Chapter One
Raevina
Ash floated past the dusty window panes just beyond Arianna’s headboard.
Raevina couldn’t help but stare. Stare and wonder if each piece represented some fragile part of their future. Perhaps everything had already died in the flames.
She crossed her legs, staring now at the position of the bed and surrounding furniture. It was abysmal. Neither the male nor the female who owned the home had any sense of taste for proper organization.
Had it been up to her, Raevina would have placed the dresser beneath the window. It was short enough to sit just under the trim and would have allowed the room to breathe.
She was irritated just sitting in here.
The bed could easily have been moved to the center of the room, backed against the wall where the occupant would be closer to the fire to stave off the winter chill. Not to mention the vantage point it would provide to watch the door.
Then again, maybe this room had been intended for younglings, and blocking the window was an intentional safety measure. Not that she knew anything about caring for younglings.
Raevina adjusted herself in the chair again, trying to prevent part of the wood from digging into her backside, then ran her fingertips along the book in her hands. She traced the etched lettering of the title over and over.
She didn’t have any intention of actually reading it, but holding a book gave Raevina something for her idle hands to do. It was far better than hearing the incessant clock ticking downstairs, counting down minutes they couldn’t spare.
Their entire world had gone to absolute shit. The only consolation was that most of them were still alive. The ones that mattered, anyway. The male they’d lost—Kirian—he hadn’t been a warrior by any stretch of the imagination. He wasn’t a body that would have aided them in the upcoming war.
But Evelyn was.
She was young, but Raevina could sense the power that flowed in the future High Lady’s veins. She’d witnessed some of it in Vairik’s stronghold. She just prayed Evelyn wouldn’t be broken beyond repair once she woke.
Raevina flipped open the book, thumbing through the pages without much interest. Levea as they knew it was gone. She’d watched her father plot the city’s destruction for years. Right alongside Nàdair’s. Now, one of those cities was gone, and her father hadn’t even lifted a finger.
No, that wasn’t entirely true. The High Lord of Fiadh had been working with Vairik from the start. He’d probably known Vairik’s plan, or at the very least, suspected it. Vairik didn’t seem like the type of male to share power. Her father wasn’t that type of male either, which made for dangerous allies at best.
But somehow, somewhere, they’d plotted to use her brother as kindling to begin the war between Móirín and Brónach. Her brother had been nothing to them, and Raevina wondered if she could have been used and discarded just as easily.
At one point, she would have jumped at the opportunity to set the two countries against one another. She would have relished in their suffering, craved seeing whether they could survive without all their soft comforts.
Now she recognized her entire life had been a lie. Not just the parts about The Divine, but everything her father had seared into her mind about Móirín and Brónach. He’d painted them as enemies. He’d painted them as weak. But in her shorttime among them, Raevina had already seen the way fire burned through their veins just as fiercely as those from Fiadh.
They weren’t countries full of greedy, weak cowards. And the one they claimed as queen wasn’t a false monarch they’d appointed just to assume control.
Raevina glanced up, looking at the young female currently in a moderately induced sleep thanks to Zylah. The half-breed had tucked their queen beneath a comforter despite the warmer temperatures outside. It made Raevina sweat just looking at her.
Raevina rested the side of her face on a closed fist. Vairik had tampered with the young queen’s mind. She’d been hysterical upon waking two days ago. She hadn’t even recognized her mate, an issue none knew exactly how to deal with.
They needed to move, yet two in their party were incapacitated. Raevina had sworn to one day restore her family’s honor, but had already failed to protect Arianna from their greatest threat.
Smoke curled up from her hands, and Raevina glanced down to find the pages of the book blackening beneath her fingertips. She stared at the charred edges, imagining the satisfaction if she got to do the same to Vairik’s or Niall’s skin.
Neither male deserved a quick death. She hoped they both suffered before the end.
Raevina smothered the embers before they could draw the others’ attention. They’d been fussing enough, Talon the worst of the lot. At least Rion sat still. Talon, in his frustration, paced. Constantly. If he wasn’t inside, then he was out, walking back and forth, running his hands repeatedly through his hair. She was certain he’d lose it from force alone.
Raevina never bothered to chase him down. He wasn’t her responsibility, and after their last spat—at least one of us is capable of emotions.
She smirked to herself. Emotionless was exactly what her father had trained her to become. It’s what all Fae from Fiadh were trained to become. Emotions were nothing more than a distraction. Distractions got you killed. Or those you cared for killed.
Raevina’s smirk faded as memories from a different life cascaded through her like ice water. She clenched her jaw, working to suppress the waves of emotion she’d buried so long ago.
It wouldn’t happen again. Raevina wouldn’t allow it. She’d locked her heart away a long time ago. Talon’s smiling face flashed through her mind, and Raevina clenched her jaw. She just hated that someone else had found a key.
