Page 142 of Rage of Her Ravens

“We’re scared, Auntie,” Aurora called behind me.

I turned around as the girls climbed off the sofa, wiping their sticky fingers on their frocks.

“Don’t be scared, girls.” I knelt in front of them, wiping candy residue from their mouths. “Listen to me. Aunt Malvolia isn’t evil. She’s confused, but just to be safe, we tell her nothing about either of your powers and nothing about the mind spinner causing chaos. We tell her the reason we left Pappo and Yaya was because they lied to us and were going to send us to a bad man. That’s all you need to tell her, okay?”

They both nodded. “Okay.”

I gasped when the doors were flung open, and my three brave mates created a wall in front of me, blocking me from Malvolia’s view with their outstretched wings.

I cringed, and the girls covered their ears when a loud horn blared, followed by a booming male voice.

“All bow to the benevolent Sorceress Queen Malvolia Circe Avias, Protector of the Realm of Delfi and Mother to all Ravini.”

I grabbed the girls’ hands and followed my mates’ lead, bowing low as I heard the sound of skirts swishing into the room followed by the fluttering of dozens of wings, though I couldn’t see beyond my mates’ wings blocking our view.

“Your Highness,” Drae said.

“You may rise,” said a woman with a raspy voice that sounded exactly like my mother, though slightly darker.

Elements, my knees shook so badly, I could hardly stand back up.

“Lord Inferni, Young Lords,” the woman snapped. “Well, did you kill them?”

Drae’s spine stiffened. “No, My Queen.”

“Why not?”

I couldn’t let my mates take the blame for me. Still holding the girls’ hands, I pushed through my mates and faced Malvolia. I swallowed as I looked at my mother’s twin, the monster my parents had warned me about my entire life, the source of my childhood nightmares. Whereas my mother was goodness and light, the woman before me was vengeance and darkness, dressed in a long, black gown and matching cape, her lips and eyes painted in dark swaths of ink. Black magic leached from her fingers as she glared at me, and she had a line of at least twenty snarling fire mages at her back. I had no idea how I was able to force the words from my throat. “Because I stopped them.”

She arched a black brow. “And you are?”

I turned up my chin, forcing myself to be brave. I overcame an army of trolls. I could take on one very powerful witch. “Shirina Avias.”

Her wicked smile was the stuff of my nightmares. “Of course, you’re an Avias. Our resemblance is uncanny.” She tilted her head, looking at me with the curiosity of a cat toying with a mouse. “Why did you stop them?”

My knees trembled. My bladder quaked. “Because they’re my parents.”

She turned her feral glare on Drae. “And why did you listen to her?”

He let out a low chuckle. “Other than the fact that she’s our fated mate?”

When she snarled, black smoke coiling out of her fingertips, I blurted, “They had no choice. I used my siren’s call.”

“Siren’s call?” Her black smoke curled inward like a retreating tide. “There hasn’t been an Avias with the call in over a millennium.” Her nostrils flared. “How powerful is your call?”

Odd that Malvolia seemed shocked about my magic. Hadn’t Bertram and Sol told her? Or did they not understand what I’d done to them? Ember and Aurora pressed into me, burying their faces against my skirts. I rested my hands on top of their heads.

My chest swelled with magic, waiting for me to unleash it. “Very powerful.”

My mates crowded closer to me, their heat radiating outward and warming my back.

“Then why haven’t you used it to disable me or my army?” She nodded toward the line of fire mages behind her.

I looked directly into her eyes. “Because you’re not my enemy.”

Her eyes widened, then narrowed. “I’m Flora and Derrick’s enemy. Why wouldn’t I be yours?”

“My parents betrayed us,” I answered. “They tried to have a mind spinner alter our memories,” I added, then inwardly cursed when I remembered Drae didn’t want me mentioning the mind spinner.

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