Page 12 of House of Mages and Raven

I’d felt it too—a dark power in the air like pollen in the wind. Everyone was inhaling it, drunk and giddy and obsessed with the Queen of the Underworld, like they could talk about her style for hours.

“Queen Lilith has thousands of shoes,” a girl said in admiration, as if on cue.

The queen had hijacked my mind while I was weakened by the Seed of Heaven. I’d pushed through her great mind power and escaped her trap, with the aid of Sy and the wild magic. Killian had torn open the fabric of the dimension to open a path for me to return to him.

Now the demon queen had come to the academy, gunning for me again. She even had the oracle in her pocket. My familiar had created a chaotic incident in the house to make the demon queen and the Maiden leave before they could get to me.

Could the mental power from the Queen of the Underworld be permeating the air and thus affecting everyone, except me? Bea’s absolute loyalty to me made her immune to the influence. It’d be interesting to see if the heirs could also be influenced like the herd.

Cold dread and acid anxiety twisted my guts as my thoughts drifted to Killian. Had he been under her thrall? Was that why he’d been engaged to her? Was that why he hadn’t returned to me after I left his bed? It felt like swallowing shards of glass as my mind kept circling to whether Killian was warming the queen’s bed ever since we’d parted. The terrible suspense haunted me like a broken record playing on loop.

Fuck this, I felt sick.

A wave of nausea hit me, brewing in my stomach and rising toward my head. I stumbled, and Sy anchored me, like she’d done every time I’d cowered in a corner, emotionally or physically wounded.

You’ll get through this,she promised.You have me. We’ll push through together.

I fought back my tears as Sy stopped the trainwreck from heading toward the cliff.

He didn’t keep his promise, Sy. He’s not mine after all. He never was.

Sy was quiet for a long beat before she said,Rowan is still ours. We can share him.

It was killing her to offer me that. We’d shared everything in the past, but not this. There was a line drawn in our cohabited life—the fae prince was hers and the chaos prince was mine. The line shouldn’t be crossed, even though things had changed overnight and Killian was out of the picture.

That’s very nice of you,I said.Rowan is yours, Sy. Just don’t let him break your heart.And I ain’t going to commit to any man again.

You should not stop having sex just because one asshole hurt you,she said in disapproval.Sex is divine. Sex is the best drug. Sex is…

Overrated,I sneered, even though I’d had the best time of my life when I fucked Killian.

I piled mixed white and dark meat onto my plate. I had no appetite, but I needed to feed. I needed strength to overcome this new adversary and recover from this emotional wound.

“I’ll sit on the outdoor bench,” I said.

“I’ll go with you,” Bea said.

I smiled at her in gratitude as we peeled off from the buffet table, only to stop cold, my smile gone. I turned my head toward the entrance.

A girl who looked exactly like me strolled in, wearing an academy student uniform—a white top, red skirt, and high stockings—an entourage of highborn demons in humanoid form flanking her.

She shook her golden curls, exactly how I did mine.

What. The. Fuck?

With Sy’s sight, I could see every detail on the new girl—golden skin, full pink lips, and cute nose. She was like my twin, only shinier, with a radiant face and brighter hair. The only difference between us was that I had dual-toned eyes, one emerald green and one sapphire, and hers were both a honeydew green. Some of my foes called me defective due to my mismatched eyes, and this new girl who looked like me was all polished without any of my perceived flaws.

What the fuck?Sy seethed.Let’s eat that abomination.

That’d be like eating me, dude,I told her, and shuddered.

The girl’s gaze found me, and she winked at me across the expanse of the dining hall.

“Wow!” Javier whistled. “Thatis Barbie 2.0.”

Javier the panther shifter hated me as much as Gunnar the vampire.

I used to sneak into Javier’s apartment to shower when I was in the House of Shifters. I’d humiliated him a few times, not intentionally. As for Gunnar, I’d made him permanently bald, so he had to wear wigs now.

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