Page 87 of Rage of Her Ravens

“My men know it’s urgent,” he said. “They will bring her back as soon as they can.”

I swallowed at that, feeling like a wilting flower underneath his penetrating gaze. “Lord Draevyn, I have a question for you.”

He heaved a sigh, giving me the same look my mother gave the children when they dirtied the hems of their dresses. “If you can’t call me Drae, then at least call me Draevyn.”

Chewing my bottom lip, I warily eyed him, looking for any signs of deception in his dark eyes. “Alright, Draevyn, how can you be sure your servants won’t tell Malvolia her nieces are here?”

He dragged a hand through his wet hair. “I’m not sure you realize how isolated Abyssus is from the rest of Delfi, but even if my servants weren’t loyal, they have no way to get word out without flying across another mountain range and thousands of miles of forest, and I’m aware of everyone who comes and goes from my estate.”

“What about the men you sent for the green witch?”

“I sent two of my most trusted soldiers.” He looked from me back to his brother. “They won’t betray us.”

I still wasn’t convinced. I had to know my nieces and I were safe here. It was difficult to trust him when the people I should have trusted the most, my parents, deceived me. “My mother told me Malvolia has seers. Shouldn’t she already know we’re here?”

He shook his head. “Malvoliahadseers. Most of her most powerful witches were killed during the great darkness.”

Interesting. “How?” I asked, then regretted the question, fearing he’d tell me my parents had something to do with it.

Shadows darkened his eyes. “The story is that Flora, Marius, and Derrick killed them all.”

Of course he’d say that. I refused to believe my parents were killers, no matter their deception. How could I reconcile my gentle parents with vicious killers? I swallowed back a lump of sorrow. “Do you believe it?”

The look of desperation and longing he gave me made me want to crawl beneath the covers and never come out. “I believe you, and if you say your parents aren’t killers, then that’s what I believe.”

Elements. How was I supposed to respond to that?

My nieces squirmed in my arms.

Aurora elbowed my side. “You’re hurting me, Auntie.”

I loosened my hold on the girls. I hadn’t realized I’d been squeezing too hard. It was all Draevyn’s fault for muddling my brain with his sudden change in mood and his alluring scent that made me want to melt into the sheets.

It took me a moment to find my voice. “Then who killed them?”

He frowned. “I don’t know.”

I eyed him a long moment, looking for any cracks in his features. “And she has no other way to see us?”

“Malvolia had a mystic mirror that had the power to reveal the future, but there’s a rumor it was shattered during the darkness.”

The darkness. I knew what he was referring to. My parents had called it “the madness,” the course over a few months that Malvolia had burned her nation down to find my pregnant mother and to kill her unborn children. “You never found out?”

He shook his head. “Malvolia guards her secrets. She likes her enemies to believe she still has the ability to see across time and space.”

I swallowed when we locked gazes, and the shadows lifted from his eyes, revealing the swirling fires beneath. Why was he looking at me like that? With such intensity?

It took me a moment to find my voice. “How did she know where to find Tari?”

He let out a bitter-sounding laugh. “Lots and lots of spies.”

“Is that what you were?” I wasn’t angry, just curious.

“My brothers and I were training to be spies when we spotted the white witch.”

I flinched when he referred to Tari as ‘the white witch’ as if refusing to acknowledge her name made her less of a real person. “You mean Tari,” I corrected, refusing to hide the venom in my tone. “Mysister.”

Maybe it made the thought of killing her less cruel, to detach her from her true self, my sister and best friend, Ember and Aurora’s mother, a kind green witch who’d spent most of her days pining for her lost mates.

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