Kingdom of Silk: Kingdom Shifter Series Book 4 by Quinn Loftis

Author:Quinn Loftis [Loftis, Quinn]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Quinn Loftis Books, LLC
Published: 2025-11-26T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter Eleven

“Never underestimate anyone. People are capable of just about anything when they feel wronged and are unable to forgive. And for beings as long lived as us Damarian’s, that is a dangerous way to live.” ~ Lyric

The palace’s night was never fully dark. The silk lanterns, honey-gold and faintly luminous, shed their gentle glow over every corridor and stairwell, and the webs that lined the ceilings shimmered like the threads of spun silver. But Lyric felt it anyway—the darkness, thick and heavy, pressing at the edges of her senses as she moved through the heart of the Kingdom of Silk.

She walked with her head down and her mind in a storm, her boots silent on the ancient stone. Something had gone badly wrong. She’d felt it for days: a prickling in her magic, a taste of bitterness on the air, the sense that strands were being pulled in the shadows. Maddie and Roan were missing, after letting her know they’d be coming to see her, but Lyric had heard nothing else from them. Athena had been snapping at her subjects and looking more stressed than Lyric had ever seen the queen.

She reached her private study and closed the door, leaning her back against the cool wood. The room was dim—Lyric preferred low light when she was working—and the faint blue runes etched into the wall glowed with her shamanic touch. She crossed to her desk and checked her phone for the hundredth time. Nothing. Nico hadn’t replied to her initial text, and she knew why: he was in another state, likely tied up with council business, unreachable for hours yet.

Her fingers trembled as she typed another message: Urgent. I need to see you in person. Flights tonight if possible. This is council-level. Please reply.

She hesitated, then added: Athena’s safety may be at risk.

Then she pressed send, her heart pounding.

She drew a slow breath and closed her eyes, stretching out her shamanic senses. Something was wrong. The magical web of the kingdom felt off-kilter, the lines that should have hummed with life now tense, brittle, quivering as if plucked by an unseen hand. There was a sourness to the air, a taste almost metallic, that made the fine hairs on her arms stand up. She’d felt it before, so long ago during the Damarian wars, when they’d lost so many lives—magic twisted, hope unraveling.

She shook herself and stood, crossing her study to open a carved wooden box on a high shelf. Inside was her emergency travel kit: a passport, several wads of cash, and a credit card. She slid the box into her bag, then checked her phone again. Still nothing.

She paced. Every instinct told her to get out. To leave the kingdom and fly to Nico’s location, to put this evidence in the one pair of hands she trusted. But she needed proof—real proof, not just her suspicions and the faint magical aftertaste of betrayal on the air. She needed something concrete. Something that would stand up to council scrutiny.

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