Page 46 of The Queen’s Shadow

“What triggered you? You were supposed to be napping, next thing I know you’re trying to blow my fucken arm off.” This time I did chuckle. “It was a good hit though. Remember that first time I tried to train you? You wanted to spar and I kicked your ass so bad in your backyard. Oh, how the tables have turned.” I was rambling. Saying anything that came to my head, as it seemed to be working, and I really didn’t want to get smoked in the chest with one of her quasars.

Something shifted, and the ball of power reduced slightly, it was subtle, but the black in her eyes was fading away. The second her shadows began to recede, I pushed myself up on my elbows and slid back away from her.

She didn’t move, and I had to guide her off my legs, pushing her back until she was on her hands and knees before me. Her shoulders shook and her hands curled into fists against the black stone floor of the training ring.

Now she was crying.

Fuck me.

I was shit with people when they were crying… what would the Obeah Man do?

I remembered how she had cried when he had told her the Sorcerer General had ordered his return. All he had done was hug her, and it seemed to have helped. She had hugged the slave when she had cried too. After a moment of hesitation I shrugged. Fuck it. I would try it.

I got on all fours and crawled towards her, reaching out and roughly shoving her in the shoulder to get her attention.

“Kitten… look at me…” I said, and of course she did the opposite. She crushed her eyes together and shook her head. She was sobbing so hard that no sound was escaping her lips. Her tears fell in large drops and stained the ground beneath her. I just wanted to know what the fuck had happened so I could try to fix it.

After another awkward moment of pause I finally just grabbed her by the arm and roughly pulled her into me, rolling back as she fell forward so we were both on our knees

“Come here,” I said, wrapping my arms around her the way Conrad had done. She was so surprised that her sobs stopped, and she glanced up at me, red rimmed eyes wide with shock. After a moment, she tentatively wrapped her arms around my waist and let me hold her.

“You gonna tell me what happened or what?” I asked softly, awkwardly patting the back off her head.

“She knows I freed Cerenah and she… she’s punishing Amon. She made me watch…she’s…right now, she’s…” She didn’t need to finish her sentence. With the bond open and her rage under control, I could see flashes of her thoughts.

That fucking bitch was raping him and had lured Raven in so she would know. So she would see. She was sending her a message. Continue to challenge me and your mate will suffer. For fuck sakes… no wonder the kid had snapped.

“We’re going to get him back,” I said, squeezing her tighter into me. “We’re going to get them both back, and we’re going to fucking kill her. Okay?”

She buried her face into my chest and broke down again. I rocked her back and forth while she cried and promised her over and over that we would kill her. We would save them. That she would not get away with any of this.

After several long minutes, I watched Jeremy enter the open-air ring over Raven’s shoulder. He made eye contact with me and mouthed, ‘she okay?’ I nodded minutely, trying to tell him with my expression that I seemed to have been able to get the situation under control. She was going to be okay. Well, as okay as anyone could be in her situation. Jeremy looked at me with an expression I didn’t understand before nodding and turning to go back inside.

“I’m sorry I almost blasted your arm off.” Raven finally mumbled into my shredded t-shirt, which was now soaked with her tears.

“I’m sorry I punched you in the face.” I replied, and she pulled back, choking on a laugh. She sat back on her heels and gingerly touched her face, which was starting to bruise already.

“I think I blocked that out… is that why my face hurts so much?”

I chuckled, nodding. “Yeah. I also kicked you in the head at one point. You have a pretty sick shiner coming in.”

She let out another shaky laugh, “Well, I guess we’re even then.”

I nodded. “Yeah. I just couldn’t think of how else to get you outside. You were going to burn the whole palace down… not that I blame you. I would have lost it too.” I mused. “Your room is pretty fucked up though, you’ll probably have to move back into your old room unless you can magickally repair it or something.”

I stood up, pulling her to her feet with me and she sighed.

“I need to work on all the domestic magick so I can keep this place running until we get Amon back.” She said, her brow creasing. I threw my arms back over my head to stretch.

“Yeah, you do… want to practice by magicking up something to eat? Having to reattach my damn arm made me hungry.”

She stuck her tongue out at me and pushed me playfully in the shoulder as we made our way out of the training ring. I smirked and pushed her back harder, earning myself the middle finger.

The tightness in my chest eased. If she was feeling okay enough to flip me off, then we were in the clear for now. I followed her down the stairs and frowned. If that evil bitch was doing that to Amon, I didn’t even want to think about what Kasha was going through.

I swallowed down the burst of anger that rushed through me at the thought.

I was going to kill so many fucking people when we found her.