Chapter 17
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
There was still the musk of sex on Raveena as she entered the chamber. She hadn't had time to go back to her rooms and change. She didn't plan to be away from her lover too long. Why bathe off what she fully intended to put back on her skin, in her mouth, in every orifice of her body?
The moment after she finished playing the part of patient stepmother to her stepdaughter's tantrum, Raveena would be returning to her lover to pick up where they left off. This time, she would demand that Graham claim her in the remaining orifice he hadn't touched since his return.
He'd been the only man to ever enter her backdoor.
Hell, he was the only man she ever let take her from behind.
Her wolf was the only person she trusted to be that close to her while she couldn't see him.
Just thinking about it made her ache to be filled by him.
She needed to get this over with quickly.
Raveena’s hand drifted to her throat as she walked, fingers brushing over the faint ache blooming just beneath her jaw.
She winced. A bruise. The ghost of Graham’s grip from when he’d pulled her to him—mouths clashing, breath shared, a kiss less about affection and more about possession.
She’d grown used to concealing such marks.
Her magic responded before she even called on it, pooling at her fingertips, ready to smooth over the evidence like always.
But as she passed a mirror in the corridor, something made her pause.
The bruise wasn’t just a smear of shadow beneath her pale skin.
It curved, perfectly placed, a dusky band that sat at the base of her throat like a necklace—no, a collar.
She stared at it, pulse stuttering. It was almost elegant in its placement, like a deliberate brand.
Not from a careless lover but a master who marked what was his.
A shiver rippled down her spine. She was his. Entirely. Willingly.
The magic curled back into her fingers, unspent. She let her hands fall to her sides. Pulling the cloak tighter around her shoulders, she decided to hide the secret adornment from the world.
She knew she should wipe the smile from her face before facing her audience. Queens were ruthless. But she was too full, too sated to concern herself.
The chamber was a contradiction—opulent and ruthless, much like the women who ruled within it.
Velvet drapes the color of crushed berries hung heavy over the frost-rimmed windows, muffling the sounds of the howling wind outside.
A crystal chandelier glittered above, each shard humming faintly with captured magic, casting prismatic light over the war-scarred stone walls.
The long Frostfire Table dominated the room, carved from a single slab of glacial obsidian veined with flickers of silver that pulsed faintly with heat.
It was said to have been forged in the heart of a fallen star—beautiful, unyielding, and cold.
Around it sat the queens, princesses, and strategists of the realm, their bodies draped in silk and fur, their minds honed like blades.
Behind them, maps lined the walls, dotted with glowing sigils and animated tokens that moved across borders in real time.
A rack of scrolls stood in one corner, flanked by a rack of spears.
Beneath their jeweled slippers, the floor was polished stone, scored with faint gouges from past battles and boots—scars of decisions made and challenged in this very room.
They turned toward her as one, seated in a crescent arc around the Frostfire Table, their expressions carved from varying degrees of worry, suspicion, and quiet hunger.
“Snow White is missing,” said Lady Tern, her white-gold braid looped over one shoulder like a serpent.
"Are you certain my stepdaughter is not out in the woods looking after a dove with a broken wing or a mouse caught in a trap?"
“The stables were in disarray. Broken reins. A bloodied saddlecloth. We suspect foul play.”
Raveena stopped just shy of the circle. Her face was composed. Inside her mind was a storm. Someone had taken Snow? Someone had done her dirty work for her? But who?
“Where were you, Queen Raveena, when the precious girl went missing?” Lady Charming turned from the fire, gaze full of accusation.
Raveena didn’t flinch. She lifted her chin higher. The soft shift of her shoulders caused her cloak to part at the collar, revealing the unmistakable bruises at her neck. Dark and tender, shaped by desire, Graham's marks bloomed like violets against snow-pale skin.
Her lips curved in a slow, measured smile—one that balanced disdain and amusement with effortless precision. “I was otherwise engaged.”
A few of the ladies arched painted brows.
One or two exchanged looks. And then—there it was—the smallest twitch of a smile on Lady Hollowmere’s mouth.
The smirk in Queen Elsbeth’s eyes. The entire barracks had seen her enter the soldiers’ quarters.
And by the sounds that likely echoed through the stone walls… heard what happened next.
Raveena didn’t need to name Graham. The knowing looks said enough. She had, indeed, been otherwise engaged. Certainly not hiding in the stables with a blade in her hand.
Still, the timing was too perfect. Her carefully laid plans interrupted. Her pawn removed from the board before she could make the move herself.
Raveena's hands were clean. But her thoughts were anything but. Who had done this before she could?
The door slammed open. Prince Charming stormed in, his hair windblown, eyes wild. His armor appeared buckled hastily, as if he hadn’t fully dressed before galloping to the castle. “What are you all doing? Sitting here sipping wine while the princess is missing?”
Lady Veyne narrowed her eyes. “You dare barge into this chamber and address queens in this manner?”
“You forget yourself, princeling,” said Queen Elsbeth, her voice low and lethal.
“I will be king of Thornhall once I wed.”
“If you wed,” Lady Charming interjected, rising now, her hand firm on her son's shoulder. “We must find Snow White first or there will be no ceremony.”
Charming stepped forward, brushing his mother’s hand away. “I will search every cavern and cursed path from here to the edge of the realm to bring her back,” he declared. “So that she may stand beside me when I marry—”
He turned, eyes locking with Raveena’s.
“—Queen Raveena.”