Heir of Shadows (The Shadowborne Legacy Book 1)

by Emma Harley

  Raina couldn’t help but feel disgusted. This was no better than a stray cat in heat. The way it had been described was as if they thought she was some sort of nymphomaniac ready to jump on the first man she came across. She felt nothing more than an animal, reduced to being kept in a cage until she calmed down.

  Aija and Alexei joined them in the lounge area connecting their rooms, followed by the other males who were keeping their distance from Raina as though she were contagious.

  “Well Raina it looks like you can call this a successful mission. You managed to woo Albior into giving you permission to visit the Halls of Ogma,” Alexei beamed. She smirked and held up a finger. “I also got his son to give permission for a few friends to come with me too,” she grinned viciously. Nick chuckled.

  “You knew he was listening didn’t you?”

  She rolled her eyes, her teeth flashing as her grin widened.

  “Duh. He was staring at me all night. And his father wants him to escort me, probably thinking I’ll be dumb enough to accept a marriage agreement.” She turned her gaze to Kalen.

  “Can you do that thing where you keep me cool because I am literally cooking alive right now,” she moaned pleadingly. Kalen moved towards her hesitantly, still keeping his distance and a stream of icy air kissed her skin, almost making her moan with relief.

  “That’s the next thing we need to talk about. Raina is breaking now, and we can’t be around to help her,” Logan started, clenching his fists and shoving them into his pockets, “so all plans are delayed a little bit until she is an immortal.” Raina opened her eyes and sighed.

  “Is it really as bad as you’re making it out to be? Why can’t you just keep it in your trousers and stay here?” Logan squinted at her as the others stared at her incredulously.

  “You’re always looking rid of us, why would you want us around?” he asked curiously. Raina looked thoughtful for a second and shrugged.

  “I don’t know, maybe you could be of help,” she offered. Kalen shook his head.

  “Not a chance. You only want us around because you’re going into heat and it’s clouding your judgement,” he sighed.

  “She’s fucking what?” Davin snapped, “she’s not a damn animal Kalen.” The male winced.

  “Sorry, I worded that badly. But it’s not far off. On her breaking she’ll be looking for her mate, and if she can’t find him or her then she’ll settle for anyone.” Raina stared at him in shock.

  “So what, you think I’m going to jump the bones of the first person I see? Even Alicia?” she snarled. Alicia cackled with laughter, breaking the tension.

  “No offence Phoenix but you’re not my type. Too much vagina for my liking.” JJ flicked her forehead for her crudeness and Kalen breathed a soft laugh.

  “You don’t get to choose your mate. I’ve seen males bed females their whole life and find that their mate is another male. However, I think it’s safe to say that Alicia is not your mate. But if I were you I would take some cold showers in the morning.” The look of embarrassment, disgust and shock that flashed across her face had the room chuckling.

  “I’m not going to turn into a sex-crazed lunatic, but since you’re all so sure that you can’t control yourselves maybe it is better that you leave,” she snapped, her cheeks a furious shade of crimson. She had never been one to shy away from the topic of sex, but having her own body discussed as though she were unable to keep her hands off men felt degrading. Aija smiled softly at her.

  “There’s no need to be embarrassed, it happens to every Fae. The men are considerably worse, despite the lack of bleeding and cramping, they aren’t as tolerant of pain as females. I’ve never heard as much moaning and complaining in all my life,” she jeered, drawing embarrassed flushes from the males.

  “It’s still tough on us too,” Taranis chuckled, “my sergeant made me sit in an ice bath for a week because I kept propositioning the females.” Kalen laughed and shrugged.

  “I was willing to marry a scullery maid during my breaking, my father made me stand in the snow for a day completely naked. If it wasn’t for my affinity for ice magic I probably would have lost important body parts.” Raina’s embarrassment died down slightly as the males discussed their own breaking, her eyes falling on Logan as Kalen encouraged him to tell his story, although from the gleeful glint in his eyes, Logan’s story was more embarrassing than their own.

