The Shadow Queen (Ravenspire, #1)(40)

“Who’s Ada?” Lorelai asked seconds before an image of a beautiful black woman with two boys who looked remarkably like Gabril filled her head.

Lorelai’s mouth dropped open, and she shook her head in rapid denial as Gabril’s eyes widened in horror. She hadn’t been hearing him speak. She’d been hearing his thoughts.

“Oh no. I sent magic into you, and now I can hear your thoughts like I can with Sasha.” Her voice trembled. “I don’t want to be inside your head.”

His mouth tightened, and suddenly where his thoughts had been there was a blank wall of nothing. A frown pinched her brows together as she pushed to feel the connection between their minds and came up with nothing.

“Better?” he asked quietly.

“How did you do that?”

“I don’t know if you remember the Morcantian mountain woman we stayed with for a few weeks after we left the castle. I’d met her a few times before when I accompanied the king to Morcant. She gave me a rudimentary understanding of your magic and taught me how to block a mardushka from using a mental bond in case the magic Irina used to bespell me had given her the ability to hear my thoughts.”

“A bond is only created when a mardushka sends her magic into you and commands your heart,” Lorelai said. “Like what happened when I healed Sasha. I don’t think Irina would dare create a mental bond because it works both ways. She’d never let anyone know what she’s really thinking.”

“Better safe than dead.” His dark eyes studied her intently. “You’ve been asleep for two days. Thirsty?”

She accepted the water he offered.

“Leo . . .” Her voice, husky from disuse, cracked over her brother’s name, and then she was in Gabril’s arms sobbing.

“He’s dead?” Gabril’s voice wavered. Tears gathered in his eyes as she nodded.

“How?” he asked, and the edge in his tone promised terrible things for the one who’d killed his prince.

“Irina.” Her eyelids were already drooping again, and weariness that was half grief and half weakness from having had to overpower Gabril’s implacable will to heal him turned her thoughts to wisps of smoke.

“Sleep,” he said softly. “We need to leave first thing in the morning. You can tell me about it then.”

By morning, Lorelai was strong enough to get up and eat breakfast without help. Gabril boiled a small pot of beans and sliced the last of the apples they’d stolen from the queen’s garrison. She ate the beans but ignored the apples.

After seeing the villagers eat Irina’s rotten apples in Nordenberg, Lorelai wasn’t sure she’d ever be able to eat the fruit again.

Hunt but don’t bring your meal back to share with me. Lorelai pushed the thought at Sasha and watched the gyrfalcon spiral into the sky and disappear from view.

Gabril eased himself down beside her, his hand massaging his aching left leg in the early morning chill. He peered at her half-eaten breakfast, his expression inscrutable.

“Do you want to tell me what happened?”

Her stomach churned, and her voice was hollow as she told Gabril about Nordenberg. The grief that had consumed her from the moment she realized she couldn’t save Leo was a burning in her chest. A wound that swallowed the words she still thought to say to him before once again remembering that he was gone.

She leaned against Gabril as he held her, and then he said gently, “Better finish eating. We need to leave. We’ll figure out what to do next once we put some distance between us and this part of the mountain.”

She looked at her boots, at the worn toe on the left one where she used it to push off walls or tree trunks to propel herself upward, and took another bite of beans. The food tasted like ashes in her mouth, and her stomach rebelled at the thought of eating, but she didn’t have the luxury of allowing her grief to make her weak. She chewed viciously, magic threading through her veins and stinging her palms as the terrible grief within her focused on its target.

She had a queen to destroy.

She remained silent while she ate, her thoughts a tangle she had to unknot so she could make a plan. Irina was a master at using her magic like a weapon, and she knew where to find Lorelai. That was a significant disadvantage. Plus, Lorelai was used to being part of a team—Leo dreamed bold and big, while Lorelai planned down to the smallest detail to keep them both safe.

But Leo hadn’t been safe. She shoved another bite into her mouth and forced herself to focus on the task in front of her.

Lorelai swallowed her last mouthful of beans and something hard and bright filled her chest as a plan came to her. The plan was bold and daring, like Leo, but used the battle strategy that came naturally to Lorelai. She’d send the kind of dramatic message that would have put a sparkle in Leo’s eyes, but she’d plan down to the last detail to make sure every single risk she took brought Irina one step closer to total destruction.

And at the end of it, Lorelai would pit her will—her heart—against the heart of Ravenspire’s queen, and only one of them would survive.

Minutes later, they were ready to leave. Gabril turned east, but Lorelai put a hand on his arm.

“We’re going to the far northwest mountain.”

He frowned. “That’s Duchess Waldina’s land. She’s loyal to Irina.”

“I’m counting on it.” Lorelai’s voice was cold.