Page 148 of Once the Skies Fade

“It’s Raven,” she said, her tone still cautious.

“The human? You didn’t bring her up here, did you?”

“Of course not. She’s still a prisoner awaiting trial. I put her in the interrogation room.”

Slowly, I pushed to my feet, swallowing the annoyed groan that tried to escape my chest. “Do you know what she wants?”

“To plead her case, perhaps? To plead for Matthias’s? She didn’t say. Everyone seems reluctant to tell me anything lately,” she joked, though her half-smile didn’t meet her weary eyes.

Assessing the apprehension on her face, I asked, “Afraid I’m going to lose my temper and murder this woman?”

She cast her eyes down as she answered. “He’s your mate?—”

A deep growl vibrated in my chest, and my fingers flared open as my shadows burst from my palms to wrap around my midsection like a coiling snake prepared to strike where I demanded.

“I know he’s my mate,” I bit out.

“And you’re just going to let him?—”

Spinning away from her, I dropped my chin to my chest and pressed my shaking hands to my temples. When Isa reached for my shoulder, I threw my arms back down to my sides, but I didn’t face her, keeping my eyes slammed tightly as I tried to compose myself.

“I don’t know,” I seethed. After a few calming breaths, though, I was able to steady my heart enough to turn toward my friend. Lifting my chin, I slowly opened my eyes and—recalling my shadows back into my veins—I said, “But I’ll see Raven now.”

Chapter 65

Calla

Isa accompanied me in silence to the dungeons but departed once I stepped inside the room where Raven waited. The woman wasn’t chained to the wall as Matthias had been, but that was an unnecessary precaution with an unarmed human. Still, Isa had restrained her, cuffing her wrists behind her back and binding her ankles together with a hefty chain.

“You wanted to see me?” I asked gently, and the woman lifted her chin, a knowing smile spreading across her lips.

“I did,” she said, though she didn’t elaborate.

I studied the woman who appeared to be around Lieke’s age, though she had a few more visible scars than my former sister-in-law.

“Why?”

Angling her head to one side, she lifted a brow. “When I last saw you, you were ready to strangle me with your shadows.”

“Your point?”

“Where is that anger now?” There was no challenge in her question, only genuine curiosity.

“Directed at Matthias,” I said easily, though I had expected it to elicit some sign of surprise in the woman.

Instead she offered an almost-sweet smile. “But not toward me?”

I was about to ask her what she was getting at when I realized she was right. Ever since Minerva had revealed that someone in Wrenwick’s royal family had killed Brennan, I had placed the blame—and directed all my fury—at the humans. I hadn’t been able to face a human—except Asher, though he was only half—without my boiling blood calling for revenge.

But now…

A human was still responsible for taking my husband from me.

I still grieved for him, still missed him.

But now…

“I…I don’t know,” I stammered, unable to look up at her again as tears threatened to surface.

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