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I’d seen it before, in the throne room at the Offering and… right before Arthur’s murder. The memory played across my mind as clearly as if it were happening all over again.
Arthur stood at the center of the dais, making his toast to the terrestrial delegation. Over his shoulder, I’d seen a strange disturbance. A flapping of wings, I’d thought at the time. Then it was gone, darkness fell, and Arthur was dead.
How had I forgotten?
I knew the answer even as I stuffed a few grapes into my mouth, chewing methodically as Parys stared down at his book, completely unaware of my upset.
I’d been so traumatized by Arthur’s death, flung so far away from everything I’d ever known, that I hadn’t been able to seeanythingclearly.
Gawayn’s face flashed in my mind, followed by Roksana’s.
Many, many things had gotten by me in those dismal months.
But what did this mean?
The flash of wings right before Arthur’s death, another at the Joining, and then here in the library while Parys and I discussed my magic and the rifts and the Ancestors-damned Void Prophecy.
Could that strange flapping of wings have been related to Arthur’s death? Were the terrestrials somehow involved? Had Arran been lying to me all along? Maybe Roksana was conspiring with them—
No.
Absolutely not.
It was insane.Iwas insane—and tired, overwrought, and confused by the mating bond that even now throbbed within me, complaining that I hadn’t seen Arran at all today.
I was seeing things where there was nothing. Parys spent hours in this library. If there were any mystical winged beings, he would have seen them.
I reached for the wine, not bothering to pour myself a glass and just gulping directly from the bottle.
Parys’ eyes flicked up to me, his brow wrinkling. “Very queenly.”
“I aim to please,” I said, wiping my lips and forcing the fake bravado into my voice.
“Will you go bother someone else?” he asked with mock politeness.
“Rude.”
“I am going to prove that you are the queen in the Void Prophecy.”
“Even ruder.” I pushed to my feet, resisting the urge to kick his little pile of books.
Not so little, because he was intent on proving his theory correct.
I pretended to stumble on my way out. And if a few books fell… well, I ignored Parys’ mumbled curse.
21
VEYKA
I tried to act normal.
As normal as the newly crowned, newly mated, newly powerful High Queen of Annwyn could act. I sat beside Arran in the throne room and listened to petitioners. I sparred in the ring with Lyrena and Gwen. I met at the Round Table and discussed how we would dismantle the Shadows’ human smuggling operation. Listened patiently when Arran invited Elora to report on the status of the elemental kingdom’s armies.
But none of it felt normal.
None of it felt right.
I missed Arran.
