Page 22 of House of Royals

“Here,” Ian says after he sets the bag down and unzips it. He tosses me a wooden stake. “That yellow one there? That’s a softer target, the same consistency as a body. I want you to throw it from here and see if you can stick it.”

I want to sayyou’re kidding?but there’s no way I’m going to look weak.

The stake is heavy and about ten inches long. I hold it on one end, let out a deep breath, and let the stake fly.

It smacks the target on the right side, but bounces off and lands in the dirt.

“Here, watch me,” Ian says. He shows me his throw, which of course hits right in the middle of the target and sways back and forth. “Your feet should be like this,” he explains as he demonstrates. “Keep your hand like this. And throw it a hell of a lot harder.”

I do as he says. This time, it sticks, just barely on the bottom edge of the target.

“There you go,” he says with a small, pleased smile. “Just keep throwing those for a while until you can hit the center. I’ll do the talking.”

I reach into the bag for another stake.

“King Cyrus had a son and that son had seven sons of his own,” Ian begins recapping. “The King killed his son when he realized how evil and power obsessed he was becoming. But five of the son’s sons rebelled against the King. They thought the way their father had. They tried to start a war against him. They didn’t stand a chance against the King. As punishment, Cyrus cut them off. Disowned them in the gravest sense of the word. They could no longer claim themselves as his decedents, and they were no longer royalty. See, the King at this point had had a few centuries to gain power and money. Cyrus may not have been born a king, but he’d made himself one.”

I throw my fifth stake and it comes within three inches of the center.

“Nice,” Ian says before continuing his story. “Two of his grandsons did not rebel, though, and King Cyrus rewarded them greatly. Power, esteem, everything a vampire cares about. He charged them and their heirs with the keeping of the world. They were the true Royal Born. All those exiled were simply Born, they meant nothing.”

I release another stake, but I’m so engrossed in the story that I miss the target completely. Ian adjusts my arm.

“The King closely tracks those Born through the Royal line. He knows every single one of them. And nearly each of them is in charge of a House somewhere in the world that consists of other Born with no claim to Royalty.”

I adjust my feet just a bit, let out a deep breath, and put everything I’ve got into this next stake. It embeds itself deeply into the center of the target.

“Again,” Ian encourages. “There are, as far as we know, twenty-seven Houses and heirs throughout the world. You’d think the number would fluctuate and grow every year, but vamps have a tendency of killing each other off for one reason or another. Politics aren’t much different in the supernatural world, but tempers tend to flare hotter and more deadly.”

“Not that you’re complaining,” I say as I launch another stake.

“Not that I’m complaining when they’re killing each other off,” Ian chuckles. “As you can probably guess now, Silent Bend has its very own—very broken—House of Royals.”

“What do you mean broken?” I ask, looking back at him.

“A House doesn’t get any respect, funding, or connections if it doesn’t have an actual Royal to govern it,” Ian says. He twirls a stake between his fingers, much like a drummer might with their sticks. His fingers never falter the entire time. “The House here hasn’t had a leader in years because the rightful heir refused to have anything to do with it.”

“Henry,” I breathe. Because in my gut, I just know.

“Bingo,” Ian says. He launches his stake at the target and it disappears halfway into it.

“A long time ago, Henry came to Silent Bend with his brother Elijah,” Ian starts back into the story that was cut off with teeth in my neck. I lost my copy of that article in the attack. “Henry had never had any interest in politics, but his brother did. Elijah brought with him a clan of his Born vampire buddies when they came to town. Both Conrath brothers established plantations, but Elijah also established a House.

“I don’t know all the details,” Ian says as the tosses a stake in the air and catches it again. “Really, no one does. Most are just legends and speculation and bedtime stories told to scare kids into never sneaking out of the house. But somehow Elijah was killed. After that, the House should have been Henry Conrath’s, but he refused to have anything to do with it. Something you should know about daddy dearest, is that no one knew a damn thing about him. He never left his Estate, as far as I know. And the House, at least most of them, they hated Henry for abandoning them. A Royal-less House is a shamed House.”

My head is already spinning. I remember the picture from the article, the one of the four bodies hanging from the tree in town. Elijah’s headstone.

And I finally realize why Ian and Rath were so anxious to get me away from Henry’s house. “So that’s why they’re going to come after me,” I say as my hands settle on my hips. My palms tingle as they break out into a sweat. “I’m part of this Royal line.”

“And that House is yours.” Ian launches another stake before walking over to retrieve the ones stuck in the target.

“I don’t want to be some queen of a tiny domain,” I say, shaking my head. “I mean, everyone in the House is a Born vampire, right?”

Ian nods. “They also control a few Bitten, as well.”

“No.” I shake my head. “I can’t rule or control, or whatever, a bunch of vampires who will probably just try to kill me.”

“It’s more political and complicated than that,” Ian says as he hands me a crossbow. He loads an arrow into it, puts my finger on the trigger, and points to a target fifty yards away. “The House may be broken without a true Royal, but they’re still limping along. Jasmine Veltora has been in charge of it for the past fifteen years. They might need you, but there’s no way she’s going to give control of the House to you.”

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