Page 292 of The Queen’s Shadow

Amon

Isteeled myself to leave our room the following morning. Raven’s eyes had widened, when she had seen that I had been reunited with my mating stone. Its presence around my neck made it easier for me to allow Raven out of my sight long enough for her to take a shower. I still ached to join her, but I knew I couldn’t touch her every minute of every day. I was doing my best to allow her some small semblance of space when we were in the safety of the bedroom.

Another comfort was the fact that she slipped into her restructium suit before leaving the room. I knew it was because we were leaving the palace, but still. If she wasn’t lying naked beneath me, I wanted her in armor.

“Ready?” She asked me, before opening the door. I just glared at her. She knew I wasn’t ready and that I didn’t want to do this. However, she also knew that I couldn’t say no to her. Not really.

“Come on, it’ll be fun!” She tried to encourage me and I couldn’t bring myself to indulge her. I wasn’t sure I would ever be able to truly have ‘fun’ again. Not when the slightest sound or flicker of movement made me fear for her life.

I followed her silently as she led me to the common room. My shadows slipped through the air around us like black smoke. They were equal parts a manifestation of my anxiety, and a loose shield. It would be easy to snap them into a protective dome or use them to dismember a threat quickly if necessary.

The rest of our team was waiting for us, each of them wearing their restructium suits. Jeremy and Rycon were both strapped with large guns.

“Alright!” Raven said, her voice bright. “We’ll all meet back here in a couple days? I’ll reach out through the trace and update you guys on how it goes with The Origin.”

Everyone grinned at her, nodding. Everyone, except for Jeremy and I. We seemed to be the only two that were less than enthused with her plan. Conrad handed Raven The Flute and pulled her into a one armed hug. It took everything in me not to launch him out of the hole in the wall for touching her. I ground my teeth together and clenched my fists at my side, hoping no one would see how much I was struggling.

Jeremy saw. He stared at me with a tense, angry look on his face and I tried not to hate him for it.

“See yuh soon, gyaal.” Conrad said softly, before pulling away.

“Later, Kitten. Try not to die this time.” Rycon smirked, stepping closer to Kasha who beamed at us.

“Bye guys! Don’t do anything I wouldn’t do!” She quipped and Rycon snorted.

“That’s terrible advice, Kasha. They should probably actively avoid doing shit you would do. You’re a menace.”

She gave him a sultry smile and brushed her lips against his, leaning into his chest. “You like it.” She purred and he clapped a hand over her ass as she sliced through The Veil, pushing him back into the other world.

“Fucken right I do.” He growled. Then they were gone.

“Nytara is going tuh frost walk us to the Cove, den we’ll catch a boat from der. She nah think di sea drakes will be willing to fly us if it nah an emergency.” Conrad explained and Nytara smiled.

“I have some tricks to make the trip faster. Once I’m there I’ll see if there’s anything I can do to give you all access to shadow walk through the wards, so you won’t need to cross the Obsidian Sea everytime.”

Raven nodded, smiling kindly at them. “Have fun! Be safe! And make sure you keep me updated.”

Conrad gave her a lopsided grin and Nytara bowed.

“Of course, my Queen.” She said, before taking Conrad’s hand and frost walking them away.

Raven turned to face Jeremy and I. She was a shining ray of sunshine stuck between two rumbling storm clouds. We glared at each other over her head, and I tugged her closer to me, directly meeting Jeremy’s gaze.

He was right to worry. I was no good for her.

But it didn’t matter.

There was nothing he could do to keep me away from her. I would trap this little ray of sunshine in my pocket of darkness and never let her go.

Raven was either oblivious to the tension between us or chose to willfully ignore it, as she called her shadows forward.

“Let’s do this!” She grinned, and shadow walked us north, to The Origin’s palace.

The last time we had been here, there had been a harsh and unforgiving blizzard. Now, the sun was out, and the thick snow had receded in places, exposing yellowed grass and a thick piney treeline in the distance. The arctic island that the palace sat on had been a beautiful, rugged environment before Ash Nevra had used Nytara to ravage the landscape in a never ending snow storm.

The palace was still covered in a thick coat of black widowmaker silk, despite the fact that the widowmakers themselves seemed to have fled.

Raven laced her fingers through mine and looked up at the structure that stood before us. This would have been her home, if things had gone differently.