Page 246 of The Queen’s Shadow

Rycon

Ionly needed to beat down Anaya, Kafil and Malik. It hadn’t been that hard. Anaya made our fight annoyingly sexual, but once I had effectively taken out all challengers, we actually had a productive meeting.

Starting at the beginning, I explained what had happened between Raven and I and how I had become bonded to her. I then got into all the bullshit with The Flute, and the slavery bonds. Even Malik had looked disturbed when I explained how the bonds worked and how Ash Nevra had been using them to more or less secure a dictatorship over The Dominion.

Everyone had questions, except Anaya, who remained pissed off and distracted for the entire meeting. Not that I gave a fuck, or needed her vote. If I was being honest, I hadn’t even wanted to invite her in the first place.

We wrapped for dinner when the sun began to set, and agreed to meet at the same time the next day. I told everyone that Kasha would be returning in the morning and if I heard one fucking word about it, whoever had a problem would find their invitation to Olkuyrbe officially revoked.

“You did well today,” Rhyalla said approvingly, as we made our way to Rhoan House. I grinned at her and she smirked back. “Honestly, you reminded me a lot of Dad.”

My heart skipped a beat in my chest. That was probably one of the nicest things anyone had ever said to me. I tossed an arm around her shoulders and pulled her into me, planting a kiss on the side of her head.

“Thanks, sis. Minus all that bullshit at the beginning, I think it went pretty well.”

She nodded in agreement. “Yes, but we knew that part was going to be a bit rocky.” She chuckled, looking up at the ladder to Rhoan House. “She’ll come around. You just need to talk to her. Explain how things work. She might surprise you.”

I nodded. “I know.”

Kasha was always fucking surprising me. That’s one of the things I loved about her so damn much.

“I’ll catch you by the pyre for dinner. I’m going to go up and see if she’s alright.” I said.

Rhyalla waved goodbye and I shot up the ladder into the house, itching to get my hands on Kasha so I could apologize again.

“Kasha?” I called out, sniffing the air as I entered.

Silence.

My heart stopped.

“Kasha?” I bolted through the house, even though I already knew she wasn’t there. Her scent was everywhere but it was already fading. She had been gone for hours.

All her shit was still in her room, which was a good sign… Maybe she had just gone for a walk? I tried to swallow past the rising panic that was flooding my chest.

She was fine. Everything was fine, I was just overreacting.

I kept up the positive chant in my head as I leapt out of the tree, sprinting to the pyre. It was almost dark out, and the fire was burning at full force. Members of the community had begun to gather for dinner. Koda and Aiden were sitting on one of the benches, chatting about how the meeting had gone.

“Hey, have you seen Kasha?” I asked, trying to keep the panic from my voice.

Both Aiden and Koda frowned at me in confusion.

“Nah, Chief, we figured she was with you.”

It was getting harder and harder for me to keep my cool. I had to find her now or I was officially going to lose my shit.

“EVERYONE STOP!” I bellowed. The crowd froze and silence fell over the clearing like a hot blanket.

“Has anyone seen Kasha?” I asked, feeling out of breath. Blank stares, no matter where I looked.

“We played soccer with her earlier!” A tiny cub offered and I snapped my head to them.

“Where?”

The cub pointed down the path to where the females gathered cubs for play time. “Anyone else see her?” I asked and a female told me that she and some friends had taught her how to make flower crowns several hours ago but hadn’t seen her since.

“Do you know where she went?” I gasped and the female shook her head no, looking genuinely upset that she didn’t know more.