  “I was nineteen when I started to break, and I was seeing a female casually at the time. What I didn’t realise was she was starting her breaking too. So I went to find her hoping she might have been my mate, and if not, just some release. Instead she came up to me and told me she had found her mate, it wasn’t me and then her mate attacked me for having dated her. He barely had any fae blood in him so I beat him quite easily but then she told everyone that I was gay and was deeply in love with her mate,” he sighed, “the females in the camp began to avoid me, no longer seeing me as a potential mate, and the males avoided me because they were worried I would be their mate instead.”

  Raina snorted with laughter and he raised his eyebrow at her with a cocky grin.

  “Jokes on them, one of the really homophobic guys ended up with a male mate and when a few of the higher ups admitted they had same-sex mates, it became taboo to even scowl at someone for it. It’s not like we can choose our mates, but it takes some deep-set stubborn hatred for someone to reject their mate.”

  “I think I’d reject a mate,” Raina said absent-mindedly, “I don’t think I could live with the territorial possessiveness and being blindly loyal to someone because of a magic bond.”

  Aija broke the deafening silence that followed her words. “It’s an incredibly difficult thing to do. It can be difficult to even ascertain the mating bond in the first place. Sometimes it snaps into place, other times it grows slowly. You feel complete, like everything you’ve ever been missing in life is suddenly a part of you. Their presence is soothing and safe, and you will never find anyone more devoted or loyal to you than your mate. Breaking or rejecting the mating bond has left even the strongest men a shell of themselves, even in some cases, they lose their magic and their will to live. Unless your mate turns out to be a dark fae from the Undersphere itself, I doubt you would be able to reject the bond.” Alexei gripped her hand and smiled warmly at her.

  They gazed at each other as if they were truly the only people that mattered to the other, as if they would go to hell and back for each other. Raina scowled and tugged at a thread on her waist.

  “I don’t like the idea of being forced to be loyal to someone. I’d rather have someone earn that loyalty,” she mumbled. Taranis sighed and rolled his eyes.

  “You might never meet your mate. Less than half of fae ever do. I’m over three hundred years old and I’ve never felt even a whiff of a mating bond.” Raina’s eyes widened and she relaxed slightly. It was reassuring to know that she might never have to deal with an over-bearing presence for the rest of her life.

  “Well that’s good news, if I wanted someone to follow me around like a clingy idiot I’d get a dog.” Aija pressed a small kiss on Alexei’s cheek before she pulled out a small glass sphere that glowed with a bluish light, her face falling into a deep scowl. “Not that I want to interrupt this rare moment of peace, but my mother has just arrived.”

  ∞∞∞

  Taranis pinned Raina roughly against the wall, fangs bared and growling.

  “I’ll kill the bitch,” she snarled, her canines glinting. She was no match for the male, but that didn’t stop her trying to wriggle out of his grip.

  “You’ll blow everything if you go down armed to the teeth and rip some witch’s head off. You’re supposed to be a clueless princess, not a battle-ready assassin.” Logan’s growl rumbled through the room as he wrenched Taranis off her, jamming himself into the space between them.

  “Back off her Malakhai, she can’t do much with those cuffs on her,” he snarled. Raina couldn’t help but breathe in his rainy scent and felt her ange
r subsiding. The red tinge lessened slightly but a pinkish hue still clouded her vision.

  “That rat is one of the reasons I was thrown through a portal and lost my mother, she doesn’t deserve the mercy of a quick death. I’ll gut her with a spoon if I have to,” she growled. Logan cupped her chin tightly and glared at her, his golden eyes darkening ever so slightly.

  “You’re going to do nothing. If you want to find that damned weapon and kill Erebus, you need to keep the façade for a little while longer. The general is right, if Albior realises he’s been conned he won’t let you into the halls and we’ll be back at square one,” he stated firmly. Raina sighed heavily.

  “Fine, but if she isn’t in chains within the hour I’m going to find her and I’ll deal with her,” she scowled. Taranis cocked an eyebrow but stayed silent as Davin tapped his dagger loudly on the side table.

