The air still buzzed from the tremors of Cassiel Dain's return.
Adrian stood in the silence that followed, his fists clenched so tightly his knuckles paled. Cassiel's voice still echoed in his ears, low and powerful, laced with a venomous calm that made the hair on his neck rise. She had appeared like a ghost....one everyone had buried. Yet there she stood in the flesh, her presence unmistakably alive, every bit the Queen Mother they feared and revered.
Valentina's breath was shallow, her eyes still fixed on the door where Cassiel had just vanished with two guards. Conflicting emotions tangled inside her. Rage. Relief. Disgust. But more than anything, confusion. How? How had she survived the ambush? Why had she disappeared and allowed the world to mourn her, to spiral without her?
Adria
