Page 82 of Crown of Wrath

There’s still the aura of a Queen around her. She still commands authority from everyone except Casimir and me. Brenna is everything that has been said about her.

Except that she doesn’t seem to see me as anything other than a tool. No different from when I was born.

It hurts more than I’d like to admit. Cole brushes against me, his hand wrapping around my waist, and he whispers in my ear. “Did you hear that? Nothing can hurt us here. It might be nice to take a few days to rest.”

“Oh, really?”

His lip curls up, and he says, “I have a few ideas of how torest. Thoroughly.”

I run my hand over his chest, and for a moment, I forget that there are two entire villages watching us, waiting to talk to us. We haven’t had enough time together without a thousand things happening. We haven’t had enough time where we could breathe like we did in Draenyth. I haven’t had enough mornings waking up next to him.

His voice is water over river rocks as he whispers, “You always have all of me, Maeve Arden. I hope you’ll let me remind you of why you came back to me.”

A shiver runs through me, and shadows pour from me without any thought. “Maybe you should be careful what you say,” I respond

His ice-blue eyes flash orange, and flames sputter to life around him. It’s nothing like the inferno he’d called forth during the dance, but it’s still an obvious display of need.

He bends down, pressing his lips to mine. I sink into it. It’s everything I need, and yet the softness is like a caress, soothing a soul that still feels the wounds that have only just begun to heal.

His touch is everything. His kiss is all-consuming.

And then Casimir clears his throat, and I realize that nearly fifty people are staring at us, my Da and Hazel being a part of them. At least half of them know exactly why shadows pour from my fingertips.

“Might want to wait to finish that train of thought until you have a room,” he says. “I doubt you want everyone here to be thinking about your naughty bits when they talk to you for the first time in months.”

Blood runs to my cheeks. Cole’s grin makes me think that he didn’t forget about the fact that everyone was watching us. He just didn’t care.

“Right,” I say and pull back from Cole, but the smile is etched on my face. “We’ll come back to that,” I say, and go back to following my mother. She’s smiling at us both, but she says nothing as she leads us toward the city.

As we get closer, I realize it wasn’t just humans that my mother had been rescuing. Shadows stream from multiple Immortals. How is that possible? The only answer is that there are more people from the House of Shadows here. My mother must have saved them from being hunted down by Gethin.

I can hardly believe it. Then I see a child with bright white hair who’s probably only fourteen years old, and her body is nearly completely engulfed in darkness. Even more than the Shade, sheisshadows. She’s… powerful. I can only remember a handful of times where my own darkness covered me so completely.

A realization passes through me.This must be the new Queen of Shadows.

She’s different from the other High Fae I’ve met. Her skin doesn’t have that slightly olive tone. Instead, it’s so pale that it seems to shine in the faint mist that is everywhere here in the Nothing. Her gray eyes shine just as much, taking in everything at once, and they seem older than her youthful body would suggest.

She moves smoothly, gliding from where she was standing under a copse of trees toward us, unfazed by the fact that we’re strangers here. Her body is lithe, and she flows almost as smoothly as her shadows do.

Somehow, even while looking every bit like a fourteen-year-old Queen who’s ready to rule the House of Shadows, her eyes light up like a little girl at a birthday party. Those gray eyes brighten as she gets closer to us, and they never leave mine.

“Queen Maeve,” she says, bowing her head ever so slightly when she gets within a few feet of us. “I’m Echo. Your mother asked me to be your guide through Valinar.” Her words flow just as much as her body does, as though she’s a part of the shadows that exude from her. Her stormy gray eyes flash as she stares at me. While her movement and speech are just like I’d expect from a girl my mother’s raised to become her successor, there’s a touch of excitement in her voice. Something about seeing me has her wanting to jump up and down, and it’s only her training that keeps her acting mature.

“Thank you, Echo,” I say with as much formality in my voice as possible. I don’t understand this girl, nor her place in the hierarchy of the future, and I certainly don’t understand her powers.

She says nothing in response, but she hesitates, and I catch the flash of a smile before she turns and glides towards the city, aspecter in a world of mist. Seconds pass by silently as we follow her, and even Cole’s footsteps seem loud compared to the child’s.

Then she speaks solemnly as she recites information about the city. “Valinar was created when Queen Brenna went to Calyr and begged a favor from him. She needed a place to guarantee safety from King Gethin and King Casimir, and Calyr demanded a sacrifice. She sacrificed her body and her power. Brenna is no longer a Queen, nor is she a High Fae. She is Valinar. She is safety.”

Echo’s words seem to flow around us, not really leaving our minds, even as we walk down the main street of Valinar. Still, our friends follow us, staying just behind us as we’re given the tour of the city. Little whispers from some of the louder members of the crowd reach our ears. “I bet she used a net to catch them…” is heard louder than the rest, and I can’t help but smile.

Echo doesn’t stop talking though, her eyes never even noticing the crowd we’re walking past. “Calyr accepted this offer and turned Queen Brenna into the Conduit of Valinar. She has no power of her own, but she can control the power that is siphoned from those who are in and around Valinar. She’s used that power to find and hide hundreds of people, including many of the House of Shadows. Unlike Draenyth, no violence against any races is allowed here. Valinar is not another Draenyth. It is a place of peace and safety for all of its inhabitants.”

She stops then and turns to us, and the storms in her eyes seem to light up in intensity. For the first time, there is nothing but seriousness in them. “I will say that again. There is no violence beyond consensual training allowed in Valinar. There are no slaves. No humans or Lesser Fae are to be treated as anything other than fellow citizens. Valinar is not a part of Nyth, and even you, Queen Maeve, do not rule here. This city is setoutside the world you came from. Only I and Brenna call this place home, and death waits for any visitors who break our law.”

I blink. I’ve never been threatened by a child before, and until this very moment, I wouldn’t have believed that I could be intimidated by someone who wasn’t even an adult. I would have been wrong. Echo is not a normal child, and that’s when understanding dawns on me.

“You were born here, weren’t you?” I ask.

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