Page 19 of A House of Fangs & Deceit

Carmilla sat down on the couch beside me and blew a wayward strand of hair out of her face, drawing me from my melancholy.

I chuckled and passed her a teacup. “Rough morning?”

“Yolanthe is supposed to be working on a trade agreement with House Devereux,” she sighed. “Unfortunately, in the midst of negotiations, she learned that the nephew of the ruler of House Devereux had a tryst with her sister, and it ended badly. Nothing terrible happened, just young people gettingwrapped up in their passion, but Yolanthe still doesn’t like the boy, and it’s clouding her judgement.”

“Who’s leading negotiations on their side?” I asked as I blew on my tea to cool it down.

Carmilla’s lips twisted into a frown. “Severen. He’s the father of the boy who was involved with Yolanthe’s sister.”

I did a quick rundown of the Devereux family. The current leader of the House was Thessalia, her brother was Severen, and from my understanding, they were close. Thessalia was old, at least a decade older than Carmilla, and Severen was her baby brother. Their parents died when they were young, and Thessalia basically raised him. She’d be protective of his children.

“Why don’t I catch up with Yolanthe this week and see where I can be of assistance?” I suggested. “I would love to get her opinion of the trade agreement I’ve been working on with one of the Velesian packs. She can look that over while I review the trade agreement with Devereux.”

Truthfully, I didn’t need Yolanthe to look over my trade agreement. I’d already done all the hard work on the offer because I had Rynn as a resource for the Velesian side of things, but I knew enough about Yolanthe to know that she would be more amicable to me stepping in on her negotiations if I asked for help on mine. She could be stubborn, but she wasn’t impossible to work with.

“Are you sure?” Carmilla asked with a gentle tone, studying me carefully. “You don’t need to jump back into things right away. Why don’t you take this week to think about what you want to do?”

“You mean if I want to walk away from the marriage we spent a decade planning for and was supposed to help our relations with House Laurent? The relationship I just completely and utterly ruined?” I’d meant to play it off as a joke, but my voice cracked on the last word.

Who was I to think I could just come back and help with negotiations and establishing solid alliances with other Houses when I hadn’t even been able to keep my political marriage going?

My throat tightened, and I gave Carmilla an apologetic look. “I’m sorry.”

“Samara,” my aunt said firmly as she peered over the rim of her teacup. “You did nothing wrong. We didn’t arrange the marriage with Demetri solely for the benefit of House Harker. I honestly thought the two of you would be happy together. If you had told me earlier about what was going on with Marvina and House Laurent, I would have called you back here and ended the marriage immediately.”

I swallowed, blinking back tears. Carmilla’s faith in me never wavered, and it helped me brush aside my doubts.

“Now, I want you to take this week to think about what you want to do.” When I opened my mouth to argue, she raised a hand to silence me. “I’m not going to stop you from talking to Yolanthe if that’s what you want to do, but you donothave to do it. You have nothing to prove to me or to House Harker. We’re all simply happy to have you home.”

“Thank you,” I said quietly, trying to wrestle my emotions back under control. “Have we received any messages from House Laurent?”

Carmilla stared at me for a beat before answering, “No.”

I popped another piece of pastry into my mouth and chewed slowly. Part of me had expected some type of message from Demetri. He wasn’t the type to ride back here heroically and apologize for all of his mistakes, but it wasn’t that damned hard to scribble a note together and send it on its way. We were close enough that the message could have easily been delivered overnight.

“I’ll take your advice and think things over this week,” I said. “But unless new information surfaces,”—or Demetri stopsbeing a useless asshole—“I think it’s likely that I will move to dissolve my marriage. Marvina might be a problem.”

“My dear…” Carmilla gave me a sharp smile. “If Marvina comes looking for a fight, I’m more than happy to give her one.”

Carmillaand I chatted for several hours before I took my leave and aimlessly wandered around the grounds of House Harker.

It was nice to catch up with my aunt. We’d spoken while I’d been at House Laurent, and I’d come home a few times to visit, but I’d always felt this underlying pressure to maintain a positive attitude around her. Now that my marriage had gone down in flames, I didn’t have to lie about anything.

Despite Carmilla’s reassurances though, I was still determined to prove my worth to House Harker and planned on tracking down Yolanthe tomorrow.

A splash of purple caught my attention, and I wandered over to the delicate flowers of the coastal lavender plants that were in full bloom lining the back of the garden. It was late spring, and a few stocks here and there had been harvested. I ran my fingers along one of the long stems, breathing in the relaxing scent. Further inland, lavender blossoms were larger and held a more earthy scent, but I’d always preferred the coastal variety.

“Thought I’d find you here,” an amused voice called out.

I glanced over my shoulder to where Kieran leisurely made his way through the garden. He’d changed since this morning and now wore a turquoise doublet that made his golden hair and lightly tanned skin further stand out.

“Aren’t you hot in that thing?” I gestured towards his outfit. “It’s almost summer and you’re wearing, like, three layers of clothing.”

He raised an eyebrow to match mine. “Is this your roundabout way of asking me to take my clothes off?”

I rolled my eyes. “If you pass out from heat exhaustion, I’m leaving you here.”

“You would never,” he retorted with an easy grin. “I’ve been down in the cellars all morning catching with Caedmon.”

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