Page 18 of House of Mages and Raven

Drops splashed onto King Vasiliy’s rigid face, and twin snakes tumbled onto his shoulder. He swatted them off and frowned at his wet queen before snapping his cold stare at me. For a second, he seemed unsure what to make of this turn of events. I guessed that it didn’t happen too often. Luckily for his queen, the assaulting snakes were her signature power, so they just returned to her hair, nesting. I was glad that they didn’t get me, or it would have hurt like hell.

“Your Majesties and Council.” Headmistress Ethel bowed to her betters. “The girl proves to be more than an Echo, as I said in my transcript. She can null almost everyone’s magic.”

I couldn’t nullify Killian’s power.

“Seize the creature!” Queen Odette screamed. “Kill her! She tried to assassinate me!”

At least she’d stopping calling meit.

The royal guards rushed toward me as one, their weapons drawn.

“Shit!” I cried out. “This is all going to hell on a bullet train.”

Shit!Sy echoed, her claws at the ready.We’ll have to fight our way out. Let’s drag a sentient being with us to eat later. Or you should just use that darkest flame of yours to burn them all to cinders.

Don’t burn the bridge!Pucker in his phantom form zipped to us and shouted in panic.Look, here he comes.

Killian leapt off the gallery, breaking Queen Lilith’s grip. Fury flashed across her gorgeous face before she schooled her expression to calm.

The chaos prince pushed his starlight across the expanse between the royal guards and me. The guards reeled back only because their prince hadn’t meant to kill them. Killian was in front of me in a heartbeat, his back toward me, killer lightning sparkling at his fingertips. At the same time, the heirs from the other kingdoms leapt from their balcony box, lithe as panthers, and surrounded me in a ring, their shields raised. A second later, Rock and Cassius joined the ranks as well for more than moral support.

“Back off!” Killian commanded the guards of Kingdom of Chaos coldly.

It shocked me that he was still defending me. I blinked back the moisture that stung my eyelids. He hadn’t abandoned me completely, and he hadn’t done exactly what his betrothed wanted him to.

“What is this?” King Vasiliy demanded. “Are you out of your fucking mind, Killian? Are you defying your mother?”

“She is not my mother and never will be,” Kilian said with icy disdain.

“You’ll disrespect me in my court, son?” Queen Odette hissed.

I almost chuckled. Like daughter, like mother. Medea had been the same way—insisting on calling Killian “brother” whilehe’d constantly asked her to stop calling him that. A lot of people just didn’t listen well.

Killian was a lot more powerful than his father. In this realm, power was everything. Power even trumped rank.

“No one touches a bride candidate in the House of Chaos,” Killian said.

He was clever to play the bride candidate card, since the laws of the realm offered candidates protection.

“Barbie is a bride candidate from the House of Vampires as well,” Prince Louis chimed in, his deep voice booming in the court.

“No bride candidate can be from more than one house,” a dark-skinned shifter Council member declared. Of course, any shifter would discredit a vampire.

“Barbie was a bride candidate from my house before Prince Killian poached her illegally,” Prince Silas said. “The issue of which house Barbie belongs to hasn’t been settled, and I have yet to bring this dispute to the Council, since Barbie is a dormant wolf.”

“Barbie also has the scent of a fae,” Rowan said, crossing his muscled arms over his chest.

Sy smelled of fae, though she was not fae.

“Not that fast,” Cade said. “Barbie confessed she has mage blood.”

I didn’t remember confessing anything to anyone.

The Council stared at the princes incredulously before they all trained their gazes on me. Now they seemed to take me more seriously.

If they knew you’re a three-quarter goddess…Pucker chimed in.

The kings and queens of the other kingdoms in their holographic images all started to yell at their sons, demanding answers.

---