I called for Violet, who was waiting with the guards outside my quarters. Out of all the mages, I related to her the most. She was the kindest of the three.
“Send a fire message to Skylar Danvers,” I instructed. “I need to see her at once. Tell her to bring her tarot cards.”
Violet did as asked, and Skylar arrived at my door via a witch a few seconds later. I dismissed Jessica, since I trusted Skylar. Jacen remained, though. He co-led the island with me, and was with me for nearly all important matters.
The guards cleared Jessica and Mara’s used dishes, cleaned up the table, and provided Skylar a fresh place setting. They also replaced the tea so it was hot again. Once all of that was done, they left the three of us alone.
“I heard the witches were able to brew a memory potion that made your friends and family forget that you and Raven have been gone for the past few months,” I said, again starting with chitchat to make her feel comfortable.
“Yes,” Skylar said. “They believe I got a job offer I couldn’t refuse in New Zealand, and that Raven transferred to a university there.”
“You’ll visit them?” Jacen asked.
“Once or twice a year.”
I nodded, pleased we’d found a solution that worked for them. And thanks to Thomas setting Avalon up with the Internet, our loved ones on Earth were always only a phone call or text message away.
Not that I had any loved ones left on Earth. My life was on Avalon now. But I was happy that everyone living on the island had a way of communicating with those they cared about.
Skylar placed her tarot deck on the table and removed the cards from the box. “I take it you asked me here to do a reading for you,” she said.
“I did,” I said, continuing on to fill her in on the gifted vampire blood and what Mara had told us about Lilith and Lavinia Foster working together. “I want to know what they’re planning.”
She shuffled the cards, fanned them out on the table, and picked one. The image was of a mystical looking, dark haired woman holding a large crystal ball. On the bottom of the card, it said, “The Unknown Card.”
Skylar studied the card, looking perplexed.
“What’s wrong?” I asked, although from the name of the card, I suspected she wouldn’t be able to answer my question.
“The Unknown Card means the answer isn’t meant to be revealed yet,” she said, still focused on the card. “Usually, when I look at the cards, I see a vision in them that answers my question. Now, I’m only hearing something. Voices repeating the phrase, ‘soon He will rise.’” She looked back up to me. “Do you have any idea what that means?”
“I’ve never heard it before,” I said. “But how are we supposed to beat Lilith if we’re not supposed to know what she’s planning?”
“I’ll ask the cards.” Skylar hovered her hand over the fanned out deck, going along the line until she stopped to pick a card. She placed it to the left of the Unknown Card. She picked three more cards the same way, placing another to the left of the Unknown Card, and the other two to the right.
I watched, fascinated, as she worked.
From left to right, the cards now were: the Queen of Cups, the Queen of Swords, the Unknown Card, the Queen of Wands, and the Queen of Pentacles. The women in each of the cards looked mature, strong, and confident. They all held a scepter or a sword.
I didn’t know anything about tarot, but the fact that she’d pulled all queens had to be significant.
Skylar studied the cards intensely now. It was like she was watching a video on a tablet, but I couldn’t hear or see what she was viewing.
Jacen and I remained silent, waiting for her to be ready to share. I barely moved, afraid that any sound might distract her from what she was seeing.
Finally, she looked up from the cards, her gaze intense when it met mine. “As you know, the future is never set in stone,” she began. “I see the most likely future at any point in time, but that can always change. Azazel proved as much when he used my visions to alter the future to his liking.”
“I know,” I said, since Rosella had told me as much back when I’d first met her in the Haven.
“The queens in the cards represent the four women who must rise to power and join forces to defeat the demons,” she said. “The queens to the left of the Unknown Card—the Queen of Cups and Queen of Swords—have already risen.” Her gaze sharpened as she looked at me. “When I looked into the card, I saw the moment you drank from the Holy Grail in Heaven. You are the Queen of Cups.”
I gulped as I looked at the card. It showed a woman with long blonde hair holding a trident scepter, with the Holy Grail sitting by her side. “She doesn’t look like me,” I said.
“Every tarot deck uses different art to portray the cards,” Skylar explained. “The artwork of my deck may not look like you. But when I looked into the card, I saw you drinking from the Grail. You are the Queen of Cups. There’s no doubt about it.”
I glanced over at Jacen. He sat back casually in his chair, looking annoyingly entertained.
“What’s so funny?” I asked him.
“When we arrived on Avalon, you said you were done with royals and were banishing all royal titles from the island,” he said. “But apparently that wasn’t meant to be. Was it?”
“It wasn’t meant to be,” Skylar agreed. “Annika is a queen, whether she asks others to address her by her title or not.”
I pursed my lips together, saying nothing. Jacen was never going to let me hear the end of this.
“You will continue to use the Holy Grail to create Nephilim, and they will fight in the war against the demons,” Skylar said. “Your accomplishments so far were integral for our success in this war. None of us would be here today if not for you.”
“And the other queens?” I focused on the Queen of Swords, since her card was also to the left of the Unknown Card. “Who’s the other one that’s already risen?”
