Page 12 of How to Claim A Shadow King

I nod vigorously, nearly dislodging the vermin on my shoulder.

“But we both know that time is of the essence.”

“THE WITCH IS RIGHT HERE!” I bellow. Light blasts from my skin, and Ter lets out a squawk as he flaps some more, hooking his claws more firmly into my shoulder.

“Good. Admitting you have a problem is the first step,” Ter tells me, infuriatingly.

I gape at the bird, then at Malakai, utterly beside myself and at a full loss for words.

“I have upset you,” Malakai says slowly, staring at me with interest. Not sexual, thank the gods, or well, thank anything besides the gods… But with the kind of curious scrutiny one might apply to a difficult math problem.

Or a riddle.

I draw myself up to my full height. “Yes, well-spotted.”

I brush past him, skirts swishing, and head for the… well, I don’t know where I’m headed, but I know that I want to go there immediately.

“You don’t remember the last time you were here, do you?” the raven asks, and I don’t answer. I’m not sure he’s talking to me.

I stumble over a wayward vine in the path, and a large, warm hand grabs my upper arm, keeping me from falling.

A thank you, trained in since birth, starts to form on my lips—and then I remember exactly who is stabilizing me and wrench myself out of his grip.

“Mate with him,” I mutter, getting more and more wound up. “As if I am a farm animal to be bred.”

“Oh, she’s really angry now,” Ter says.

I bare my teeth at the bird.

That’s certainly something I didn’t plan on doing this morning.

“Why?”

I round on Malakai, fury and rage building all over again, leaving a sort of tingling aftermath across every inch of my skin. “Because I do not know you. And apparently, I do not know who I am, and I do not know where it is I’m going right now, and I never expected to be fully in control of my life, but this really, truly…” I search for the right word, but I’m too angry to find it. “Fuck it all,” I say, then laugh manically.

I’ve never said that out loud.

“She thinks she’s not in control?” Malakai asks the raven.

“I am RIGHT HERE!” I scream.

“You are not in the right mind to have a civil conversation,” Ter tells me calmly.

“How, how—” I sputter. “How dare you?”

“Grow up,” the bird tells me, not unkindly. “Adapt. More than your… strange human sensibilities depend on this.”

“She doesn’t know,” Malakai muses.

“Sir, if you want to… mate,” I spit out the word, “with me, then you should probably work on getting me to like you first.”

“You always have loved me.” His face is truly puzzled now.

A chill breeze rustles the leaves all around us, cold air licking up my arms and the nape of my neck.

It’s grown dark, darker than it should have in the span of the conversation.

It feels… wrong.