Page 16 of A Court of Bones & Sorrow

“You’ll need to ask him.” Kieran glanced hesitantly at the door. “I’ll just say that Alaric has concerns over his control. For his bloodlust,” he clarified when I arched an eyebrow. Alaric was obsessively controlled about everything. Even when his cock had been in my mouth, he’d been in control. “Some of his fears are justified, but some of them, he’s just overanalyzing.”

“He regretted doing this.” I stared at the door, hoping he would come back and explain but knowing he wouldn’t. “I don’t think he wants to feel the way he does about me.”

He regrets me.

“Hey.” Kieran tugged me to him and wrapped his arms around me. “It’ll be okay. You’ve just gotten spoiled by how perfect I am that you’ve forgotten how difficult dealing with other people can be.”

I snorted a laugh against his shoulder.

We stood there for a few minutes, and I just enjoyed the feeling of being in his arms and breathing in his scent. Maybe Alaric had been right and that had been a mistake. I had Kieran. We belonged to each other, body and soul, and Roth was mine too. I claimed them as such, and they seemed to enjoy this.

I mean, they hadn’t exactly said that, but they hadn’t not said it either, and their room was gradually starting to look more homey in that stacks of books kept appearing. So I was pretty confident Roth had decided to stay here and was okay with me keeping them forever.

Then there was the Draven problem . . .

I burrowed further into Kieran’s shoulder. “Can we stay here for a while? I just want to hide from the world for another hour.”

“Yeah, Sam.” He led me over to the small settee that sat across from the chairs and sat down, tugging me with him so I was leaning on his chest. “Whatever you need, I got you.”

Chapter Six

Samara

“Samara?”a voice called from down the hallway, and I held back a groan. I had really been hoping to make it to my room without anyone bothering me. Kieran had offered to come back to my suite with me, but I’d told him to go after Alaric and calm him the fuck down. Truthfully though, I’d just needed some time to come to terms with everything as well. I didn’t regret what we’d done, because being with Alaric and Kieran had felt right, but Alaric had basically fled from that room.

His expression—a mixture of anger, confusion, and regret—had hurt. I was no stranger to the pain caused by Alaric’s words, but now I’d just given him a whole new way to hurt me if he decided he didn’t want to be with me after all.

I wanted to stand under scalding hot water and let myself sob where no one could see me, because I was the Heir to House Harker. Crying in the halls over a boy was not an option.

Composing my face as best I could, I turned around to face the rapidly approaching footsteps. “Yes, Sofia?”

The fair-haired Moroi came to a halt, the smattering offreckles across the bridge of her nose and cheeks standing out even more at the faint reddening across her pale skin. She gulped a few deep breaths before standing straighter, and I already dreaded whatever words were going to come out of her mouth.

Sofia was Yolanthe’s protégé. The sharp-minded advisor had chosen her because the twenty-year-old girl was studious and reliable. Usually nothing rattled Sofia . . . and yet she looked like she’d run up the stairs with haste to find me. Giving up all pretense, she placed a hand on my shoulder and bent over, sucking in breaths.

I’d thought I was bad at running.

“Sofia, whatever you needed to tell me wasn’t worth you passing out in the hallway,” I huffed out with laughter.

Her hand tightened, and she straightened enough to stare at me, wide-eyed. “The House Heirs are here!”

“What?” My amusement instantly evaporated, and I glanced out the nearest window that faced the front of House Harker.

“Well, not all of them,” she clarified as my gaze snapped back to her. “Neither Taivan nor Tamsen are here. Taivan isn’t that big of a surprise—the Devereux rarely leave their House. Except for Roth of course, but that’s . . .” Her hand slipped off my shoulder, and she straightened her dress. “I’m not sure why Tamsen didn’t come. It’s odd for House Corvinus to not insert themselves into any political situation. Ary and Aniela are in the small reception chamber just off the main tower entrance.”

It was suspicious that Tamsen wasn’t here, but I’d have to worry about that later because the Heirs of House Tepes and House Salvatore were downstairs.

I swore and headed towards the stairs that would lead down, all while checking my dress on the way to make sure everything was laced up right and running my fingers through my hair. Something told me there was no hiding the fact thatI’d just been thoroughly fucked, but I needed to find out why two of the Heirs had shown up unannounced. It almost certainly had to do with Draven’s attendance.

“Also,” Sofia said hastily as she tried to keep up with me, “you should probably know . . . I mean, just so you know what you’re walking into . . .” We rounded the corner, and I ducked into the stairwell, picking up my dress as I hurried down the stairs. “If you want to take a moment and think about this, that’s okay. You don’t have to see him if you don’t want to?—”

I whirled on the step, and Sofia yelped as she barely managed to halt before crashing into me. “Don’t have to seewho?”

She swallowed nervously. “Demetri is here too. As the Laurent Heir, the guards at the gate couldn’t deny him entry.”

“Oh.” I slumped against the wall. “Right.” It really said something about my current mental state that it hadn’t even occurred to me he’d be here despite the fact that he was an Heir.

I hadn’t seen or spoken to my ex-husband since I’d stormed out of House Laurent two months ago. The anger had faded, mostly, and any love I’d felt towards him had evaporated over the years of our strained marriage. Now there was just . . . embarrassment? I’d let myself turn into a shadow of who I was at House Laurent, trying to fit their mold of what a perfect Moroi wife should be.

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