“That would be Raven,” Skylar said, which didn’t surprise me, given that Excalibur had risen from the lake for her. “Her gift of stubbornness allowed her to survive drinking pure angel blood from the Grail to become the first of a new generation of Nephilim. Her blood will be used in the Grail moving forward, since it’s not so potent that it will kill, but it’s still strong enough to do the job. But I urge you to keep her as humble as you are about your title as queen. We don’t want it getting to her head.”
“We certainly don’t,” I agreed, although Raven was so strong-minded that she’d react to the news of being a queen however she saw fit. “What about the queens who still haven’t risen?” I asked, turning my focus to the cards on the right. The Queen of Wands and Queen of Pentacles. The Queen of Wands held a beautiful scepter wand topped with a glowing red stone, and the Queen of Pentacles sat in front of a tree surrounded by white crystal wands, a pentacle scepter in her hand. “How will we find them?”
“That’s another question for the cards,” Skylar said, letting her hand linger above the ones fanned out on the table again. She picked another card and laid it above the others.
On the card was a young woman dressed in a flowing pink dress. She stood at the edge of a cliff, about to step over it. Butterflies surrounded her. The bottom of the card said The Fool.
Skylar watched this card as closely as she’d watched the ones with the queens.
After about thirty seconds, she looked back up to me. “The other two queens haven’t started their journeys yet,” she said. “They haven’t even been born yet.”
“What?” I gasped, since that wasn’t what I’d expected to hear. “How long will we have to wait for them to be born?”
Really, what I was wondering was—how long would this war with the demons last? Because with the other queens not born yet, we could be in for an extraordinarily long wait. Decades, or perhaps even longer.
That would be a hard blow to everyone living and training on Avalon.
“Not long,” she said with a knowing smile. Her words eased my conce
rns slightly. “The queens will have many adventures and choices to come. They’re up for the task—they wouldn’t have been chosen as queens otherwise. But it’s up to those of us on Avalon to be ready for them once they arrive. We need to continue training your army and killing demons on Earth who threaten humans as we wait for the other two queens to join us.”
We all three sat there in silence, taking it the enormity of what we’d just learned.
“Thank you, Skylar,” I said. “I’m glad you’re here on Avalon. Your gift is going to be extremely helpful in the times ahead. I appreciate you willingly sharing it with us.”
“I’m happy to help in whatever ways I can.” She gathered up the cards, collecting them into a neat pile in her hand. “Is there anything else you need from me right now?”
“That will be all,” I said.
“I hope we didn’t take you away from wedding planning for too long,” Jacen added.
“No.” Skylar smiled, standing up after Jacen and I did. “But Raven’s never been the best with figuring out details. So I’ll be getting back to helping her right away.”
“As you should.” I glanced down at my own engagement ring, since theirs wasn’t the only wedding approaching. “The wedding is just what Avalon needs right now. We can’t wait to celebrate with you.”
“And I with you,” Skylar said, the two of us sharing a mutual look of excitement and anticipation.
With that, I saw Skylar out, glad to be alone with Jacen so we could discuss everything we’d just learned about the four queens and the war to come.
37
Raven
I couldn’t wait to marry and mate with Noah, and Sage couldn’t wait to marry and mate with Thomas.
Given everything the four of us had been through together, a double wedding felt like the most natural decision of all. We were combining a traditional human wedding with a traditional shifter mating ceremony. It gave us the best of both worlds, and symbolized our lives and cultures becoming one.
And now, the big day was finally here.
We got ready for the ceremony in a warm, welcoming room in the main castle. The mages had spelled a special wardrobe just for the occasion. It produced dream wedding dresses for both of us.
I’d never stop being amazed by how incredible their magic was.
Sage’s dress was tight and daring. It cut deep into her chest and had a slit going all the way up her thigh. On her head was a flower crown of sage flowers mixed with baby’s breath, bringing out her earthy, shifter side. The tall, white stilettos on her feet looked like potential death traps, but of course she walked in them with perfect grace.
My dress was the complete opposite. It had enough poof that Cinderella would be proud, although the top part was tight and fitting, with an explosion of silver crystals befitting the Queen of Swords. I’d taken the new title to heart. I even wore a gorgeous diamond and pearl queen’s crown on my head, paired with matching earrings that fell nearly to my neck.
Perfect for a queen.
But the best part of the ensemble was that because my feet were hidden, I was wearing Converse sneakers and no one would ever know the difference. Beauty and comfort made a winning combination.
Adriana—the vampire from the Tower who’d been icy to Jessica on our first day at Avalon Academy—did hair and makeup for both of us. I wore my hair in a royal up-do at the nape of my neck, since the crown needed to fit on the top of my head. Sage had hers flowing in loose waves.
Adriana had warmed up to us as much as she could, given that she wasn’t the warmest person to begin with. And while I doubted I’d be considering her a close friend anytime soon, there was no denying that she knew what she was doing with hair and makeup. She’d been the fashion coordinator for the royals at the Tower Kingdom for a reason, and that reason showed once she was done with us.
