Page 134 of A Throne of Blood & Vengeance

I nodded. Now that Cali was gone, my aunt would come for me. It was unlikely she knew I’d been speaking with Erendriel and had wraiths backing me up, but I agreed with Vail. All kinds of nasty things roamed Lunaria at night, so Carmilla would likely launch her attack during daylight.

“Alright.” I held the coin up between two fingers. “Time to get this over with.” Erendriel had told me all I’d have to do was think about him and push a small amount of magic into the coin. I wasn’t sure if that would be enough or if I’d need my blood to make it work, but I figured I’d try without it first.

For a few seconds, nothing happened, then the coin started to pulse with a soft glow.

“Guess that means it worked?” We all looked around, as if the Seelie King was just going to pop into existence.

He did not.

“Come on.” Draven grabbed my hand. “I have a hunch.”

I tucked the coin into the pocket of the dress I’d changed into and held my hand out to Vail. He intertwined his fingers with mine, and the three of us headed farther into the temple.

“My father has kept most of his abilities a mystery. Some I know but can’t talk about.” He winced. So far, in all our readings, we hadn’t come across anything to explain how Erendriel had spelled Draven to be unable to tell us things, but I was still hopeful we’d find something. “How he travels around Lunaria is something I don’t understand, but I’ve noticed on a few occasions that if he does it during the day, he always comes from somewhere dark.”

“You think he needs shadows to do it,” Vail guessed.

“I think so.”

Draven stopped, and I did the same, Vail halting next to me. We were in the back of the temple now. Only two rooms were left, and both had a narrow hall that led to them. The last time I’d been in one of those rooms, wraiths had attacked Nyx and hurt them badly. I also hadn’t been faring particularly well.

“Let’s wait out here.” I squeezed their hands. “I’d rather not be in a tight space with Erendriel, even if he is our ally.”

“That’s a shame,” a deep voice called out from the dark passageway, “because I’d very much enjoy being in a tight space with you.”

Erendriel strolled out of the hall on the left before stopping a few feet away from us. His hands were tucked into the pockets of his black pants, and the dark tunic he wore was practically molded to his upper body. Apparently, he was still hoping to tempt me into marrying him.

“You’ll just have to dream about it.” I shrugged. “I’m a happily mated woman—four times over.”Soon to be five once Kieran gets his party.

Erendriel gave Vail a dismissive glance before looking at his son. “You managed to hide just how strong your magic was from me all this time and get yourself mated to a rising power. I suppose you’re not a total disappointment after all, unlike your brother.”

Draven’s fingers tightened around mine, but he remained silent.

The Seelie King chuckled. “She won’t be able to keep you safe from me forever, boy.”

“And the deal you have with our queen won’t protect you forever either,” Vail drawled.

“How about we all play nice so everyone walks away with what they want?” I cut in and gave Erendriel a polite smile, ignoring the way being so close to him without the safety of the ward had my instincts screaming at me to run. Very fast. “It’s time to set our plan into motion. Carmilla will be coming for me, very likely tomorrow.”

“Of course.” Erendriel gave me a deep nod. “Once night falls, I will summon the wraiths here as we discussed.” He offered me his hand, and after hesitating for only a moment, I took it and allowed him to tug me away from Vail and Draven, both of whom growled.

Erendriel ignored them as he guided me back towards the front room, one of his hands resting on my lower back. “Now, have you been practicing closing the door as I instructed? I’d love to see what progress you have made with your magic. There is so much I could teach you if you’d only let me . . .”

Chapter Thirty-One

Samara

“She’s almost here.”

Irritation simmered beneath the mask of apprehension I’d fixed my features into. I’d been switching back and forth between that and one of shaky confidence. Erendriel had barely left my side since arriving yesterday, and while part of me enjoyed the thrill of outsmarting the Seelie King, I was more than a little exhausted from wearing all these different masks.

Honestly, I didn’t know how Kieran did it. I hadn’t been able to roll my eyesoncein over twelve hours.

The only reprieve I’d gotten had been when night had fallen and he’d summoned the wraiths to him. For hours, they had poured into the temple. It had been an eerie experience, to say the least. My entire life, wraiths had been something to fear—and they still were—but now, I was relying on them. I tried not to think about the fact that some of these wraiths could have been the same ones that had killed my parents.

Nothing good would come from dwelling on that, and if all went according to plan, we’d only be allies for a little while longer.

To my disappointment, Serril hadn’t been amongst the wraiths to answer Erendriel’s call. I would have loved to havehim caught up in all of this, but for whatever reason, Erendriel had not summoned him. And I didn’t want to risk raising suspicion by asking about him. He would almost certainly be a problem when the dust settled, but not much we could do about that now. As my mother used to say,“No point in asking tomorrow for its problems when you still had to deal with today’s bullshit.”

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