Page 73 of Foretold

I’m not going to give this asshole the satisfaction.

Rave’s fingers tighten. “If I listed every single female I’vefucked to my queen, we’d be here all fucking night.”

Raiden laughs at that, a deep sound that has us all turning to look at him. “I think many of us at this table would be guilty of that.”

Soren raises his hand with a devilish grin. “Guilty.”

I roll my eyes, unable to relate since Rave is the only person I’ve ever slept with.

Silver smirks, his striking green eyes pinning me in my spot while he addresses his brother. “I don’t know why you want to bring up our sister at a time like this, Salem, but show her a little more respect.”

Rave fucked their sister?

Just how many of them are there?

“Have you spoken to Queen Pandora?” Rave says, tilting his head to the side. “You two were betrothed, were you not?”

What?Pandora was betrothed to this psychopath?

“Were, being the key word,” Salem replies with a dark scowl. “Don’t try and change the subject from the fact that you have fucked my sister—”

I force my lips to kick up at the corners. “I don’t care who Rave has fucked before me, but thanks for bringing them up amongst strangers, Salem. Perhaps we should discuss your love life instead?”

Laurel is sitting on the other side of me in silence and puts her hand on my leg in warning.

To not push him?

Does she think he will hurt me?

“Now, now… we are here for more important reasons than to catch up on who is fucking who,” King Bax interrupts, sending a scowl in his Salem’s direction. “We need to discuss how the Vampire King’s death will affect us all. I heard you have aligned with the queen. Is this true?”

“Yes, it is,” Rave replies, and while the two of them talkpolitics, I slide the note I’d written her under the table and into Laurel’s hand. She accepts it and tucks it into her boot.

***

Later that night, she meets me in the spot I had suggested, deep in the gardens hidden by hedges.

“You came,” I whisper, touching her shoulder. “How are you?”

“I’m okay. I know you want me to help train you,” she murmurs, biting her lower lip. “I’ll help you tonight and show you some exercises to do. You will be unstoppable, Astrid. I’ve seen it. You will learn not only to see the future, but the past too.”

The past?I didn’t even know that was possible.

We sit together for the next two hours, and she shows me how to try and control my visions, to expand and explore them, and to see things I want to see. Instead of random visions, I focus on what I’m trying to see. That is how she is known as a battle seer, simply because that is what she chooses to train her mind to focus on.

“What if you left Bax and came and hid here,” I tell her, knowing that after I said those words, there was no going back. “We could protect you.”

She shakes her head. “I don’t want people dying for me, Astrid. Bax will never let me go, and it’s okay. I’ve accepted that this is my life. But you will save others.”

“I can save you, too,” I whisper, my eyebrows furrowing.

“You can’t,” she replies sadly, tucking her brown hair behind her ear. “But it means a lot to me that you want to. It means everything, actually.”

She leaves all too soon, and I sit and wonder if I should let this go. I can’t save someone who doesn’t want to be saved. But I can let her know I’m here and the offer always stands.

When I turn around to walk back inside, the last person I ever thought I’d run into here is standing a few yards away, staring right at me. My magic surges, and I show out a shield in protection.

“I’m not here to hurt you,” Rion says, crossing his arms over his chest. His curly brown hair has been cut shorter since the last time I saw him when he was trying to kill me, and his red eyes all but glow in the dark.

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