Page 22 of A House of Fangs & Deceit

Today would be the start of my new future, and I wanted to wear this dress while I set things in motion.

Want. Take.

My simple motto rang through my mind, and I smiled. It’s not like it would truly be that easy, but I could still embrace this new outlook for a while and see where it got me.

I didn’t bother with any makeup and pulled my hair back into a high ponytail so that it tumbled down my back in a long stream, showing the black outline of the crescent moon shining boldly on the left side of my neck.

It was the symbol that all Moroi were born with, the same as the Velesians and Furies who were born with their own crescent moons. The Velesians bore theirs on the right side of their neck, and the Furies at the base of their necks, with both points facing upwards.

The symbol of House Harker was tattooed on the right side of my neck. Fortunately for me, House Laurent turned up their noses at tattoos, so I didn’t have to worry about bearing their mark for the rest of my life. Instead, they bore rings withtheir sigil stamped onto them. I’d tossed my ring into the drawer where I kept all my miscellaneous jewelry my first night back. I had another tattoo on my bicep that was a mishmash of the three crescent moon symbols.

Cali and Rynn had identical ones on their arms. After spending five years together while we all studied at Drudonia, we rarely saw each other in person anymore, but our bond ran deep, and something so insignificant as distance would never dampen our loyalty to each other.

I bit my lip as I thought back to our conversation last night. Rynn and Cali had been focused on supporting me, but I was still worried about both of them.

Despite Rynn’s nonchalant words, I knew she was stressed about serving the Order of Avala. Unlike the Moroi, the Velesians didn’t organize around specific bloodlines. The Moroi had seven Houses in our realm, including the Sovereigns, each ruled by a different family. The Velesians only had three Orders: Narchis, Avala, and Fervis. All of their territory was divided up among those three Orders, and leadership changed as new Velesians rose and challenged those above them. It always seemed a little chaotic to me, but it worked well enough for them.

Despite her timid personality, Rynn was brilliant at planning defensive and offensive moves across Lunaria. She knew everything about the monsters that roamed these lands, all their strengths and weaknesses, and when she was in her element, few things rattled her.

She could be staring death in the face and calmly recite all the various points where mortal wounds could be dealt, but she was also terrible at talking to people without sounding like she was talking down to them.

Which, to be fair, she normally was. Not because she was a snob but because Rynn was perfectly aware that she was usually the smartest person in the room, and she didn’tunderstand why people didn’t just listen to her. It had been a good source of entertainment for me and Cali over the years.

My frown deepened as I thought about Cali. She was another concern.

I was pretty sure that if something was seriously wrong, Cali would tell us, but I also knew my friend’s definition of “seriously wrong” and mine were quite different. Maybe once I got my life figured out, I could plan a trip to visit both of them in person.

Their ability to appear to me in their shadow forms was convenient, but it made it hard to read their facial expressions that way. Plus, I knew that if I pushed Cali on it, she would simply disappear and probably refuse to talk to me for weeks.

I was still lost in my thoughts about Cali and Rynn when I realized I’d walked up to the third floor of the main house, where most of the studies were, but I didn’t know which one was Alaric’s, and many of the doors were closed.

Carmilla wanted me to work with him on drafting my marriage dissolution, which I personally thought was unnecessary. I was more than capable of writing it myself, but Carmilla had simply smiled at me when I’d voiced that opinion and asked me to work with him as a personal favor to her.

My aunt knew exactly how to manipulate me into doing things her way, and I couldn’t even be mad when she did it because it was so annoyingly impressive.

Alaric had still been studying under some of the elders when I’d last lived here and hadn’t had his own space yet. I glanced up and down the hallway but wasn’t able to find any clues about which way to head.

I supposed I could just go to Carmilla’s study and hope she wasn’t in the middle of something and ask her.

“I’m assuming you’re looking for me,” a sardonic voice said from behind me in a tone that made it clear it wasn’t a question.

I bit back the insult that tried to leap out of my mouth. While Kieran and I traded barbs with each other in our own weird way of flirting, Alaric and I had never gotten along. I would have been happy to avoid him entirely growing up, but his family had already resided in House Harker instead of one of the outpost towns and, much to my dismay, he became best friends with Kieran.

The two of them were as close as I was to Rynn and Cali, so Alaric and I had to tolerate each other to the best of our abilities once Kieran entered the picture.

It appeared nothing had changed. Great.

I plastered a smile on my face before turning around to face him. “Yes, I was. Carmilla thought it would be best to speak with you about dissolving my marriage agreement.”

His always serious light green eyes flittered across my body, lips curling in distaste at my choice of dress.

I sighed inwardly. One of the many reasons Alaric didn’t like me was because he thought I was just the spoiled niece of House Harker, flitting about through life without a care in the world. The fact that I had studied my ass off at Drudonia and gone through all kinds of training for my marriage to Demetri meant nothing to him.

Alaric’s biggest fault was that once he’d made up his mind about something, nothing could change it. I thought it made him a stubborn ass and had told him as much to his face regularly, which usually caused him to make some sort of cutting remark, and then we’d trade insults until one of us stalked away or Kieran interrupted us.

I liked my dress. If he thought less of me for wearing it, that was his problem.

“Is there something wrong with my outfit?” I asked.

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