Page 47 of Rage of Her Ravens

Everything? Like the cruel words he’d said to me that first night when I was already devastated after escaping my parents? Or how he’d threatened to drop me when we were high above the clouds?

“To be honest,” I said. “I don’t know if I can.” His features fell, but before he could speak, I added. “And what about my sister?”

“W-what?” he stammered.

“What will you do if Malvolia calls on you to kill her?” Jutting my hands on my hips, I glared at him, waiting. “Well?” I asked, not bothering to mask the derision in my voice when he gaped at me, his mouth open like a fish out of water.

“Hopefully my queen won’t call on me to kill your sister, but I can’t lie to you, Shirina.” He splayed a hand across his chest. “I must protect my queen.”

And there it was. His confession was like poison leaching into my veins. My fated mate would rather break my heart than risk angering an evil queen.

“My sister never wanted to kill your queen,” I spat. “The only ruler she wanted to kill was Fachnan for what he did to Lupine.”

“But the prophecy said—”

I jabbed his chest, my anger flaring like a thousand burning suns. “Who was this prophet?” I was so sick and tired of hearing about this damn prophecy. Our parents had drilled it into our heads since we were children—one day one of us would become a powerful white witch and kill Queen Malvolia. Bollocks. My sister didn’t have a murderous bone in her body.

“I don’t know.” He backed up, holding out his hands in a gesture of surrender. “Flora and her mates killed her when we were children.”

“First off, my parents might be stupid, but they aren’t killers. You can’t seem to get that through your thick head.” I jabbed him again and again, not caring when he winced and backed away. “Second, my mother has only one mate, my father.”

He sidestepped me, his features falling. “And your other father.”

The rage that heated my veins was a living, palpable thing. “I didn’t have another father!”

“You did.” He scratched the back of his head, his brows scrunched in confusion. “His name was Marius.”

“Marius?” I’d never heard of that name before. Certainly, my parents would’ve told me if I had another father.

He stopped, staring at me as if he was seeing a ghost. “Your parents didn’t tell you about him?”

I threw up my hands, sorely tempted to give him another black eye. “Is this some kind of cruel joke?”

He vehemently shook his head. “Why would I joke about this?”

I gaped at my tormenter, waiting for his shell to crack, ready to pummel him for teasing me.

“Everything okay, you two?” Blaze said as he came up to me.

I spun on him with a snarl. “No, it’s not. Did you know about Marius?”

He blinked at me. “Derrick’s brother?”

The world slid out from beneath my feet, and I was falling, falling... “What happened to him?” I rasped, emotion threatening to cut off my words. I had another father?

Blaze frowned. “He was killed in battle.”

My world tipped and spun.No. No. No.I shook a fist at my tormentors. “You mean Malvolia killed him!”

Blaze slowly backed away, as if I was a voracious dragon ready to snap off his head. “Her mages killed him when he was fleeing to Windhaven.”

“Fleeing to Windhaven?” I clutched my throat. “So he was hunted down and slaughtered like a wild animal?”

“Hewaswild,” Draevyn interrupted. “He’d already killed dozens of noblemen and women, anyone who refused to help him overthrow Malvolia.”

Magic pulsed through my veins. “And you believe that?”

He shrugged, then averted his gaze. “Just because your parents didn’t kill our parents, didn’t mean they weren’t incapable of killing all the others.”

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