Page 14 of Hell's Queen

“Yes,” Hazen says, touching my hair and kissing my head.

“Will silk sheets be involved?” Jigsaw asks, making me giggle. “It’s a crucial question, Asura. Take me seriously! I will not live with you if silk sheets aren’t involved.”

“Is that… a yes?” I ask, looking up at him.

“Yes, baby. I will go where you go now.”

My men being split up like this hurts me. Khazon is out there still, and Ledger and Ozias are both looking for him. Ryker left to have a meeting with the king and his men. Although I hide my nerves, I think about them and their safety. Hazen and Jigsaw don’t leave my side, escorting me everywhere. But I don’t mind. In a way, I feel safe with both of them.

I entered the training gym we were in to use shadow magic. My brother is with Inarian, boxing with him.

Inarian meets my eyes, and I look away, moving to Agnus—who still resides—doing research in a book at the bar. The same bar Inarian had me against that night.

“I’d like to figure out how to control my powers,” I say instantly.

She looks at me over her glasses before speaking. “Ask your father.”

“Our father,” Derrick snaps, “is dead.”

“Kind of,” I say, looking down.

“Kind of?”

Our eyes meet. Derrick is a few months younger than me, and although we never get along, I can see how torn up he is. He is an asshole, but he loved our father and Fenric just as much as I did. I wish there was a way for him to experience and see our father. My mind wanders to the Shadow World and how I was able to take everyone with me… Maybe I can do that with him. “Would you like to try to see him?”

His eyes scan my face, gauging what I meant by that. “Are you threatening me?”

I let out a laugh. “No! I’m serious. I can bring you guys to talk to him, maybe.”

“To Dad?” Killian asks, wiping sweat away from his brow as he moves to us.

They have a right to see him as much as I do. “I don’t know if it’ll work, but I can try,” I say, moving to the black circle again before sitting and holding out my hands.

Killian is quick to take my hand, but Derrick hesitates. After a second, he takes it.

I’ve never done this before. Every time I saw my father, I was asleep, but I wanted to know if I could do it. Thorne also has the powers of dreamscaping, almost having an out-of-body experience. My eyes close, and I call to the shadows of that dreamscape in The Flame. After a moment, magic stills in the air, and I focus on the darkness of the dreamscape world.

“I will say,” my father’s voice comes, standing there in the darkness of my brain. “I’ve never been able to do that with my powers.”

“Dad,” Killian breathes, rushing to him without another thought. The moment they touch, the room around us changes. It’s not a dark space anymore, and it wasn’t scary. It is home. The heavy obsidian throne sits in the center of a vast room with dark walls. It doesn’t hurt to be in this room like I thought it would. The room he and Fenric were killed in; was the throne room.

Derrick and I move together, making my father look up. “Hi, Derrick.”

“Is… is he real?” Derrick asks me.

“His consciousness, like all the others before, lives on in The Flame. That’s Dad, from the moment he was born till death,” I say with a nod.

Derrick moves and wraps his arms around him. “Fuck, I missed you more than I ever thought I would. I hated you for the longest.”

“Couldn’t tell,” my father teases.

He pulls back, and I can see the tips of his ears glowing red and his eyes watering. “I never could figure out why you would ever choose her over me to be the direct heir. I always thought I was the golden child. I didn’t leave. I went to school. I—”

My father hugs him to shut him up. “You have a destiny that I don’t want to mess up. Believe it or not, your sister will make a great queen.”

I cross my arms over my chest. “I don’t believe you. Tell them the truth.”

His dark eyes meet mine, and he looks down.

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