Page 279 of The Queen’s Shadow

“She’s alive.” I breathed. Kasha glanced back at me.

“Well, we knew that, because you’re alive.”

I grunted. Yes, but it was just good to have tangible confirmation. I hadn’t said it out loud but I had been worried someone had somehow severed our bond and then killed her without me knowing. I poked at the bond, and she immediately opened it for me, but when I asked her what was happening, she ignored me.

‘Kitten! What the fuck is happening?!’

Nothing.

I snarled. At least she left the fucking thing open so I could feel what she was feeling. It was like she was in a trance, or in shock.

“Can this thing go any faster?” I hissed in frustration, just as a painted drake flew up to the beast that Conrad was riding at the head of the pod.

The bird-like creature chattered away to the sea drake and the great animal roared, before heading straight for what looked like the mouth of a cave on the side of a cliff.

Oh fuck no!

The caves were being pummeled with some of the biggest waves I had ever seen in my life. With each swell of the sea, water gushed out of the mouth of the cave. It was a godsdamned death trap.

If cats didn’t like flying, they hated fucking swimming even more.

“Mi think mi magick is back!” Conrad yelled back at us with a grin. He raised his hands, clearly using every ounce of effort he had to call the massive tidal waves back from the caves as the drakes swooped in to land. Jeremy helped him down, as he continued to hold the water back for us, sweat quickly beginning to gleam on his brow.

“Mi nah be able tuh hold dis fah too long. Where wi go next?” He asked, and I snorted as I realized he was talking to the fucking parrot-ass looking dragon thing.

The painted drake chattered excitedly and swooped deeper into the caves, in a clear request for us to follow. I raised an eyebrow at Kasha and she grinned.

“Drakes are super smart.” She said, patting the one we had ridden in on fondly, before hopping off. We had been able to bring roughly two hundred daemons with us on the backs of the sea drakes, and Kasha went to work giving them orders as I prowled forward through the caves.

Whatever. I just needed to get to Raven, and quickly. I could feel an insanely confusing explosion of emotion coming through the bond.

I could smell blood, and hear what sounded like a full blown battle.

Raven, however, felt happy and at peace. It was confusing, and I didn’t understand how she could be in the middle of what sounded like a godsdamn war, while feeling so serene.

Suddenly, the feeling of peace disappeared as she was clearly struck directly in the chest with a blast of magick.

I shouted in shock and pain, nearly falling to my knees with the force of it. Terror tore through me. She might not fucking survive whatever had just happened.

“Rycon!” Both Jeremy and Kasha shouted, rushing toward me. I shook my head and pushed through the pain, looking at Jeremy with wide eyes, just as Raven took a blast to the right shoulder. I doubted she would be able to use her fucking arm after that hit.

I had to go, I couldn’t wait for them.

“Watch Kasha’s back.” I gasped at Jeremy, grabbing his shoulder. He nodded, cocking his gun.

“Go.” He breathed, and I shot forward, following the scent of burning flesh and viscera.

I exploded through two large iron doors that had been built deep into the caves, to find myself standing in the middle of what looked like an underground colosseum. There was a large, black crystal in the center of the ring that was nearly throbbing with some sort of sinister magick. It made my stomach roil, and I curled my lips at the unnatural feel of the energy that was bleeding from the black surface.

The stands and the arena were packed with thousands of daemons and magick folk, all of whom seemed to be rushing from the stands to get into the arena.

I found The Siren struggling to fight off several magick folk at once. Conrad had informed me she had turned on Ash Nevra once he had freed her. I shifted into my panther form and rushed to her side, tearing through the team of witches she had been fighting as if they were made of paper. Ripping back into my human form, I shook blood from my hair, and spun to face her.

“Where is Raven?!” I shouted over the screams of the battle. I couldn’t pick her out over all the other scents.

“There!” She pointed over our heads, where Raven seemed to be engaged in some sort of magickal battle with Ash Nevra. “Amon has been able to keep most of her army back, but we are only two daemons, we need help.”

I glanced over to see Amon, whose shadows were tearing down hundreds of daemons at a time. Despite the insane amount of power he was wielding, there were too many of them. They just kept coming. He was screaming for his mate, wading through the crush of bodies, trying to get to her. I watched him try to take off several times, only to be torn back down to the ground.