Page 108 of A Court of Bones & Sorrow

“I did as my queen ordered,” he said calmly, even as I saw the regret in his eyes.

“Rynn . . . Is she—” My voice broke as tears streamed down my face, and I couldn’t bring myself to finish the question.

“She’s fine,” he assured me. “I just knocked her out and then placed a keep-away spell around her so Cade and the others wouldn’t find her right away.”

“‘Just knocked her out?’” I stared at him. “She was your friend. She trusted you.Itrusted you.”

“What did you expect?” Demetri drawled. “He had to choose one of you. His queen or his latest fuck. Who did you think he would pick?”

“Demetri,” Carmilla snapped. “Watch how you speak about my niece or I’ll change my mind about our arrangement.”

I couldn’t even bring myself to care about what that meant. All I could do was stare at the gleaming gold crown in Vail’s hand. “Don’t,” I begged him.

Vail swallowed . . . and then passed the crown to Carmilla.

Something inside me shattered into a thousand pieces, and I couldn’t stop the pained sound from slipping from my lips. Demetri’s grip on me tightened, and I yelped.

“Don’t fucking touch her,” Vail growled, and Demetri had enough sense to look a little worried before loosening his hold, but he didn’t completely let me go.

“Oh, that’s rich.” Lucian laughed. “You can stop pretending now, Vail. I mean, honestly, I didn’t think you had it in you, but good on you for mixing work and pleasure.”

“Fuck you, Lucian,” Vail snapped before sending me a pleading look. “It wasn’t like that, I swear. What happened in the cave, in the cabin, all of it. It wasn’t . . . I wasn’t . . .” He struggled to explain, but I just turned away, not able to look at him anymore.

I was such a fucking fool. This whole time, I’d been worried about Draven stabbing me in the back when I should have been looking at the male who’d already betrayed me numerous times and had told me to my face more than once that he hated me.

“Sam, I—” Vail tried again, but I cut him off.

My head snapped back to glare at him, hoping he saw every wrathful promise about how much I would make him pay. “You don’t get to call me that.” Vail’s face fell, but he could go fuck himself.

Then I looked at Demetri’s fingers still wrapped around my wrist and raised my gaze to meet my ex-husband’s light brown eyes. He stroked his thumb across my skin, and I wanted to hurl. “I told you when you left House Laurent that we could come to an understanding about our marriage, but you didn’t listen.”

“And I told you,” I purred and leaned into him, and Demetri’s eyes darkened before his gaze snagged on my lips, “that the only understanding I was capable of coming to was one that involved your cock flopping around on the floor and you bleeding out at my feet.”

His eyes widened, and he screamed as I dug my claws into his crotch. I was pretty sure I’d missed and mostly gotten thigh,unfortunately. Then I was slammed into the floor as he flung me away from him. Vail was there in an instant to help me up, but I snarled in his face before rising on my own.

“You fucking whore!” Demetri screamed as he cradled his wounded dick. Apparently I had gotten him after all.

Vail growled, and Carmilla let out a long-suffering sigh like we were children fighting over sweets. A pained laugh rang through the air, and I whirled to Draven. He was conscious again and standing but still looked like shit.

“I hope she tore it off.” His laugh turned into a cough, and the chains clinked together as he struggled to breathe.

“We need to get those chains off him.” I stepped forward, but Vail wrapped his arms around me, pinning mine to my sides. Unlike Demetri, Vail knew I was perfectly capable of violence and made sure I was completely immobilized. “He had no choice in obeying her!” I struggled in Vail’s hold even though I knew it was pointless. “Draven is not our enemy!”

Carmilla rose from the throne, taking Lucian’s hand as he guided her down the dais. I still couldn’t wrap my head around the fact that Carmilla was involved with Lucian. Based on how he was looking at my aunt like she was one of the ancient gods reborn, this was more than just a political arrangement. He was in love with her. Had he always been? Or was this something new?

Exactly how much had Carmilla been hiding from me? Another stabbing pain shot through my chest. Her betrayal hurt just as much as Vail’s. I loved her. She was my only family left. I didn’t know if she had suggested Vail get close to me or if it had been his idea, but either way, two people I cared for deeply had conspired against me.

Some dark part of me wondered if Alaric was in on it too. I would bet every piece of the shattered remains of my heart that Kieran and Roth had no idea this was going on. Kieranwould never have lied to me, and Roth would have told them to go fuck themselves.

“There is so much you don’t understand,” Carmilla said sadly as she stopped in front of me. Then she raised her hand to tuck my hair behind my ear like she’d done my entire life, but I jerked my head away from her as much as I could, which wasn’t much thanks to Vail’s iron grip. Though it was enough to make her lower her hand and take a step back.

“Vail informed me of what you all saw in the temple.”

“Of course he did,” I ground out, and Vail stiffened behind me. “But Draven had no choice! He had to serve Velika because of that fucking crown!” My eyes flicked up to the united gold and silver crown that now rested atop Carmilla’s dark hair. “The one that you’re planning on using to enslave our people.”

“You’re being a bit dramatic, dear.” She gave me a small, placating smile. “This crown was made for the Fae and it responds to our magic . . . oddly. I’m not going to just walk around Lunaria and make everyone kneel to me. Logistically, that doesn’t make sense, and I have no desire to do so anyway. I will only use it in situations where I have no choice.”

“Forgive me for not believing you, Aunt,” I said evenly. “It seems I’ve chosen poorly about who to trust these days.”

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