Page 265 of The Queen’s Shadow

All of a sudden I felt like we were back in the training ring in Italy, and this was just another sparring match.

Mi knew shi nah evil.

I grinned at her, gesturing for her to come at me. “Yuh ‘gon kill me, Nytara? Show mi, den. Finish what yuh start.”

The corner of her mouth twitched up and she shook her head, looking amused. “You really are a fool, Obeah Man.” She smirked. Then she lunged, and I felt the crack of her rapier as it crashed against Bond Breaker, all the way down to the marrow of my bones.

Raven

“Wake up, Little Raven. Come out to play.” A simpering voice cooed, dragging me from the pressing darkness I had succumbed to.

I groaned as I woke, only to find my hands had been bound and I was tied to a chair in what seemed to be a very dark, damp room.

Without warning, there was a crack and my head snapped to the side with the force of a slap. Pain exploded across my temple and I cried out in shock, before realizing that I had just been struck in the face.

“I said WAKE UP!” A female voice snarled, and I tossed my hair out of my eyes as best as I could so I could look up at who had just hit me.

My eyes widened as I took in Ash Nevra’s beautiful, yet deranged face. Her crimson eyes glittered with an unhinged sort of glee as they met mine, and a sadistic smile curled across her blood red lips.

“There she is,” she sang, as I quietly catalogued my body and surroundings. The events of the evening were slowly coming back to me. The Princess of Envy had betrayed me, and I couldn’t access my powers. I felt almost human. I tried to poke at my bond with Rycon, but found even that seemed to be gone.

The wine. It must have been spiked with voidseed.

It was the only thing that made sense. For a moment, I felt panicked. I tried to remember what Meredith had said about voidseed. Depending on how much I had consumed, it could take minutes or hours for me to get my powers back… but they would come back. They weren’t gone forever, and that knowledge alone was a comfort.

Then there was the small issue of being kidnapped. I waited to feel frightened, or trapped, but looking up into Ash Nevra’s twisted face I found that I didn’t feel any of those things. I was elated.

Found you, bitch!

Before I could stop myself, I felt the corner of my lip tilt up. I didn’t know how I was going to get out of this, but I would fucking find a way. I would need to thank Princess Niahmara later. She had brought me right to the one daemon I had been scouring the entire Dominion to find. If Ash Nevra was here, it meant Amon wasn’t far. My heart leapt in excitement at the thought and I could barely keep my face composed.

“I’ve been looking for you.” I said, unable to tear my eyes away from her. I drank her in, eagerly memorizing every piece of her. Each detail. Which part of her body would I remove first? I remembered how she had forced me to watch her drag her fingers down my mate’s chest and felt a deadly rush of adrenaline shoot through my veins.

Her hands. I would take those first.

“Wipe that smile off your face!” She spat, and smashed one of her soon to be severed hands across my other cheek. She hit me so hard I found myself spitting out blood. It didn’t matter. She would be the one bleeding soon.

I laughed. “You’re so fucking dead.” I smirked, looking up at her through my hair. She began pacing before me, and I tracked her movements as she walked, planning every twisted, fucked up thing I was going to do to her, the moment I had the chance.

“We’ll see who’s dead after I feed you to my Shadow.” She chanted, her anger melting away suddenly and being replaced by that unhinged glee she had exhibited when I had first woken up.

I narrowed my eyes at her, putting the pieces together immediately. She was going to put me in the colosseum with him, and order him to murder me.

Again, I couldn’t bring myself to be upset about it. The thought of being that close to him made my heart soar. What pissed me off was the way she had referred to him as her Shadow.

He was MY fucking Shadow.

“Are you going to have him whip me to death?” I asked dryly, unable to help myself. I wanted to get a clear idea of her plans. She was just unhinged enough that I wondered if I could manipulate her to set this up in a way that gave me an advantage. “Surely your audience is bored of that by now.”

She cocked her head to the side, her smile stretching wider across her face. “Oh no, Little Raven, you are much too good of a find to waste on a whipping. You will be hunted.”

I forced myself not to grin. Perfect.

“It won’t be much of a hunt if I have no powers. He’ll wipe me out in seconds.” I pointed out, and she nearly shivered with pleasure at my line of questioning.

“Oh you will have your powers back by the time I put you in the ring. Watching the two of you tear each other to shreds will be the event of a lifetime. How tragic!” She threw her head back dramatically. “Two mates! Forced to fight to the death!” She dropped her gaze back down to meet mine and smiled again, “After he has killed you, I will take him in a pool of your blood to celebrate.”

My lip curled in rage. I would pluck her eyes right out of her skull just for saying those words.