Page 43 of The Queen’s Shadow

‘Please, Raven,’ I couldn’t stand the sound of his voice, the self-hatred, and the shame that permeated every syllable. ‘Please, just go.’

‘I don’t want to leave you, she’s hurting you. I don’t want you to be alone.’ I sobbed.

‘Raven, I’m begging you.’ His voice cracked as he pushed the words to me through his mind. I hovered for one more moment, before deciding he was right. It was going to happen whether I was here or not, and I couldn’t do anything to stop it. She wanted me here to watch, to hurt me. To hurt him.

‘I love you.’ I told him, and I felt him squeeze his eyes shut at my words. Ash Nevra rocked against him again, running her hand down his chest, then his stomach, to trace the waistline of his pants. ‘None of this is your fault.’ I told him, and I caressed his mind with my aura in an effort to soothe him. ‘Come see me when you can. Do you promise?’ I asked, and I felt him give me a metaphysical nod.

‘I promise,’ he said softly, and I pulled back away from his mind, leaving my mate to face Ash Nevra, alone.

Rycon

Iglared down at Kasha’s notebook as I lounged on my bed, waiting for Raven to finish up so we could get going. The cute little loops of Kasha’s playful, girlish scrawl mocked me from the pages of names that I was currently working on committing to memory.

I was good at memorizing shit. It was a necessary skill I had needed to hone while working for The Ironclad Company. You couldn’t exactly bring notes with you on a time sensitive search and destroy mission.

There were one hundred and seventy six names in this book, and I already had most of them down. I had thought there would have been more, but I supposed many of them were likely repeat offenders.

I had needed to kill some time while Raven rested, and to be honest, I needed a bit more time to rest and recover myself. I’d had a long night, and even with the hemoglo I had stolen from the green witch, my body was still stiff and sore.

I had managed to shift back and forth only twice, before I had nearly lost consciousness, and needed to swallow some of the potion I had stolen.

It was pathetic.

When The Siren had forced me to change, I had shifted seven and a half times, the half being the final shift back to human form before the Obeah Man had managed to break free and get her to stop. It had nearly killed me, and I was not an easy male to kill.

My goal was to get to the point where I could achieve at least eight or nine consecutive shifts without a problem. I would never again allow myself to be taken by surprise like that again. To have such a glaring and easily exploited weakness was unacceptable. However, it was going to be a lot of work. Only two shifts and I still felt this shitty, even with the help of Meredith’s magick healing crap.

That was another problem I needed to overcome. The Sorcerer General had ordered her and Conrad back to Italy or wherever it was they held their asshole Board meetings. With her gone, so was my stash of healing potions. I was going to need to stock up before they left and raid her bag when we met them across The Veil in Toronto… before we went to get the guns. I couldn’t help the small grin that cocked on my mouth at the thought. Visions of submachine guns and military grade sniper rifles floated through my head moments before I suddenly felt Raven open the bond.

That was strange. Why was she opening the bond? She was supposed to be taking a nap. I frowned, glancing at the door. It didn’t take long before I was shot in the chest with the most raw explosion of rage, terror and pain I had felt from her in a long time. The last time she had felt like this was when that witch had murdered her mother in front of her. I felt a sudden flicker of a drum beat beneath the rage and the pain, and my eyes widened.

Fuck. This was not good. That drum usually meant she was going to melt something… or someone. What the fuck was going on? What could possibly be happening during her nap that had gotten her this worked up?

I put down Kasha’s notebook, deciding to investigate. I launched off the bed and started out at a clipped stroll, but quickly broke into a run as the feelings of rage and anger began to intensify at an alarming rate.

Suddenly, she screamed. I heard it from the other end of the east wing. It shattered straight through the roar of the waterfalls that separated the hallways we stayed in.

Soon, I was nearly flying through the palace. I careened through the main intersection of the East Wing, boots sliding over the wet stone as I launched myself toward her room. Jeremy poked his head out of his chambers on my way by, his face pale.

“What’s happening?” He asked as I shot past him.

“I don’t know, stay in your room.” I snapped. If Raven was about to lose it, the last thing I needed was his little delicate ass anywhere near her.

When I arrived, I burst open the door and skidded to a halt as I took her in.

Fuck.

She was hovering roughly an inch off the ground, in a black slip, her toes pointed to the ground. Her fingers were tearing at her hair and her eyes had bled completely to black. Power ripped around her, tearing at her silk night dress and whipping her dark hair violently through the air. Her energy was pulling books off of the shelves before ripping them to shreds. Her bed sheets were mangled and blowing around the room in tattered ribbons. The chairs and the table had already been blown into the wall with such force that they were nearly unrecognizable.

I swore loudly. I had no idea what had triggered this, but if I didn’t get her outside, she would probably take the whole godsdamned palace down.

“What’s happening?”

I whipped around to see Jeremy standing behind me, his eyes widened as he took in his daughter, who was currently possessed with some kind of mindless daemon rage.

“I told you to stay in your room! Do you not fucking listen?” I snapped at him, and he scowled at me.

“I don’t take orders from you.” He replied, before looking back at Raven. She screamed again, and the mirror on her vanity exploded. The glass turned to shrapnel in the energy storm and I launched myself in front of Jeremy, trying my best to take on most of the damage from the shards of glass. A few pieces still caught him and I growled in frustration as blood bloomed across his forehead and forearm.