is bullshit,” she spat.

I met her fire with a cool grin. I pulled my handgun out of my waistband and shot her in the chest. I didn’t even get up. The force of the bullet sent her flying back several feet, and she let out an enraged screech as she flew.

I chuckled darkly, feeling even more amused as I took in Kasha’s shocked expression. No one else seemed shocked, instead they were all watching me quietly, waiting to see what would happen next.

Violence at meetings like this wasn’t only common, it was expected. This would not be the last physical and potentially deadly altercation that would occur before we came to a collective agreement. Put this many alphas in one spot and things were bound to get dicey. I was happy I got to have the pleasure of kicking things off with a bullet to the viper’s chest, though.

“If anyone else has a problem, now is the time to speak the fuck up.” I snarled, as Anaya continued to screech from the bushes while her body tried to heal the bullet wound.

I looked around the circle, making eye contact with each one of my guests, challenging them to say something. Aiden was the first to speak up.

“Not my circus, not my monkeys.” He laughed. “If you want to drag a daemon into all of this, it’s no fur off my tail. Do whatever the fuck you want, Chief. I’m here to talk about the war, not discuss how you want to run your leap.”

“Sick, thanks pal.” I grinned at him. He shrugged and lit up a smoke.

“No worries, Chief.”

“Rycon… what just happened?” Kasha asked, not even bothering to lower her voice. She knew they would all hear her anyway.

I grinned at her. “I just declared you as Rhiannon.”

“WHAT!?” She yelped, leaping to her feet. She looked frantically over at Rhyalla, who smiled at her.