Page 439 of Bitten By the Fae
Shadow and Kolstov took over the love seat.
Ella, short for Isabella, sat in a solitary chair, her shoulders hunched. However, her eyes were vivid and very much alive. I’d never met the girl, but I knew of her through Aflora.
A Halfling.
Mate to Trayton Nacht.
Not all that powerful, but an Elite Blood with mortal qualities after being raised in the Human Realm.
Aflora liked her. They were friends. Therefore, I would protect her by default. Even if I didn’t approve of her mating a Nacht.
Kolstov’s twin, I thought, pinching my lips a little.
Well, if Trayton ended up like Kolstov, I would forgive it.
Maybe.
Aflora laid her head on my shoulder.Tray’s a good Midnight Fae,she told me softly, showing me a strand in her mind that blinked brightly within the dark source.We will save him.
As you wish, little star, I whispered, awed by how easily she pulled up the life strands of Midnight Fae within the dark source. She didn’t seem to realize how advanced that was in terms of power. The dark source was already treating her like a queen, despite the four trials ahead.
“This is the staff,” Zenaida said, pointing at the table.
I arched a brow at the flat, empty surface.
But Aflora gasped as something revealed itself to her exclusively. “May I?” she asked.
Zephyrus met my gaze over her head, his bemused expression rivaling my own feelings.What do you see, little star?
Magic, she whispered.Beautiful magic.
“Yes,” Zenaida replied as she settled onto Vadim’s lap. The chair he’d taken over was wide enough for them to share it side by side, but the Omega seemed to be craving the touch of her mate. Perhaps because her Alpha was still cleaning the kitchen and she needed someone to hold her back from taking over the task.
Or maybe she just wanted to be held.
He wrapped his arms around her, the adoration in his face reminding me of the way Shade often looked at Aflora.
Aflora leaned forward, her fingers curling around air—air that manifested in a vine as she lifted it from the table.
My eyes widened.
Not a vine. A staff.
But the obsidian rock curled around the long, dark pole like a snake-vine up to the impressive sphere at the top. Color glittered from the orb, flashes of cerulean, purple, red, and green, with the underlying core being as black as a starless night.
Magic hummed through the air, reminding me of a wand, the staff immediately taking to Aflora and alighting with powerful approval.
I pulled out the wand Aflora had been using to compare, noting how the magical conduit no longer acknowledged her as the owner.
Because she’d just inherited her true source—the staff. “Where did you find this, Zen?” I asked, using her preferred name only because I wanted her to give me a real answer, not a riddle.
“It’s the royal staff,” Kolstov whispered, awe in his tone.
I glanced at him, having never heard of such a thing. “Royal staff?”
“A relic.” He admired the electricity swirling around the circle at the top. “It was rumored to have been stolen and destroyed by the Quandary Bloods.”
Zenaida snorted. “Not stolen or destroyed, but rightfully mine as the Midnight Fae Queen. However, that cloak around Aflora’s shoulders is a sign from the dark source. The staff has chosen a new owner. Which is why she could see it when the rest of you couldn’t. Set it back down, Aflora, and show them.”
