Page 72 of Veil of Shadows

A pang fractured my stomach when that truth hit home. But as much as that hurt to the deepest part of my core, I knew it was true. Jax would never be mine.

CHAPTER 21

I tossed and turned throughout the night, Jax’s presence calling to something deep inside me. The urge to be closer to him was almost a physical pain, but I didn’t allow myself to leave the bed.

Sleep came fitfully. Strange dreams came too. Dreams of my childhood. Dreams of being mounted atop a powerful black stag. And dreams of a masked male forever lurking in the shadows.

Something about being in the same room with Jax, with him so near yet so far, had my magic roiling and chilling within me.

The full moon was high in the sky when I finally fell into another restless sleep, but then a new dream began. An even stranger one.

A semelee swirled around me, crooning and wrapping its strength around my soul.“Daughter of Darkness, you’ve come to us again. What do you seek?”

I spun in a circle, surprise filling me at therealnessof this dream. The Veiled Between stretched in every direction. Shadows and ink. Mist and planes. Over a dozen semelees swam in my vicinity, their power enthralling.

But I ignored the semelee’s question entirely and instead concentrated on my surroundings.I’m dreaming, right?

Confusion clogged my mind. I hung suspended in the shadowy mist. The weight of it felt heavy yet buoyant. The sensations I always felt when I traveled to this plane of reality pushed against me. Stars Above, but it feltreal.

Reaching a hand out, I touched the back of one of the semelees. Its cool scaled skin met my fingertips.

My soul gasped. Its skin feltveryreal.

Eyes widening, I somehow managed to get out,Am I actually here?

Yes, Princess of Shadows,the semelee responded.You’ve come to us again. It’s been too long.

I spun around again, and it hit me that I was truly here. I’d traveled to the realm between realms, yet I had no memory of detaching from my body and purposefully spiraling through space to reach the Veil. I had no memory of pulling on another’s magic to perform a calling.

Surprise gripped me harder, and the semelees moved faster, crooning to me more, sliding past my fingertips at increasing speed.

I waited for my growing fear to elicit a shock from my collar. The pull of its magic still anchored me to the fae lands, yet...it didn’t come.

Another gasp shook my soul. The collar’s hold on my soul was too weak. I couldn’t follow it back, and I’d never been in the Veiled Between without it. I’d never learned how to exit this plane without the Veil within sight or my collar pulling me home.

I spun again in the darkness as genuine panic began to claw up my throat.Which way? Which way do I go?But my questions went unanswered. It was only me and the shadow creatures, the commanders of fate at my fingertips.

I wrenched on my magic, pulling more from the well in my soul, then demanded that the semelees come to heel completely.The nearest one eagerly surged forward, ready to do my bidding, but the largest coiled around me, seemingly content simply to touch me.

Stop, I commanded it. It paused, its massive weight stilling.Return me to the Veil.

But you belong here, it hissed.

Another pull from its massive body tugged me deeper into the Veiled Between, and the others, as though gaining confidence, began to do the same.

I fought the biggest one, my magic rising higher, and again it stilled. I was stronger now with the collar loosened, there was no doubt about that, and an idea suddenly struck me. If I was here, I could ask about my family. I could ask about Bastian. I could finally try to do a calling for myself and ask about Jax’s brother even if the prince had been fighting me on it all week.

Release me.The semelee slithered back and bowed submissively.Who was my mother?I asked.Tell me more about her. And where’s Bastian? Tell me exactly where the prince’s brother is at this moment.

The large semelee lifted its head and slid along my thigh anew.Are you trying to conduct a calling for yourself, Lorafin?

I am. Tell me.

But it slithered against me more, not replying.

TELL ME, I said in a stronger, deeper tone, filled with my magic. An answering pulse came from my collar in the fae lands, but it was so faint, and I couldn’t decipher which direction it came from.

But the semelee only spun around me more.To conduct a calling for oneself or to command the fates, requires a queen, and you are not a queen, Lorafin. Not yet. You are still a princess, although you feel bolder. Stronger. Yet I do not feel compelled to bend to your will completely, so I will not answer your questions.

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