Page 55 of Autumn Queens & Shadows

“As long as he does it under my guide.”

“What if he doesn’t?”

“I know how to make him leave.” I knew many other ways to get him to abide by me, but that felt easier to say. Our strings were attached in such a way that it was impossible for him to overstep.

Nia cleared her throat and awkwardly fiddled with her blouse’s neckline. “Don’t know about that. He looks pretty determined not to stay away.”

“If you tell me he is behind me, I'm going to scream.”

She pursed her lips tightly and I sighed, my eyes suddenly feeling so tired they couldn't help but draw shut.

“You should keep your eyes open, aunt,” Sam said, stepping by my side. “Considering how many enemies you have.”

Perfect. Even my eight-year-old nephew was mocking me.

Nia chuckled. “Hi, kid.”

“Aunt,” he boredly greeted back, his eyes searching around—possibly for a girl who was a little short for her age with long, deep dark brown hair and a pair of very special but cold hazel eyes. “You came alone?”

“No, Karin is somewhere around here,” Nia said, looking around for traces of her daughter.

My nephew's brows jumped just a little. “She is?”

“Isn’t she a little old for you?” I asked, a little amused at my nephew's little obsession he developed since he got taller than past my knee.

“One day she won’t be,” he replied, fading and reappearing behind Karin.

Without turning, I said, “Yes, Malik?”

“My liege,” he greeted right near my ear, and I shivered, gooseflesh spreading down all over my skin. Throwing an arm around my waist, he nodded at Nia. “Helenia.”

She rolled her eyes. “Help me heavens.”

Gently, I pushed his arm off my waist and stepped a little further away from him, not wanting him to see the gooseflesh spreading all over my naked arms. “What are you doing here?”

It looked like he didn’t like that. “Thought I’d catch sight of a pale ghost I'm told to be wearing a rather fashionable cloak.”

Nia glanced at me before asking, “The White Veil?”

He nodded. “That’s the one.” Tilting his head to me, he raised a brow. “Were we blessed by his presence?”

“He?” Nia asked, folding her arms across her chest. “Why can’t it be a she?”

“Women are meticulous murderers. Rather tidy. This one is messy. I’ve not met a messy woman killer beside Snow. And it can’t be Snow, can it?”

“Because we would know?”

“Because she would have shown her face from day one. People are more afraid of her when she isn’t covering her face.” He pointed at the tunnel that Moriko’s Aura were working to seal permanently. “Iskyla is playing one hell of a game.”

“If you would call it so,” Moriko said, approaching us. “I suppose you got my apologies for not visiting and congratulations on your engagement along with the tea set.”

“Cutlery set this time,” Nia tried to correct discreetly, and Moriko’s mouth twitched with humour just the slightest.

“You keep looking over at the tunnels as if they are about to return,” Moriko noted, and I realised I’d craned my neck back in that direction.

I shook my head. “No, I just thought I heard something.” The heartbeat. It sounded stronger here than it had sounded back in Isjord. Now more than ever, I was doubting whether it was more than just a sick game my mind had started to play on me for depriving it of the remedy I’d been rubbing on it for the past ten years—a remedy I could no longer rely on because he’d know. I didn’t want Malik to know that I was still the same as that sick, needy, useless nineteen-year-old girl he’d left behind. I didn’t want him to know that nothing had changed for me like it had for him.

Modr was oddly lively at night compared to the rest of my cities. It was the first time in a few years that I had stayed overnight in this part of Isjord. Perhaps I had something to thank Iskyla for. Making me realise the beauty of my lands, my people. Maybe it was the warmth we borrowed from Hanai, the one my lands missed and could never have. I didn’t know exactly, but the city had changed from how it had been years ago.