but I was also a reincarnate of...who? The first Leonora? And the way she’d said this body. I was a nonentity to her. A piece of trash to discard. A shirt she’d donned. Or better yet, the gooey center she planned to scoop out of the cookie, just so she could enjoy the treat at her leisure. All because she wanted Saxon, the man she’d harmed again and again.
The fury won. I will make her pay.
Wanting to hurt her, I inwardly shouted, You are not his. Didn’t you hear him? He didn’t want you. He didn’t make amour for you. Whatever that was.
No response was forthcoming. But then, she didn’t need to offer one. I could feel her indignation, and I screeched. This body belonged to me, and I would not share it. I wanted her out. I wanted her out now. She could take her fire magic with her. I would buy my own ability, as planned. I wanted nothing of hers.
“Any better, Asha?” Saxon asked, his concern obvious.
I wasn’t sure I’d ever be better, so I shook my head before spitting on the ground and wiping my mouth with the back of my hand. I remained crouched, my head bowed.
How could I excise and kill the phantom? How could I prevent her from ending any more innocent lives until I discovered the answer to her defeat?
Perhaps being ordered to remain in the palace was a blessing, after all. I would have an excuse to keep Leonora away from Saxon and the time to research a way to oust her.
—You? Oust me?—She laughed. —I’m going to tell you a story. On the day of your birth, I was going to inhabit your mother, but thanks to a spell I’d purchased years before, I sensed you were Saxon’s reincarnated mate. I would have preferred to enter you when you were older. And healthier. Your infirmity is a true inconvenience. Alas. Circumstances demanded I possess you before you died. You have a life now only because I gave it to you.—
Saxon stroked his knuckles up and down my nape, applying the softest pressure. Part of me wanted to tell him everything I’d learned. He deserved to know. And what if he could help me excise and end her? But I couldn’t trust him with the information.
I could never trust him with the information.
—You’ll never be rid of me, dearling. I’m too deeply rooted. Besides, nothing has changed for you. You’ll still die without my magic.—
Smugger than before. No wonder Saxon despised her. I did, too, hatred spreading through me like a wildfire.
If you die with me, I don’t see a downside. I threw the words at her, each one like a white-hot ball of fire of my own making. You killed my mother.
—Yes, and I’m ready to hear your thanks. She’d begun to fear you and even considered telling your father what I’d done. He would have killed you.—
Thanks? Thanks?
“What caused this sickness?” Saxon asked, still so gentle.
“It doesn’t matter.” Nothing mattered. “Please, just let me go.” Again, I wiped my mouth with the back of my hand. Inside, I was nothing but a raw, bleeding wound. Never had I felt so vulnerable, not even at the funeral. I needed to be alone.
Another bitter laugh. There was a second soul trapped inside my head; I couldn’t be alone.
“I’m going to walk away now,” I told Saxon before he could respond. I wasn’t sure how much longer I could hold my emotions inside. They geared for release—a release that was going to come one way or another.
He let my hair fall and stepped back. As I mourned the loss of his touch, he flared his wings and snarled, “I told you to leave.”
“No, you didn’t,” I snarled back. “I just told you I’m leaving.”
“I wasn’t speaking to you, Asha,” he replied, his tone gentle again.
Of all times to be nice to me, why now, when I spiraled down a rabbit hole of despair?
I lumbered to my feet and faced the woman he’d spoken to, a beauty with black-and-white hair, light skin, and disapproving dark eyes. She stood several feet from us, massive violet wings tucked into her sides.
Queen Raven in the flesh.
“You know who the girl is,” she yelled at Saxon. “You saw the flames just as I did, yet you dare treat her like she’s as fragile as glass?”
“I’m handling her, Your Majesty,” he grated in a soft, menacing tone.
“Just as you handled her in the past?” She spat the words