Page 18 of Autumn Queens & Shadows

“They are out there, Snow. More like us. We don’t need to find Astra at all.”

She shook her head. “You’re never going back. You’re never entering that portal again. I’m going to have it turned into ash.”

“What if I told you I might know someone across that portal who has access to that information?”

“Who?”

“Someone who teaches and trains beings like me and you. I met him during one of our travels and he owes me a favour?”

“There is a catch, isn’t there?”

“The gates to his realm are also shut.”

“Damn it.”

“I will find a way,” I said. “But it is time to tell Kil about everything. Tell him about where I went and why.”

She groaned, slouching in her seat and manspreading all over my space, too. “He’s so scared, Mal. I thought if I knew more about what you all are, he’d have an easier time with all this. He can barely sleep some nights. He has to check on me and the kids until sunrise as if we’d disappear into the thick of night.”

I kneeled before her, taking her hands in mine. “I will be here this time. I won’t go anywhere. Nothing will happen to you.”

Her nose scrunched and she sniffled a little before throwing her arms around my neck. “You brought dust with you.”

“Blame the little one.”

“I will never blame him for anything. This is on you.” She hugged me tighter. “Thank you for finding the way back to us. Can’t believe I thought you settled someplace else far from here. Your timing was perfect though.”

“You think it’s beyond me to break a marriage if it had not been?” I whispered in her ear.

She pulled back and slapped my shoulder. “You actually did break it. Both your brother and I knew the moment you stepped inside Tenebrose, you fool. You let it happen.”

“Aren’t I romantic?”

Her nose scrunched. “A little.”

“Knew you’d see my vision,” I said, kissing her cheek and standing. “Tell Kil.”

“Fine,” she grumbled. “Where are you going?”

“Bird watching.”

Following her from afar was harder than I had thought when I wanted nothing more than to be near to her. Her itinerary had a specific pattern and she never stayed in one place more than five minutes.

However, she’d not moved for the past half an hour.

Oblivious to anyone or anything, she remained in the middle of the winter gardens, staring ahead onto nothing, an inch of snow already forming over her.

Damn it, Thora.

“Come on, move,” I murmured to myself, crouching on the height of the tower looking directly ahead at the whole space of the castle gardens. “You weren’t doing that anymore. You weren’t. I was sure of it. You weren’t doing that before I left five years ago, Rora.”

Just when I was about to fade to her, Oryn came out of the castle, hurrying towards her. A cloud of distress surrounded him as his eyes raked the space for anyone who was a witness to him shaking his queen for the next ten minutes.

I ran a hand through my hair. “You weren’t supposed to do that anymore, little bird.”

Something was different this time. There was almost nothing in her colours, just the odd light blue shade of calm when before…before there had been many angry dark shades of haunting emotions. Why was it still happening if none of them had triggered it? It felt like the puzzle was missing a piece—an emotion.

I faded below and stood right where she had stood a few moments ago, surveying the surroundings, until my attention landed on something sticking out of the ground a few feet away. A large arrow was nailed to the ground. One made entirely out of gold.