Page 42 of Heart of the Raven Prince

I hold all those truths in my heart, mourn their loss, and hold her gaze resolute as time speeds up once again. I will stare my death in the face, and I will not falter. Exactly as my father taught me. But before she can launch herself at me, Caden’s booming voice fills the room, accompanied by enough power to momentarily still the queen as he shouts, “She can win the mortal realm for you!”

As quick as a flash of lightning she changes—her contorted face once again the ethereal visage of the Raven Queen. There is a distinctive split across her cheeks, her skin slowly melding back together, the one remaining sign of the beast living within. She keeps her eyes on Fawn for a moment. Two. Then she turns that calculating gaze on me. She doesn’t release Fawn, her hair still clasped firmly in her hand, a sign that at any moment she’s going to change her mind and finish what she commanded me to start.

And somehow, I was able to ignore that command from the queen, all because of this woman…

Never once in my two hundred years of imprisonment have I defied a direct order from the queen. I can’t. Not as long as she owns my heart. But somehow, this woman—this human—was able to call to me through the haze of bloodlust and the demon controlling me and pull me back. From the depths of that pitch-black pit in my mind, her essence stretched toward me. A faintly glowing rope, the color of moss in a deep forest. I reached for it, and the moment I touched it I felt her.

Like the wind, and the rain, and the promise of destruction only a storm can bring. Her soul is a raging, uncontrollable force that will not be caged. It was an effort to hold firm against it and let the cord lead me out of that bottomless well. Then I was no longer trapped in my mind. I was sitting, pressed against a couch, and staring wide-eyed at this human enigma. I had suspected her abilities back in the mortal realm when I first tasted her. The unmistakable trace of magic lingering in her blood was impossible to ignore. But I didn’t dare to hope.

Then, of course, she had to go and ruin my plans by deciding to run from the safehouse I placed her in just to get herself captured by Lochlan. Even still, Arawyn barely noticed her. She was more concerned about my disobedience than my obsession. Fawn was just another human, a meal at best. My plan could have worked. I just needed to bide my time, to wait until Lochlan inevitably forgot about her and moved on to some new way to torment me. I thought it would work in my favor, that her one night before the queen would have scared some sense into her. I foolishly thought she would do everything in her power to stay away from the castle.

I should have known better.

When I find out who placed that ruby in her ear, I’m going to relieve them of the luxury of having a head. But I have more important things to focus on than petty revenge, as Arawyn continues to stare at me, waiting for me to explain. She is not known for her patience, so I have no time to craft something convincing. I go with the first thing I think: appealing to her need to conquer.

“She is the key to this war,” I say, standing slowly, making sure my movements are easily marked. Fawn, thank the fucking old gods, is smart enough to not move a muscle as the queen continues to hold her by her hair. I approach her like a coiled viper, taking one slow step toward Arawyn. I treat her with all the caution she deserves, especially because I am not the one I am worried she will attack. “That is the whole reason I brought her back with me. I wanted to test her first, before I told you my plan.”

“Really, Caden, if you’re going to lie to my face, you can at least do me the favor of thinking of something a little more imaginative.” She turns back to Fawn, her jaw beginning to split again. I move in a blur, gripping her chin and tilting her face toward me.

“She is an Offspring. A daughter of Niamh,” I say, and Arawyn sucks in a sharp breath. I fucking hate that I have to reveal this part of her—the part I have suspected. Its secret was a weapon in my arsenal, and losing it certainly makes my plans a hell of a lot more difficult. But I need a reason for the queen to want Fawn alive, so the knowledge is a necessary sacrifice. She darts her eyes between mine, as though trying to read the truth in my gaze.

After a tense moment of silence, her lips pull in a snarl. “You lie.”

“Then how do you explain me defying you? It was her, Mother. She cut through my bloodlust.” I continue to hold her face, hoping to keep her attention on me for as long as I can. My mind is racing, trying to determine the exact right words to speak that will not end in Fawn’s gruesome death. Fawn glances at me. I can feel her gaze like the sun on my face, but I don’t dare look away from Arawyn now. “She controlled me, Arawyn. She controlled a vampire.”

