Page 293 of The Queen’s Shadow

I wondered briefly, what life would have been like, if Anjoilie and the Nightshades had been stopped, and Elvira and Aleites had never been frozen into stone.

I looked over at my mate, and felt my heart twinge for all the things that could have been. I would have likely already enjoyed a few centuries with her by my side. Neither of us would have been tortured, or damaged. We would have been happy. She would be my Queen and we would likely have a child or two and be living a full life in The Court of Pride…

“It feels…” She gasped and I frowned at her, running my aura over hers nervously. Jeremy frowned as well, looking up at the ominous building before us.

“It feels like what?” He asked. Raven glanced at him, her eyes shining.

“It feels like home.” She breathed and Jeremy made a face.

“It looks like a shithole.” He grumbled, and I had to agree. It hadn’t always looked like this. It had once been a shining, gorgeous white marble palace that was touched with gold. Aleite’s had always kept it trimmed with garlands and wreaths made of pine, and the inside had twinkled with thousands of floating lights and fir trees.

“It’s calling for me to fix it.” Raven said. She looked up at me. “Do you think I should answer the call?” She asked me quietly, biting her bottom lip.

I touched her chin and pulled her lip out from between her teeth with my thumb, meeting her gaze.

“I think you should do whatever your instincts are telling you to do.” I murmured, and her eyes lit up. She nodded and stepped forward, dropping my hand. The loss of contact was like a cold shock to my system, but I grit my teeth and forced myself to allow her the small step away.

She knelt on the ground before us, and placed her palms flat against the earth. As she closed her eyes, I felt her magick connect with the ley lines that lay beneath us. The energy of the land leapt up to meet her, as if welcoming home a long lost family member.

I watched in awe, as her darkness spread from her fingertips and merged with the shining golden pools of magick that welled up from the ground beneath us.

The two forces swirled together, before rushing up over the walls of the palace and dissolving away the centuries of widowmaker silk. It transformed all of the horrific additions Ash Nevra had added.

Before my very eyes, the building changed from the prison I had been forced to torture and kill in for centuries, back into the place I had once called home.

My throat tightened at the sight of the shining white spires and the glittering crystalline windows lined with lush green pine. The gate house was tipped with a maroon roof and the drawbridge rolled down before us, beckoning us to enter.

Raven popped up from where she had knelt on the ground and spun to face us with a smile.

“Check it out!” She beamed and I stared at her, my whole body feeling warm with a mix of shock, adoration and awe.

She was fucking incredible.

“I’m never going to get used to magick.” Jeremy grumbled, shaking his head, and I glanced at him. What Raven had just done was more than magick. It was an origindamned miracle. He had no idea who his daughter was, and how much of a gift it was for either of us to even be standing in her presence.

I slid forward, pulling her back into the blanket of my shadows. I wrapped my arms around her and kissed the side of her head, breathing her scent into me.

Mine.

“You are the most amazing thing to have ever walked this world.” I whispered to her, and her little cheeks flushed at my praise.

“Nah, it was easy.” She said, tugging me forward, into the castle.

I shook my head in disbelief. That was what was so incredible about it. It should not have been easy, but somehow, for her, it was.

Amon

Jeremy and I followed Raven into the palace. Her magick had somehow restored it to exactly what it had been the day everything had changed.

The two curving staircases in the entrance way were lined with a cheerful red runner and elegant golden bannisters. A large portrait of Aleites and Elvira hung on the wall between the staircases.

Green garlands draped over every surface and twinkled with tiny golden lights. Candles floated lazily through the air and their warm glow flickered around us merrily, lighting the way to the throne room, where I knew the magick of this journey was likely to end.

I grew more and more tense as I watched my mate pad ahead of me, her eyes wide in wonder and awe as she took in the interior of the palace that she should have grown up in.

I was very confident Elvira would be dead when we awakened them. Considering I had just experienced what it was like to have my mate dying in my arms, I did not think Aleites would be thrilled when we woke him.

Aleites had been like a father to me, and I knew he had loved me like a son, in his own way. That would not matter, though, when he learned that I was the daemon who cut into his mate’s frozen womb to pull Raven out.