Page 8 of A Court of Bones & Sorrow

Vail eyed me for several long seconds before standing aside, and I left without another word.

Fifteen minutes later,I barged into Samara’s suite. My temper had only increased on my walk over as several advisors had stopped me to fill me in on various issues that had arisen while I’d been gone. With Carmilla at the Sovereign House, Samara and I were responsible for running things. While most of the more senior advisors were capable and smart, handpicked by Carmilla over the years for their hard work and dedication, some serious problems had occurred while we’d been gone and needed to be dealt with soon. As if we didn’t have enough fucking problems.

The large seating area that made up most of her living space was empty. Well . . . empty might be the wrong word. My lip curled as I took in the chaos of the room. There were stacks of books everywhere. On the low table in front of the settee. On the floor. I picked up one that had been haphazardly placed on the back of the lounge chair and flipped through it.

It was written in the Fae language, so I couldn’t read it, but I was pretty sure it was the Unseelie dialect and poetry, based on how the lines were arranged. Was this what Samara did in her free time? Read poetry in a dead language?

“Careful, Alaric.” Samara breezed into the room with nothing but a towel wrapped around her. “If you keepfrowning like that, your face might get stuck, and think of how sad all the lovely, young courtiers would feel if they were robbed of your beauty.”

I gritted my teeth. I knew exactly who she was talking about. There was a group of courtiers who regularly visited from Kieran’s old House—Corvinus—mostly comprised of young, female Moroi who were on the hunt for a good marriage. There was nothing impressive about my bloodline, but my parents had served Carmilla as her top advisors, as I now did. Between this and my appearance, several courtiers from that group had set their eyes on me.

“Sounds like that would be to my benefit, so I think I’ll keep the sneer, if it’s all the same to you.” I tossed the book back down and crossed my arms.

“Suit yourself.” She shrugged and started pawing through the piles of clothes that, like the books, were scattered everywhere. Samara frowned as she tossed aside dress after dress before finally holding up a rich mulberry-purple one triumphantly.

“If you just put your clothes away like a normal person, you wouldn’t have to go on a scavenger hunt for the ones you want,” I said dryly.

Samara just rolled her eyes and walked back towards the wide-open double doors that led to her bedroom and bathing chamber. My eyes instantly fell to her ass and the way it shifted beneath the thin fabric. Why did that towel have to be so short?

“I’m sorry, why are you here? Generally, when someone throws a knife at your face, that’s a sign that maybe they don’t want to be in your company.”

“I’m here because I wasn’t finished with our conversation when you pulled that stunt,” I ground out and looked away from that treacherous towel. “Thanks for that, by the way.”

“Don’t be an asshole and you won’t get knives to the face,”she said in a breezy tone as I followed her into the bedroom. A large bed with a midnight black headboard and deep red covers took up most of the space. My mind instantly went to Samara in those sheets. I suspected she slept naked or in some type of extremely indecent nightgown. “Alaric?”

I blinked slowly, dragging my gaze away from the bed to where Samara was standing next to it, holding the dress in one hand and dangling undergarments from the other. Suddenly, the only thing I could hear was the rapid pounding of my heart, then twin flashes of pain erupted from my gums as my fangs extended. Throughout it all, my expression remained stoic and slightly annoyed. I wasn’t as good at rotating through different masks as Kieran, but I was excellent at this one.

Samara arched one perfect, dark eyebrow. Okay, maybe I was less than perfect at maintaining this mask. Why did she have to continue to be the absolute worst?

“What?” I bit out.

She let out a husky laugh, and the way my dick reacted, one would have thought she’d reached her hand into my pants and stroked it. Fuck. That thought was not helping.

“You just gonna stand there and scowl while I get dressed?” She twirled the black undergarments around her finger. “Because that’s not normally the reaction people have when I’m about to get naked in front of them.”

“Who exactly are you getting naked in front of?” The sharp words came out before I could stop them.

“Currently?” She tilted her head back and looked up at the ceiling, like she had to think hard about the answer.

“Samara,” I growled.

“Alaric,” she mockingly growled back as her gaze fell to me again. Maybe Vail would kill her and solve all my problems? When I continued to glower at her, she sighed. “Only Kier and Roth. Despite what you think of me, I do actually care quite a great deal about the two of them, and the three of us havediscussed the dynamics of our relationships. Not that our business is any of your concern.”

“Kieran is my best friend, and your involvement with him will not end well,” I argued, even as I ignored the relief I felt that she wasn’t seeing anyone else.

Her lips curled into that flirty grin that I couldn’t decide if I adored or hated. “I promise you that I’ve given Kier more than onehappyending.”

Argh.

“I’m being serious, Samara.” My fingers tightened into fists at my sides. “If you would just think rationally about this?—”

“Stop.” Black streaks darkened her purple eyes until they were depthless voids. I shifted uneasily. It hadn’t escaped my notice that she hadn’t put her fangs away since we’d left the temple, and her eyes had been shifting between the colors more than usual. These were all signs that pointed to a Moroi’s bloodlust being dangerously close to the surface.

As a Harker, Samara had better control over hers than most of us. It was unlikely she’d ever fully lose control and become a Strigoi. Growing up, she would regularly slip in and out of her bloodlust as if it had been nothing. Even though she hadn’t put her fangs away the last few days, she hadn’t been acting any differently. Just the same old, frustrating Samara who had always slipped under my skin like no other.

But despite that fact, seeing her like this made me tense. My cousin had turned Strigoi, and I still had nightmares about it.

She squeezed her eyes shut and inhaled several deep breaths. When they opened a few seconds later, they were back to their startling purple that always reminded me of the night sky. They were perfectly stunning, just like the rest of her. Not that I’d ever tell her that. Samara’s ego was big enough on its own. Plus, that would be admitting to the attraction I felt towards her every day.

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