Page 27 of House of Mages and Raven

“I see.” I tried to sound casual, not wanting Bea to see my pain, not wanting to see the sympathy in her eyes.

I had been dumped, all right, and now some girl had been sent to replace me. I shoved the bitterness down and focused on feeling out Grace’s magical signature. Sy was right. Despite Grace and I resembling each other, our powers were different. Her magic had the signature of an archdemon.

Archdemons were fallen angels. Their origin could be traced back to Heaven. After their rebellion and exile from Heaven,they took the domain of Hell, and their powers mutated and were tainted by Hell. My father had warned me that the combined forces of Heaven and Hell could do us great harm. That was why the Seed of Heaven had nearly unmade me.

For eons, Heaven and Hell had been at war, but the ancient gods were their common enemy. The celestial fuckers had targeted the wrong person. They should’ve tried the Seed on Ruin, but instead, I’d taken the hit for him. Another terrible thing about being his daughter.

Ruin was wary of his ancient enemies. One of them couldn’t counter him or me, but a legion with weapons forged in Heaven then finished in Hell could probably eradicate him and his bloodline.

Grace had a celestial power. She was dangerous to me.

As if she knew that I was studying her, Grace winked at me across the room.

“Class!” The potion professor clapped her hands after she’d given everyone ample time to worship the Princess of the Underworld. “Let’s break into six groups. Today, we’ll try to make a perfect invisibility potion.”

We’d made an invisibility potion last time, and I’d poked fun at Fake Silver, who was back to Fake Blonde now, and made her look stupid with only her mouth visible. The professor wanted us to improve the potion. Well, no matter how perfect it was, I could always see anyone who drank the invisibility potion.

Bea was the team leader of our group. She led us to a cauldron in the east corner of the lab. Herbs and ingredients were piled on the long workstations. She gave each of us an instruction as to what kind of herbs we needed to collect to make the potion.

I might not know all the names of the herbs, but I recognized the magical intention of each one and their combined intent when the casters tossed them into the pot, and thus I couldderail my opponents’ potion while it was brewing and strip its magical effect.

“Yes, Queen Lilith, Killian, and I have spent a lot of time together.” Grace’s bright voice drifted toward me. She called him Killian instead of Prince Killian, which hinted at how close they were.

She stood at the center table with the biggest group around her doing all the work. They tossed ingredients into a big pot while two witches and a demon stirred the brew diligently. Everyone swooned at her revelation.

She darted a glance at me, delivering a message that while I’d been locked up in the dungeon, Killian had had a marvelous time with his betrothed and her. No wonder he hadn’t come to visit me. He’d been busy with my replacement.

While I tried to forge iron walls around my heart and Sy offered me her strength without reservation, I stared at the new enemy who wore my face, feeling like my soul wanted to abandon my body. A blink, a few wild heartbeats, and I sucked in a ragged breath, back to this reality. Had the ward of the Underworld just used her mental power on me?

“Of course, Killian is amazing,” Grace bragged. “When he’s with my queen and me, he isn’t as cold as he appears. He’s rather warm and caring and fun.”

I’d once thought he was only warm, caring, and fun toward me.

How generous of her to keep sharing things about the chaos prince as if he were her new beau. The entire class, including everyone in Bea’s group, turned their heads, trying to catch every drop of the romance between Queen Lilith and Prince Killian. Well, Grace wasn’t shy about including herself as well. “And hot! You know what I mean?” She giggled, and other girls joined her, full of envy and longing.

“They say Prince Killian can’t touch any woman except his betrothed. Is it true?” Fake Blonde asked in a hushed voice.

Probably almost every bride candidate had experienced a wet dream about the chaos heir, who remained forbidden fruit to them.

“He can touch me,” Grace said in a confidential tone.

Shocked silence spread through the lab amid the sizzling sound of the potions boiling.

“Tell us more, please,” someone begged.

The copy is lying,Sy said, but somehow, it didn’t sound like a lie.

I swallowed the bile rising to the back of my throat and listened in as well.

“My queen allows it.” Grace lowered her voice for show. “Queen Lilith is so generous that she doesn’t mind sharing her beloved with me. In the entire universe, Prince Killian can touch only two women—my queen and me.” A dreamy look settled on a face that was a polished reflection of mine. “The three of us…”

Rip out that slut’s throat!Sy urged.Or let me do it, and I’ll chew on her bones.

My darkest flame rushed through my bloodstream, so hot and powerful that I felt like my veins were going to burst. And when they did, my flame would break out. I needed to get the fuck out of here, or I wouldn’t only torch my double but also burn down the entire place with the whole class in it, with Bea in it.

It might already be too late, as a trail of smoke streamed from my lips.

Before I could bolt, cool fingers clasped around my forearm, and Bea hugged me to her tightly while turning my back on Grace, so my eyes wouldn’t spit fire where anyone could see.

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