My mom sat in the room as well, chatting and helping us calm our nerves as we got ready. Sage’s parents had both been killed when she was ten in a fight with a rogue vampire coven, and my mom was happy to accept Sage as an honorary daughter after learning the truth about how much Sage had looked out for me after my mom had been taken by Azazel.
Once it was time, Iris fetched us and walked us out to the courtyard. Iris was planning and running the entire wedding, and she’d done an incredible job. There was a reason why this was her job on Avalon, and her amazing planning skills had made the days leading up to the wedding a breeze.
Sage and I arrived once the ceremony had already begun, since we didn’t want our fiancés—soon to be husbands—to see us in our dresses until we walked down the aisle. No one could see us yet, thanks to an invisibility spell placed on us by Iris. But we could see everything, and the courtyard was breathtaking.
Strings of fairy lights were strung from one side of the castle to the other, giving a canopy effect across the entire courtyard. The white covered seats were all lit up, with huge bouquets of azaleas on the aisle at each row. Somehow, the central courtyard was big enough to hold every citizen of Avalon. I suspected mage magic made that happen. The aisle was covered in a sea of white rose petals.
The arch at the front, where Annika was officiating the service, was draped with sheer white tulle lit up from behind. It looked like a magical gazebo.
And standing under the arch was the man who took my breath away every time I saw him—Noah. I knew suits weren’t his thing—he preferred jeans and a t-shirt—but he looked incredibly handsome in the one he was wearing right now.
Iris led my mom, Sage, and me to the start of the aisle. Since we were still invisible, no one had turned to look at us yet. They had no idea we were there.
The aisle was more than wide enough for three people, and my mom laced her arms around Sage’s and mine. She held onto both of us at the elbow.
My heart filled with happiness. Having my mom here with me today, and knowing how supportive she was of Noah and me, meant more than I could ever say.
“Are you all ready?” Iris asked with a raised eyebrow. She brought her hands together, excited for what was coming next.
“Yes,” Sage said, her eyes locked on Thomas. They shined with love—the same way I was sure mine did as I looked at Noah.
“I’m ready.” My heart beat with excitement and anticipation. Butterflies fluttered in my stomach. They were good butterflies—the type of nervous you get when you know you’re about to experience one the most meaningful moments of your life.
The music started. Then Iris raised her hands, and a bright ring of yellow sparklers—large enough for three people to step through—lit up in a circle in front of us.
We stepped through, and the ring of sparklers stripped away the invisibility spell, making us visible to the crowd.
Everyone stood and sucked in deep breaths of awe.
But I wasn’t looking at them.
Because as I walked down the aisle, my eyes were fixed on Noah’s, as his were on me.
This was it. This was forever.
And I’d never been happier.
38
Raven
The ceremony was perfect.
Afterward, we gathered in the ballroom for the beautiful reception my mom and Iris had planned. The inside was just as fairytale perfect as they’d said it would be. A wedding fit for royalty.
Which made sense, since Sage and Noah were alphas, Thomas was a vampire prince, and I was the Queen of Swords. We were quite the fearsome foursome.
I tried my best to enjoy the reception. It wasn’t easy, because every bone in my body ached to go to the room in the castle that had been prepared for Noah and me so we could complete the mating ceremony.
But of course we stayed until send off, enjoying every last moment of this perfect evening.
Per shifter tradition, Noah’s beta—Gabriel—and the eldest woman in the pack—Sarah—walked us to our mating room. Noah and I held hands the entire way through the halls and up the steps.
We all stopped at the carved wooden double doors leading into
the room that had been prepared for the night. I was going to move into the Southern Vale pack’s cabin after the wedding, but for tonight, the Earth Angel wanted us to have this special room. A “honeymoon suite,” since a honeymoon wasn’t on our agenda at the moment, given all we had to do on Avalon.
Gabriel and Sarah pushed open the doors to the room. It was gorgeous. With a red canopy bed in the center, a Turkish rug laid out across the entire floor, and a fireplace already glowing, the suite was warm, luxurious, and welcoming. I couldn’t think of a more perfect place to share this night with Noah.
We stepped inside, basking in the majestic aura of it all.
“Like it?” Noah asked, looking to me for approval.
“I love it.” I smiled at him, unable to believe this was my real life. “It’s perfect. And I love you.”
I felt Noah’s emotions through the imprint bond, but his dark, intense gaze said it all. He loved me, and he wanted to make our mating bond official. Now.
Mischief shined in Sarah’s eyes as she looked back and forth between us. “We’ll be leaving the two of you alone now,” she said, and she and Gabriel backed away, closing the doors behind them.
Now it was just us.
Both of our hearts pounded quickly. I knew because with my new superhuman senses, I could hear them.
Noah gazed into my eyes, looking at me with love, awe, and respect. “Finally,” he said.
“Finally,” I repeated.
Electricity buzzed between us. We couldn’t hold back anymore. And the best part was, we didn’t have to.
So he took me in his arms, carried me over to the bed, and finally, we sealed the bond between us.
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