Queen's Shadow || Kingdom at the End of the World - Book II

[13] Heart Stone

Rae awoke halfway out of bed. A blade glinted naked in her right hand. The left rested over Carmen's chest, protective.

There was an intruder at their door.

Rae slipped from the Carmen's embrace. Carmen's brows furrowed in displeasure. The man burrowed into the blankets where Rae had just been, still fast asleep. Rae smiled fondly.

A burst of magic tore Rae from Carmen's side. She closed the bedroom door quietly, then strode through a comfortably furnished sitting room in a hurry. Pale crystals blinked from the walls and ceiling. They followed in Rae's wake in pairs, crowding close at the entrance to the Queen's quarters. The door shuddered minutely when Rae parted it open. Magic crackled over the outer walls in rolling waves, more turbulent by the moment. Outside, the air burned green-blue and smelled of lightning.

Rae dismissed her silent guards with a flick of her hand. Xiang Yi's eyes followed the motion, gaze absent. The advisor's jaw was clenched tight.

Rae stepped aside in wordless welcome. "What has he done now?" she asked.

Xiang Yi worked his mouth, but no words made it through. The storm of power entered with him. It billowed out to fill the room, the advisor as its eye. The walls bowed outward like the sails of a ship. Had the building not been reinforced in blood and bone Rae would have worried it would give in under the onslaught. As it were, she was far more concerned with Carmen's proximity to what promised to be a highly temperamental conversation.

Xiang Yi paced the length of the room and back. The advisor's hair was unbound and free of its usual accessories. A sickly pallor lay over his skin, the angry flush that reddened his cheeks the sole source of color.

Rae's gaze lingered at the man's clenched hand. "You have brought me something," she noted.

Xiang Yi stilled mid-step. A terrible sound hissed out of his chest. Rae could not name it laughter, although that was what it must be.

Xiang Yi turned to face his host. The robes he wore appeared black at first; they gleamed olive now, the color of a turbulent sea. Xiang Yi thrust out his hand. Rae stared at the red gem clutched between clawed fingers. Her mind rebelled at the sight, but no amount of blinking altered the truth.

"He did not," she said flatly, even as she wondered how in the name of Hel she had not seen this coming.

"Gabriel Todd left his House in my care," Xiang Yi confirmed.

A broken sound passed Rae's lips; a bubble of mirth, dark but true. Xiang Yi's answering glare was fit to fly off a man's skin.

"Who delivered the message?" Rae asked.

"A Shadow-guard," Xiang Yi answered.

"He did not lose his mind entirely, then," Rae muttered. Shadow-guards were discrete; they had some time to plan, before news of Gabriel's abdication inevitably reached ears they should not. "And Gabriel?"

Xiang Yi's expression hardened. Rae contained a sigh. She was quite aware of what Gabriel Todd was up to, and where he had likely gone – and the man must be gone, or Xiang Yi would have dragged him back to Rae by his hair to account for his actions. Neither she nor Xiang Yi could speak of the matter openly. Gabriel had no proper business in the lands Above, and as such was barred from crossing at the threat of death. Willful ignorance was the only aid Rae could offer her friend in his quest.

It appeared that Xiang Yi was tasked with quite heavier a burden.

"Dominus will protest," Rae said. Dominus Todd had long contended for Gabriel's title as head of the House. The man would likely storm the Todd estate once he learned of his nephew's disappearance.