The strangled noise that escapes Fawn lets me know she had not realized that’s what I am. A vampire. She hadn’t realized what the queen’s court is made of. I assumed as much, when she referred to Lochlan as a fae. I had been too cowardly to admit it to her the night I found her weeping behind the Barracks. Some twisted part of me wanted her to think of me as fae, and not the demon I am.

I desperately want to see her, to see what expression is passing over her face. Disgust, most likely. I would say fear, but she doesn’t seem to have enough common sense to fear me. Arawyn shifts on her feet, her gaze continuing to bore into me, like if she looks hard enough, she will be able to see straight through to my mind. “If she is an Offspring, then that is just more of a reason to kill her.”

“How many times have you tried to send your vampires to the mortal realm?” I all but shout, desperate to keep her talking. I’m buying Fawn’s life one second at a time. Arawyn's heated gaze begins to shift, changing into mild interest. “How many times has it failed?”

“I suppose that failure should be laid directly at your feet, my son, considering you command my army,” she snaps, and I want to laugh in her face. We both know how little control I really have. I’m nothing but her puppet.

“Can you even control your own horde when they are in the mortal realm?” She narrows her eyes at me; she doesn’t like weakness thrown in her face, but I know it is the only way forward. She may hate the mention of any perceived weakness, but she hates its existence more. If there is a way to purge that flaw, she will jump at the chance. Even if that chance is in the hands of the human she is moments away from slaughtering.

At the beginning of the war, when she first commanded me through the rift in our worlds, she had sent an army of her people. Her creations. The humans didn’t stand a chance against the relentless strength of a fully fed vampire. And surrounded by humans, they were certainly fully fed. The issue arose that they couldn’t stop feeding. On the battlefield, surrounded by so much spilt blood, their hunger turned insatiable, until they were blind with it. They began tearing through each other, feeding indiscriminately on human and vampire alike. They cannibalized themselves until their gory remains littered the battlefield.

The rumors of the queen slaughtering entire nations were true, just not for the reason the humans thought.

“We’ve never been able to test the connection of an Offspring and a demon. If I can train her, can get her to control the bloodlust that overtakes your children, we can win the mortal realm in a matter of weeks.”

“Offsprings are a scourge on the earth,” she hisses, but I see a greedy light shining in her eyes. “They are vermin that deserve extinction.”

“Then I’ll kill her as soon as the mortal realm is won.” It takes immense restraint to not dart my eyes to Fawn, to see how she is reacting to any of this. “Her kind may be no better than a plague, but let me unleash it on the mortal realm. Let us finally end this war. Don’t you wish to be at your full strength again?”

It works in my favor that every time she uses me, uses my heart, it costs her greatly, depleting her stores of power. It is the main reason the conquest of the mortal realm has taken as long as it has, why any human remains free. It is a constant thorn in her side, and also the reason I have any hope of escape. And if that hope involves Fawn, then I am never letting her go.

“Let me at least try,” I say, finally releasing her chin and dropping my arms. I know not to press her further. Arawyn slowly turns, studying Fawn with new eyes. She leans forward, sniffing the seeping wound on her neck. Sticking out her tongue, she runs it over the bleeding cuts, and Fawn stiffens. I wonder how hard she is resisting the urge to shiver. The look in her eyes tells me she’s tasted it.

She’s tasted Fawn’s magic.

She stiffens, her head canting to the side as if she’s listening to someone. I’ve seen her do this countless times before, normally when I have angered her to the point that she threatens to kill me.

A freedom she will never truly grant me.

I don’t say anything. I just watch as she listens to the phantom voice. I hold my breath and wait. The room is so thick with tension, I’m not sure I could draw in air if I wanted to. After what feels like an eternity but is likely seconds, the queen releases Fawn’s hair. Her knees buckle, but she catches herself before she falls to the ground, quickly taking several steps out of the queen’s reach.

“I need to think on it,” Arawyn says abruptly, as though I am merely asking her what tea she prefers. Without another glance at myself or Fawn, she turns and stalks out of the room, taking the crushing pressure with her. I wait several beats before I let out a shaky breath, feeling my own knees threaten to give way.