Page 26 of A Court of Bones & Sorrow

“Exaggeration,” I muttered and turned back to the wall, heaving a sigh of frustration. There wasn’t anything here. “Let’s get out of here. I need some fresh air.”

“Wait.” Draven’s hand shot out, and his fingers wrapped around my wrist when I turned towards the exit. “Have you ever noticed this glyph before?”

All the thoughts in my mind scattered at the sudden contact. I didn’t even look at the wall where Draven was pointing with his other hand. Instead, all my focus was on where his fingers were wrapped around me. Draven stilled, and we stood there for a long moment. Then he gently stroked his thumb over my pulse, and my heart sped up.

Moonsdamn it all. I needed to get ahold of myself.

“Let me take a look.” I pulled my arm free and took a stepcloser to the wall. My heart continued to race, but now it was because I was looking at a Fae glyph that had been created in a way I’d never seen before.

I traced the barely visible glyph. It wasn’t all that surprising that nobody had ever noticed it. The glyph was a simple one, just a circle with a straight line running vertically through it, but normally, when glyphs were etched into stone, the lines were a lighter color and they caused a slight dip in the surface.

My finger skimmed over the glyph. The surface remained the same, there was no dip, and parts of the glyph were lighter, while other sections were darker. It was as if the Fae had moved around the natural minerals within the stone to create the glyph. I’d had no idea they could do that.

“How did you even find this?” My brows furrowed. Unless you were looking for it, your eyes would slip over it as just a natural discoloration. I mean, I was looking directly at it, and even now, it was easy to dismiss as nothing.

“Just lucky.” Draven shrugged when I glanced at him. “Seemed odd for the stairwell to lead down here, and after you showed me that glyph upstairs, I was on the lookout for another one.”

Plausible, but absolute horseshit. He’d been searching the walls as soon as we’d set foot in this room and I’d told him where it was located. He’d known this glyph would be here. Maybe not in this exact spot, but somewhere in this room. I was very curious about how he’d known about it. I was even more interested in why he wantedmeto know about it.

“Do you know what it means?” Draven asked over my shoulder.

“Safe,” I whispered. “It means safe.”

I sucked in a breath as a deliciously wicked scent filled the air when Draven moved close enough for his chest to rest against my back. He reached towards the stone with bloody fingertips.

“Are you out of your mind?” I slapped his hand away before he could make contact with the glyph and spun around to smack him on the chest. “We have no idea what that spell was actually used for!”

“You said it means safe.” He grinned at me, and I wanted to strangle him . . . and kiss him. Argh.

“Forgive me for not trusting the fucking Fae’s definition of safe!” I shoved him away from me and the wall. Distance. That was the key to dealing with Draven—keeping a good amount of space between us so I could keep my unruly thoughts under control.

Unfortunately, Draven was not on board with this unspoken plan because he immediately stepped further into my space, reclaiming the distance I’d put between us. I stepped away until my back was against the wall, and a wolfish grin stretched across his lips as he boxed me in, placing one arm on either side of me. I had to tilt my head back to look at him, my heart thumping wildly as he leaned down to whisper in my ear. “Come on, Heir. It’s fun to be dangerous sometimes.”

The rational part of my brain was drowned out by the heat dancing across my skin as his lips trailed down my neck. Fangs grazed my pulse, and I didn’t know what I would do if he tried to bite me. I knew what I should do. I should push him away again. Fuck, I should be doing that right fucking now.

Draven chuckled darkly against my skin. “You overthink things, Sam.”

He raised his left hand and slammed it against the wall directly over my shoulder before I could stop him. The bastard had been distracting me. As soon as his blood made contact with the glyph, magic sparked, and the floor fell out from beneath us.

Chapter Nine

Draven

I fucked up.

Plummeting into darkness wasn’t what I had expected to happen when I’d activated the glyph. I’d known to look for it because we had an identical room in the Sovereign House with the exact same glyph. Though when I’d activated that one, it’d been like being gently picked up and placed in a different room before getting a nice pat on the head.

This had felt like the floor cracking under us and a giant reaching up and jerking our bodies down. I was pretty sure my organs were no longer in the right positions, and I was fighting the urge to hurl my guts up.

On the plus side, Samara was clinging to me tenaciously. Her arms were wrapped around me, and she tucked her head against my chest. If she’d had time to think about it, she never would have done it, but in a moment of panic, she thought I was safe. Someone she could trust to see her through this.

I wasn’t.

That fact hurt far more than the way she practically flung herself away from me when we stopped moving, hissing a bunch of words in dead languages that I had no doubt werepromises of doing very nasty things to certain parts of my body. I let her get it out while I looked around, getting our bearings. Grateful the nausea had vanished almost instantly after the magic had finished transporting us.

It was foolish of me to turn my back on Samara when she was pissed. I knew from past experience that she had a fiery temper.

“Fuck!” I rubbed the back of my head, where something hard and blunt had just slammed into it. I turned at the pinging sound of something metal bouncing off the floor and I bent down to swipe up the dagger. Given that Sam had just thrown a blade at my head, and I didn’t know if she’d meant for the sharp end to hit me, I should’ve probably been pissed off at her. Instead, I wanted to pass the weapon back to her so she could hold it at my throat while I fucked her against the wall.

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