Page 66 of A Court of Bones & Sorrow

The man was built like a mountain but could still move as quietly as a wraith. It was seriously hot, and his blood was positively divine.

No. Bad, Samara,I mentally chastised myself. No more complicated lovers. Absolutely not.

Emil snickered. “Apparently you’ll need to practice a little more with your newfound talent.”

Vail shot me a questioning look, but I shook my head. Given all the mixed messages he’d been sending me lately, I had no idea how he’d react to learning I could apparentlyfeelhim.

Probably not well.

There were bigger things to worry about. Besides, it was possible this was just a strange side effect of how much we’d been exchanging blood lately. I’d never heard of such a thing happening, but our magic did change slightly with each generation. Maybe this would start occurring more with other fifth-generation Moroi who had lovers they regularly exchanged blood with.

Not that Vail was my lover. My eyes drifted to his chest again. Damn it.

“We’ve got a problem,” I said. Vail’s enticing body and the issue of our new magic connection faded to the back of mymind as the urgency of what had sent me racing out here resurfaced. “Ary sent me a letter. He encountered a wraith last night just north of Lake Myalis.”

“There’s a human settlement there that we haven’t investigated yet.” Vail’s expression hardened. “What happened with the wraith?”

“Ary managed to kill it, but he said it was definitely searching for something before he did.” I glanced through the trees to the west and then up at the midday sun. “If we leave right now, we could get to that settlement not long after sunset.”

“More wraiths will likely head there tonight to continue the search and possibly avenge their fallen friend if they know,” Emil pointed out. “Dealing with one wraith is nasty enough, but if they come in numbers, you’re walking into a death trap.”

I remembered the three wraiths we battled in the temple and swallowed past the lump in my throat. “Like I said, if we leave now, we can get there just after night falls, do a quick search, and get out before they arrive.”

Emil’s brows creased, clearly not liking this idea, then he looked to Vail for the final decision.

“We search fast,” Vail finally said. “Even if we haven’t found anything, when I say we leave,we leave.” He looked at me with an expression that brokered no argument.

I nodded in agreement. “We leave. I won’t argue. I just want the chance to search while we have it.”

Because more wraiths would definitely go to that settlement, and if there was still a piece of that strange obsidian stone there, we couldn’t not take the chance of them getting it before we did.

“Did Ary provide the exact coordinates for where he saw the wraith?” Vail asked. “I want to make sure we’re heading to the right place.”

“Yes.” I reached into my pocket to pull out the letter, and my blood went cold. Empty.

“Lose something, love?”

For the third time in an hour, I jumped.

By the time I’d landed back on my feet and whirled to look up into the tree behind me, Emil and Vail had already moved to stand beside me, swords drawn.

Draven continued to read the letter—my letter—from where he sat on a branch ten feet above us, one leg dangling casually off the side.

How the fuck had he gotten up there without any of us sensing him? And how had he gotten here ahead of us without anyone detecting him? It was one thing for him to slip past me, but Emil and Vail? I added this to the list of things that didn’t make sense about the Moroi Prince.

I glanced at Vail’s face. Based on how hard he was clenching his jaw and the way the scar that ran diagonally across his face was pulled tight, he definitely hadn’t known the prince was there until he’d said something.

“Drav,” I half growled.

His bright blue eyes finally looked away from the letter to arch an eyebrow at me. “Oh, we’re back to Drav now?” He slid off the branch and dropped to the ground, landing lightly on the balls of his feet before strolling over to me. “I like it when I get to be Drav and not Prince.”

“Will you like it when I strangle you?” I snatched the letter out of his hand.

“Probably.” He grinned and then looked back and forth between the swords Vail and Emil still held. They weren’t angling them towards the prince, but they’d only lowered them a couple of inches. “Are we having a sword measuring contest? I haven’t lost one of those yet.”

Vail took a step towards Draven, and red flashed throughthe prince’s eyes in challenge. Emil stepped away from me to give himself more space to work.

“We don’t have time for this.” I stepped between Vail and Draven with my hands held up as Emil paused to watch how this played out. Then I turned to fully face Draven. “Talk. Now.”

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