Page 48 of Bound to the Shadow Queen
He pulled a familiar necklace from his pocket. An amethyst pendant hanging from a brown leather necklace. I didn’t need him to turn it over to know there was a Drakmor rune engravedon the other side. One that I had traced the pattern of for as long as I could remember.
Veyr.To rise.
The blood drained from my face. I had never asked him how he got me out of Unseelie territory. How he got past the wards of my village. How many people had to die in the process…
“Where did you get that?” I asked carefully.
My mother’s necklace. Surely he didn’t…Couldn’t…
“Why were you hiding from them?” His message was clear. He wouldn’t answer my questions unless I answered his.
My breath stalled in my lungs, and I found it almost impossible to keep my nails from turning into talons. Batty nestled against my wrist where she was concealed under the blankets, and I used the motion to ground myself.
“I was hiding from my uncle,” I bit out. “He’s the one who gave me to the mages. I thought that my mother was dead.” My voice threatened to break, and I stopped, squeezing my eyes shut to stop the tears that were threatening to stab at the back of my eyes, furious and panicked.
“Your mother isn’t dead.”
I opened my eyes, staring first at Draven’s carefully carved features, then at my unmoving ring. There was no vibration. He was telling the truth.
My attention snapped back up to him. “Then how did you get that?”
Instead of responding, he fired back with more questions of his own.
“Why was he looking for you? Why go to so much trouble to track down a child they believed to be Hollow?”
I gritted my teeth at his games. “I don’t think he ever believed that. That’s why he was so relentless with the mages. That, and he was desperate.”
“Why?” he pushed.
“Because he can’t sire children of his own. And my mother almost died during childbirth; she cannot carry another child to term.”
Draven’s expression turned incredulous.
“He cared enough about his familial line continuing, to torture you?”
“Yes.”
His teal eyes narrowed. “Why?”
But he asked the question like he already knew the answer. I wasn’t sure why I was holding onto it anyway, this final piece of myself that he would hate me for.
“Because he is the Thane,” I spat out the words. “And I am the heir to the Shadow Clan.”
A low, bitter laugh echoed through the room.
Draven reached a pale hand up to run through his silver-blond hair. He shook his head slowly, before his aurora gaze landed back on me.
“Of course you are.”
I clenched the fist of my free hand, bracing myself against the oppressive crash of his power, the sweeping gust of frost that cycloned through the room. I didn’t pretend to not know why he was so upset.
I had seen his nightmares, had read the history books, and his reaction now only confirmed it.
The Shadow Clan had killed the King and Queen of Winter at the Frostgrave Battle. But I wouldn’t take the blame for a war I hadn’t fought in, so I kept my chin high.
“Where did you get the amulet?” I demanded, my navy hair whipping back against the chair.
“She gave it to me,” he said irritably.