  “Just shut up and be patient Phoenix, Nick will be back soon and he’ll give you some news. You’re not going anywhere,” he grumbled. She whipped her head and threw a pillow at him.

  “Like I’m about to sit here and take orders from you,” she hissed. He caught the pillow easily and glared back at her.

  “You stepped down as squad leader. You’re under my command now and you’ll obey your orders. Also, I promised to keep you in check so, tough luck.”

  Alicia chuckled from her perch on the windowsill, Izak merely grunting his own agreement. Raina hadn’t realised that her hand had absent-mindedly wandered to grip Logan’s, unconsciously searching for comfort instead of storming on the warpath. She pulled away quickly, plopping herself down on the sofa and staring at the slow setting of the sun through the windows.

  JJ’s prevalent scowl drew her attention. Alicia was normally by his hip, but the deliberate avoidance was becoming more obvious.

  “What’s wrong with your face JJ?” she asked bluntly. His scowl deepened and Alicia rolled her eyes.

  “He’s mad because he wanted to look at buying his own place here and doesn’t know how to start looking,” she sighed. Raina immediately regretted asking as he whipped around to his partner.

  “Well I wasn’t planning on living in the palace forever, I only suggested it and you bit my head off,” he hissed.

  “Maybe real estate isn’t the best investment right now, considering we’re heading close to a war I would suggest holding off until after we make it out alive,” Kalen suggested, fruitlessly trying to dissipate the tension. JJ’s frown did not lift.

  “I’m sorry for wanting to plan for my future. Since Phoenix was so eager to drop us out of her death-mission I wanted to have a bit of security for myself.”

  Alicia forced a cackling laugh that made Izak almost slither along the floor to escape the space between them.

  “You know damn well she was just having a tantrum, we were always going to be on that mission with her. You’re mad because I said I didn’t want to move in with you and you assumed I cared more about playing princesses with Phoenix,” she snapped angrily. Raina’s exasperated “I’m right here you know” was blatantly ignored as the two began to argue over the other in a migraine-causing scramble of shouts.

  “Shut up both of you,” Taranis roared, “I’d rather visit the Undersphere than listen to this crap.”

  “What the fuck did I walk into,” Nick interrupted. Alexei and a younger male had accompanied him back to debrief the room. Raina brushed the others off and demanded he tell her what happened.

  “She is currently in the dungeons awaiting a sentence. However this will be trickier than dealing with my father since she is from a separate clan altogether and she is a queen in her own right. Her acts of treason will need to be discussed with the Terragae heir before we can punish her,” Alexei explained, his eyes weary from whatever argument had ensued upon her arrest. Raina scoured behind them but saw no sign of Aija.

  “If they are sentenced to death I want to be the executioner for them both,” she scowled, ignoring the eye-roll from Logan. Alexei chuckled.

  “You’ll find there will be a battle for who gets to behead my father. The man was hated more than he was loved. However the death of a monarch is not an easy path, life imprisonment in exile is more likely to be his sentence.” Raina grunted in disapproval but said nothing. The male beside Alexei shuffled slightly and the latter cleared his throat.

  “Raina there is someone quite eager to meet you. This is Ryver,” he hesitated slightly as he glanced between them. Raina’s eyes narrowed as she turned to Alexei.

  “He’s your son,” she finished for him. It wasn’t as if it could be kept a secret, if she didn’t know any better they could almost pass as twins if it wasn’t for a slight difference in the shape of their faces. She turned to the prince and swallowed down a bitter pang as she extended her hand.

  “Nice to meet you, call me Raina,” she greeted him stiffly. Her tone didn’t go amiss by him, despite standing at least a foot and a half taller he winced slightly.

  “Ryver. I’ve heard a lot about you,” he offered, shaking her hand firmly. Her chest burned with an emotion she hated more than anything else as she forced a smile.

  “Hopefully not too much. I haven’t made the best impression here,” she smirked. Ryver inhaled sharply.

  “Yes, I was alerted to your arrival by a flaming ball of fire in the courtyard. I thought it would be prudent to wait until a suitable time for introductions.” Logan scoffed.

