Page 272 of The Queen’s Shadow

It started as a flicker, as if her power were a candle flame, sputtering in the wind. My aura shuddered at the feel of her. The other half of my soul was here. My darkness slammed against the slavery bond in an effort to get closer to her, but the bond shut it down and I nearly choked from the intensity of the pain.

A panel in the floor opened, and slowly, a large iron cage rose out of the ground.

I couldn’t breathe. There was a roaring in my ears that even the jeering crowd couldn’t overcome. My worst fucking nightmare was manifesting before my very eyes.

She was here.

Her eyes met mine, and we stared at each other as fifty thousand demons screamed for our blood.

Then, she smiled.

Rycon

No one was fucking here. I didn’t need to scour the palace to know. I could tell by the smell, but I searched the place anyway.

My anxiety was mounting. Something bad was happening. I knew it, and I didn’t know what to do about it.

“I’ll go talk to the guards and see if they’ve heard from anyone.” Kasha said, looking just as worried as I did.

“Why doesn’t this piece of shit world have fucking cell phones?” I snarled, furious that I couldn’t get in touch with anyone. Kasha frowned and shrugged.

“I don’t know, we usually just use a trace to communicate over long distances. I have one with Dossidian, and he said last he saw them they were heading to Envy.”

“So let’s fucking go there!” I snapped, unable to keep my temper under control. Kasha pursed her lips.

“It’s not that easy, or quick. I need to go talk to one of our sentry’s to see if we can get someone with strong transportation magick to get us to a ship. Then it’s at least a couple days on the Obsidian sea.”

“We don’t have time for that! Can’t you just cut through The Veil or something and bring us there?”

She shook her head. “It doesn’t work like that, you can’t just cut into courts that you’re not a citizen of. It would make it too easy for us to invade each other.”

“So we can’t do anything? Something fucking horrible is happening. I can feel it.” I was shaking with rage and anxiety. Kasha came forward and placed a hand on each side of my face, pulling me down to press my forehead against hers.

“Breathe, Rycon. We’ll find them.”

“I can’t feel her, Kasha.” Even my voice was shaking. “She’s just…gone.” I was so fucking sick of not knowing where the people I cared about were. I had just gotten Kasha back and now somehow I had lost Raven. I was going to lose my fucking shit.

Kasha pursed her lips, looking at me like she wanted to tell me it was going to be alright, but couldn’t bring herself to do it. She glanced behind me, looking out of the cavernous hole in the wall that offered us a view of The Court of Pride.

“What the…” I turned to see what had caught her attention and frowned in confusion. Several large animals were soaring toward the palace. From their trajectory, it looked like they were heading for the training ring.

“What the fuck are those!” They were huge winged beasts. Their long white bodies snaked through the air as if they were swimming through the sky.

“They’re sea drakes.” Kasha said, frowning in confusion. “This is incredibly unusual, they rarely fly over land.”

I shot her a dark look. “How much do you want to bet this has something to do with what’s happening with Raven?”

She nodded. “Let’s go see what they want.” They were already almost at the ring, I scooped Kasha up and shot up the stairs to see what was up.

The first drake touched down and my eyes widened when I realized Conrad and Jeremy were mounted on its back. The rest of the animals landed around us and I inhaled, hoping to catch Raven’s scent.

She wasn’t here…

I whirled on Conrad. “Where’s Raven?!” Conrad looked serious as the grave. I glanced at Jeremy, taking in how pale he was.

“Shi been kidnapped.” Conrad informed me, confirming my suspicions.

It was like a reflex. I couldn’t have stopped myself if I tried. I punched him directly in the face. He fell backward, and I moved to jump on him but Kasha pulled me back.