Page 5 of A Court of Bones & Sorrow

“You break my books, I break you,” Roth snapped. Alaric dropped the book and leaned back in the chair, crossing his arms over his chest.

“Have your lover’s spat later,” Vail growled.

I gave him a cool look before slipping out of Kieran’s embrace and slumping into a chair at the head of the table next to Alaric, Kieran sitting on my other side.

“Draven was a little cagey about it, but he implied it was his mother’s idea for him to marry me.”

Kieran nodded. “Carmilla was the one who told me about the proposed union between you and Draven. She said it wasthe queen’s suggestion but that she thought it was a good idea and that you might be open to it.”

I mulled that over. My aunt and I had discussed my future quite a bit since I’d returned to House Harker. In all our conversations, I’d made it clear I wanted to stay here and fully step into my role as Heir. I hadn’t exactly said I didn’t want to marry again, but I’d thought she’d understood I wasn’t looking for that. Especially since the ink had barely dried on my divorce papers to Demetri. “And Draven?”

It was odd she would have agreed to such a thing without checking with me first. I needed to find a way to talk to her without the queen knowing.

Kieran’s eyes darkened. “He does whatever his mother tells him to.” The muscles along my jaw ached as I clenched my teeth. Whatever had happened between him and Draven had hurt him deeply. I didn’t feel any jealousy towards what they’d had, only rage at someone hurting Kier. He deserved better, and I’d make Draven pay for putting that wounded look on his face.

“That was the impression I got in my conversation with him.” I pursed my lips. “What if Queen Velika not only knows what her son is up to, but she’s ordering him to do it?”

Vail scoffed. “You believe the Sovereign House has betrayed all of the Moroi and allied with the wraiths? After everything they’ve done to protect our people?”

I narrowed my eyes at Vail. His blind loyalty was almost as annoying as his dismissive attitude towards me. “That’s exactly what I’m saying.”

Vail started, “There has to be some other explanation—” but Kieran cut him off.

“I promise you there is nothing Draven does without the queen’s knowledge.” He swallowed and stared at the table. “Trust me. I know him better than any of you. If she told himto walk in here and slit all of our throats, he’d do it without hesitation.”

“Why though?” Alaric frowned. “Velika is ruthless—she has to be to keep all of the Moroi Houses in line, but why would she agree to help the wraiths? What could they have offered her?”

“We need to find out,” I said darkly. “Carmilla is at the Sovereign House, and Draven said she’d be there for a while.”

Aggression poured off Vail, I could feel it even from where he stood across the room. “You think they’re holding her against her will?”

Of course the idea that the Sovereign House was harming Carmilla would get him to immediately cast aside his devotion to them. There was no one Vail was more loyal to than my aunt.

“I don’t know.” My frustration with Vail left me, and dread replaced it. “Carmilla and Velika have always been close.”

“Carmilla isnotinvolved in this,” Vail growled.

“Calm yourself. I trust my aunt more than I trust you,” I snapped, and Vail’s lip curled. “Carmilla would never sacrifice our people for a promise of power, certainly not from the monsters who have been hunting us for centuries, but Velika is her closest friend and she trusts her. If the queen asked her to stay in the Sovereign House as a personal favor, my aunt wouldn’t closely examine the reason.”

“Which means we have to be very careful,” Alaric said. “Carmilla could pay the price if we make the wrong move.”

Vail glanced at Kieran. “When did you and the prince leave the Sovereign House?”

“We both left five days ago but split up. He said he had something to take care of . . .” Kieran looked away, his jaw hardening. “He met me last night at the Faybell outpost, and we left first thing this morning. Only arrived here a few hours before all of you.”

“So he went to the temple after splitting up with Kieran. We saw him there and left while he was busy serving up our people on a silver platter to that wraith prick.” I frowned as I did the math in my head and then looked at Vail. “How did he make it there so fast? Granted, we stopped to rest a couple of times, but we still made good time, and we didn’t pass Faybell until this morning.”

We’d taken the quickest route to get home, but that still meant we’d had to travel north from the temple, then ride east all the way to the coast before traveling south down to House Harker. There were no roads that ran through the forests in the center of the Moroi realm. It was too dangerous.

Vail grimaced. “He must have cut through the forest. The roads are safer, but they take you out of the way. Through the wilds from the temple to Faybell is almost a direct shot, but he couldn’t have ridden a horse through that. It would have been too loud and likely would have broken a leg at anything faster than a trot.”

I thought back to Draven perching on the ledge, soaking in the sunshine. It was hard to picture him racing through the woods at night on foot. Then again, I never would have imagined him cutting deals with the wraiths either. Apparently, the prince was just full of surprises.

“All of you will keep working on what the wraiths—the Unseelie Fae,” I corrected myself, “are up to. It seems like they want to return to their original forms and need those black stones to do it.” I thought about the shiny, obsidian stone stashed safely in Roth’s quarters. Our human ancestors had used the stones in the ritual to turn themselves into monsters. Into us. What made the stones so special, we had no idea—but the wraiths had been ransacking our outposts looking for them, so clearly, they were important. “We need to know more about whatever ritual they’re doing and what they might have offered the Sovereign House to make them betray us all.”

“And what will you be doing?” Alaric asked, even though the prick already knew what my answer would be. He just wanted me to say it out loud.

“I will be flirting with and distracting Draven.” I waved a hand dismissively. “Keeping his attention off all of you and also trying to figure out more of his role in all of this.”

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