AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Saga squeezed me tightly. “It better be soon.”
With promises my journey to the West would be swift, I was passed around through the royals who made good on their vows to be a large family I could never shake. They’d all arrived to oversee the final gates set in place around the shore, then they remained to see me off.
The Southern Isles were not the same as they were when the shadow creature slipped away like a coward. Gates made of thick beams and shaved spikes on the top surrounded every edge of the land.
Ari had insisted. Most blood fae were shore watchers now. Eyes on the sea at all times.
In truth, most of the kingdoms had become new lands. Etta was surrounded by mammoth peaks. The Howl of the east was blockaded by sea gates, then stretched around the four regions.
Niklas had mixed some of his tricky elixirs with what corruption had been left behind by Davorin’s wild fae. The concoctions were bled through the soil of each kingdom. Should anyone with traces of his blood step foot on the land, the land would give warning through flame. Or so I was told.
“Cuyler will look after you,” Saga said, tears in her eyes after the others released me.
Cuyler flashed a white grin, almost shy. A bit of heat burned in my cheeks. No. Stupid. He was entertaining. The man amused me, that was all. I refused to let a single patter of my heart beat for anyone in such a way.
As I told the Raven Queen, the second a bleeding royal fell into bed, wars started. The Nightrender was well convinced three queens were seated on their thrones—the fourth was left and I was the last with royal blood.
I wasn’t taking a throne.
Ari and Saga were destined to rule here. I’d raise a blade on their behalf if anyone threatened it. Nothing more.
Any attraction to the blood fae would be squashed. Besides, deep in my bones, the idea of it seemed . . . off. Like it didn’t fit, I merely couldn’t see why not.
When the ship lunged into the tides, I waved over my shoulder, facing away. If I looked, they’d all see the tears on my cheeks.
* * *
“We’ll bein the rooms right next to you, also up one level, and down one, My Lady.” Cuyler pointed in all the directions he and his watchers would be taking up residence.
“Gorm isn’t here, Cuyler.” I crossed my arms over my chest and leaned against the doorframe. “I don’t know how long we’ll revel in the stunning beauty of Raven Row, but I damn well am not going to hearMy Ladyall the time.”
Cuyler’s handsome smile widened. He bent at the waist, probably to irritate me, and backed away. “As you wish, Cal.”
I wrinkled my nose. “Sort of better. Night.”
Before I did something stupid, like invite him in, I slammed the door. Once boots stopped scuffling and doors clicked out in the tenement hall, I breathed a little easier.
Until I faced the empty room.
My chest knotted. Stefan’s bed was the same. Coated in a thick layer of dust, but tidy. The same as Raven Row. Hells, every time I returned I always expected differences, but it was as if time always stood still. The Row had always been that way, even when I’d returned after being a captive in the North.
I blinked through the sting in my eyes. “I miss you,” I whispered. “Annon, Stefan, it doesn’t matter. You were mine. I don’t understand, Stef. It was like you knew all along, yet you never told me anything.”
I crossed the room and brushed a hand over the matted furs on the bed beneath the loft mattress. One of his caps was tossed at the foot. I picked it up and held it to my face, as though I could breathe the scent of him in after all this time. Mostly dust, but there was a touch of herb smoke.
A sob cracked through my chest.
“You bastard,” I whispered. “Why did you go? Why did you go without telling me anything? You knew things. All this time. All this bleeding time.” I collapsed onto his bed. “I need you to help me.” With my sleeve, I wiped under my nose. “I’ve been dreaming, Stef. Want to know what about? Because it doesn’t make much sense to me. I’ve been dreaming of the cursed king’s curse. Then, things about Ari’s folk. Or sometimes it’ll be about the queens who left the shadow queen her ring.
“And it’s not just dreams like Valenwascursed. I keep stepping into the night it happened. Like I’m connected to that first storyteller somehow. It’s unnerving.”
The dream had recurred for nearly a month.
Every night I’d be observing moments of a past not my own. Moments where I’d witness Valen tethered to a table. Words of his curse changing his path. Other times I would be a silent witness in a council of dueling royals with the shadow queen’s ring as the fiercest discussion point.
Each dream ended the same. The fate worker who’d twisted each tale ended up getting her throat slit. But a week ago I dreamed of my past, of my story. I dreamed of Raven Row.
The tiny Western realm was hardly a threat in all the histories. None of my kings nor my queens took the mad king’s lack of interest in meeting as a slight. Truth be told, I was positive the Nightrender praised the refusal of the eccentric Western palace as one more person he did not need to meet.