  “Those are rare occasions. It’s safest to wait until she’s eating or right after a shower when she definitely has no weapons at hand.” Raina’s glare was met by an infuriating grin as Davin appeared at her side to greet the prince.

  “Davin Bolton, I’m her partner,” he stated loudly. Ryver’s expression turned to pure confusion as he glanced between them. Alexei cleared his throat.

  “Raina was a general in the human world, and the leader of this elite squad of soldiers,” he explained softly. Raina introduced the rest of her team but the confusion remained on the prince’s face.

  “I was expecting differently. You didn’t seem to have much knowledge of battle during the summit,” he mumbled quizzically. Raina gave a wolfish grin.

  “What better way to woo a load of powerful leaders than to think I am merely a ditzy princess with nothing to contribute but a marriage alliance?” she said sweetly. Ryver’s eyes widened slightly and he chuckled.

  “It would seem there is much more to you than meets the eye sister,” he laughed. Raina’s jaw twitched at the title but she bit her tongue as Logan rested a hand on her shoulder.

  “We should probably be leaving now,” he breathed softly, “it’s getting late and we need to arrange the guards for the rest of the week.” Raina’s face fell and she nodded sadly. Before she could stop herself, she wrapped her arms around the captain tightly.

  “Don’t go doing stupid crap without me. And if you find out anything at all come straight to me, I don’t care how trivial it is, it might be useful.” Logan’s thumbs brushed softly against her exposed waist as he pulled away reluctantly.

  “Just stay put. Don’t get into any trouble just because we aren’t here to keep an eye on you,” he scolded before turning to the squad, “that goes for the rest of you enablers. Keep her in one place and under no circumstances are you all to head off following leads.”

  The squad grumbled like a group of naughty children being told off by a teacher. Kalen chuckled lightly and bid farewell, Taranis following suit. Alexei had sent for a servant to bring a large selection of books from the library, well aware that Raina would likely get restless if she felt like she wasn’t making any progress with finding the weapon.

  A second servant arrived on the queen’s orders, pushing a cart laden with boiled candies, large luxurious chocolates and an impressive array of alcoholic drinks, with a note wishing each member of the squad – except Raina – good luck.

  “We don’t need luck we need a referee,” Nick grumbled sarcastically. Izak had already tucked into a bottle of whiskey, nursing it
like a newborn baby as though someone could take it away at any moment. Ryver watched aghast as Izak swallowed straight from the bottle before leaning closer to Raina.

  “We have services that could help him with his addiction. No charge of course, but it’s important to get him help before his addiction grows.” Raina looked puzzled before laughing heartily.

  “Oh he’s not an addict, he just enjoys having a drink with us. He won’t even make it a quarter of the way through before he falls asleep. When we have nothing else to do, we all enjoy having a few too many,” she affirmed. Ryver blushed slightly and nodded, offering to show Nick how to work the strange televisions they had. Alexei cleared his throat and stood beside her.

  “I’m sorry for dropping Ryver on you. He was insisting on meeting you once he heard you had returned, despite my explaining your hesitation to meet your family.” Raina shoved down the pang in her chest and shrugged.

  “It’s fine. It’s not like I can avoid everyone while I’m staying here,” she mumbled. She picked at her nails, deliberately avoiding looking at him.

  “How is Aija?”

  Alexei sighed heavily. “She just had to arrest her mother for treason and plotting to kill the heir to the throne, so she’s not in the best mood. I didn’t have much of a relationship with my father so it affected me little to arrest him. She trusted her mother to keep you safe, and now she has realised that she can never get back what was taken from her,” he rambled, his eyes glazed over with fury. Raina shrugged lightly.

  “If my plan works, she could have another child couldn’t she?”

  Alexei sucked his teeth and turned to her.

  “Having another child can never replace the one you lost. A parent will forever feel the loss of their child. It may help us heal and allow us to move on, but it isn’t as simple as that. Aija loved you more than anything, and her own mother conspired to get rid of you. She has spent years begging the gods to return you safely only to have you reject her when you finally returned. I don’t know how she finds the strength to leave her bed most days.”