Page 53 of A Throne of Blood & Vengeance

Currently, the rain had slowed to a drizzle. Not that long ago, it had been a torrential downpour. We were damn lucky we weren’t in an area prone to flash floods.

“Shit,” I heard Severen say. His wife let out a torrent of swear words seconds later.

I closed the distance between us to stand next to them as I took in what had caused their reactions.

Oh. Apparently our luck had run out, because a river raged through the forest ahead of us. Given that Severen and Celestina had led us this way, I assumed it wasn’t supposed to be here butwas a creation of the storm. Maybe a watershed or a small creek that had been overrun by the rain.

“We could swim across it?” I suggested just as several large trees tore through the water, smashing into everything in their path. “Or maybe not.”

“We’ll have to double back,” Celestina called out as the storm decided to kick it up a notch. “The ground gets higher to the east. We should be able to cross there.”

I nodded and started to back up but froze when I felt it. The wrongness I’d been feeling all night intensified, like the forest itself was screaming at me to . . .

Run.

Without second-guessing, I lunged forward, darting to a tree with a thick trunk for cover and pulling Alaric and Kieran with me. Then I looked over my shoulder just in time to see Roth duck behind a large, rotting tree log, Taivan and Desmond ushering them to safety. Whether they were following my lead or had also sensed something, I didn’t know.

When I peeked around the tree, I saw Severen and Celestina had vanished as well—only a few trembling tree branches gave a hint as to where they had gone. The Harker rangers were also nowhere to be seen.

Three howlers slithered through the trees and stopped to sniff the ground. Horror drenched me, and I had to bite down my tongue to keep from swearing out loud or screaming.

As if sensing my fear, one of howlers swung its head my way, and I quickly pivoted back behind the tree, a tremble racing through me.

It had no eyes because the howler was fucking dead. All it had were empty sockets surrounded by clumps of fur and rotting flesh.

I’d seen a lot of fucked-up shit in Lunaria, but something coming back from the dead? That was a new one.

Alaric and Kieran both looked around the tree only to pull back with shock-laced grimaces. Clearly, they weren’t fans of this new type of monster either.

“Samaraaa,” a voice rang out. Even through the rain, I recognized it. Demetri.

Everyone went still. Gold flooded Kieran’s eyes as his bloodlust rose while Alaric’s eyes flashed turquoise but quickly returned to their normal light green as he pulled a long, curved dagger from the sheath at his thigh. Kieran’s sword was in his hand a second later.

A smile curved at the corners of my lips, and I saw it reflected on Kieran’s and Alaric’s faces. Sure, we were deep in a Lunarian forest with three undead beasts hunting us down, but Demetri was here too. I didn’t know how, but I assumed he was responsible for our walking-corpse friends. He also likely had some Moroi rangers with him.

None of that mattered though because Demetri was standing less than twenty feet from me. He wouldn’t be walking out of this forest alive. I didn’t care how many fucked-up nightmares I’d have to kill my way through—Demetri’s death was mine to claim. My fingers closed around my daggers and silently pulled them free from the thigh sheaths. It was fitting that his blood would be the first to bless my new blades.

First, we needed to know exactly how many others he’d brought with him. I gave Kieran and Alaric a pointed look and mouthed,Stay. Both of them gave me murderous looks in return but didn’t try to stop me when I stepped out from behind the tree.

Demetri loved the sound of his own voice. Might as well let him dig his own grave too.

I sauntered forward, twirling my daggers casually in my hands a few times before stopping a few feet from where Demetri stood behind the undead howlers that were juststanding there, unmoving. Each one bore a leather collar with embedded sapphires. I’d missed that before on account of being shocked by their existence.

What type of magic could bring something back from the dead? And how had Demetri learned of it?

“Like my new pets?” he drawled from beneath his dark cloak. Most of his face was hidden, but his full mouth was curved into a smirk. “Turns out Velika had quite the treasure trove of Fae artifacts. We have no idea what most of them do, but these ones seemed pretty self-explanatory. The howlers make excellent tracking hounds, even if they smell a bit.”

“I give you credit for attempting to find a creature more vile than yourself.” I studied the beasts once more. Howlers were canine in shape, but they were taller and leaner than lycanthropes. They were built to run for miles on end. These ones were skeletally thin. In fact—I squinted—yep, I could see their bones in places.

A small amount of pity welled in me as I took in the creatures. Sure, howlers would rip me to shreds in a heartbeat if they could, but they were just predators trying to survive in a land of monsters, and they were pretty low on the hierarchy. It felt wrong for them to be used like this. Life in Lunaria was often cruel and heartless; they deserved to find peace.

My gaze lingered on the collars again. They were faint and hard to see in the dark, but two glyphs were carved into them between the sapphires.

Death. Awaken.

I held back my shudder and turned my attention back to Demetri. “They won’t win any beauty contests, but if I had to choose between them and you, it’s not even a question. Undead hounds all day. You remain the most vile of the Heirs.”

Demetri’s smirk blossomed into a smile. “Oh, I’m not an Heir anymore, my pet. You’re looking at the new Head of House Laurent.”

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