Page 65 of A Throne of Blood & Vengeance

“Okay.” Samara nodded and then glanced at Taivan, who hadn’t tried to crowd in under Cali’s wings and was just standing in the rain, not looking the least bit bothered by it. “Does that plan work for you?”

“Yes.” The Heir of House Devereux nodded. “We’ve had scouts keeping an extra close eye on House Salvatore since Roth arrived home. Best we can tell, they’ve had no communication with Carmilla.”

“Good enough for me.” Samara looked around at the corpses littering the clearing—Cali’s work. Again, I saw that hint of sadness in her eyes before she tucked it away. Some of them might have willingly served Carmilla, but not all. “We can’t take them with us,” Samara said softly.

There were far too many for us to carry, and we needed to move swiftly. It was a miracle that the Lunarian beasts hadn’t already come to investigate the tang of blood in the air. The storm might be making us all miserable and cold, but at least it was keeping scents down.

“I’ll send my people to come and collect the dead as soon as I can,” Taivan offered.

It was nice of him, but we all knew there wouldn’t be much left. The beasts that prowled the forests were not ones to waste such a meal.

Suddenly, Nyx snapped out of their almost comatose stance, causing everyone to stiffen. Taivan had a blade in his hand in an instant, but Nyx ignored him along with the rest of us as they walked over to where Adrienne lay and carefully lifted her, cradling the ranger to their chest, as if they could protect her in death.

Not a flicker of emotion appeared on Nyx’s face as they looked to where Emil rested. Wordlessly, Cali tucked her wings back and strode over to the other ranger, easily picking him up. Together, Nyx and Cali began walking south.

The rest of us followed, leaving the dead behind.

Chapter Sixteen

Draven

“These howler nestslook like they were abandoned weeks ago.” I toed a pile of branches, leaves, and other debris collected from the forest.

Vail just grunted. That seemed to be his main form of communication since I’d tracked him down half an hour ago.

I sighed. It hadn’t taken me long to find him, but Vail kept coming up with reasons to slow our journey back to the others. “We should keep going. The rest of the group is only a few miles away, and I’d prefer to be at Samara’s side.”

Usually, I loved being out at night. Thanks to my magic, I could sense the nastier of the monsters and avoid them. There was something thrilling about sharing the forest with them, of being just another monster trying to survive, but that thrill was dimmed tonight because Samara was out here too, and she didn’t have a good enough grasp on her earth magic to wield it like I did—something we’d absolutely be working on once we had time.

“Carmilla is no doubt hunting her down.” I hesitated before adding, “And my father is going to seek retribution for Velika’s death. He might decide to take out his frustration on Samara.”

Moonlit silver eyes finally met mine. “Will he not come after you?”

“Eventually.” I shrugged. “But he’ll want revenge for Velika’s death first. There was no love lost between the two of them, but Velika helped him get access to those obsidian stones by figuring out which outposts were built over the human towns. She also shared information with him about the other Moroi Houses.”

Thunder rumbled in the clouds above us.

“You really don’t care that she’s dead, do you?” Vail tilted his head as he studied me.

“Actually, I’m quite upset about it. I was really looking forward to killing her myself.”

A slight tug pulled on the bond, there and gone in an instant. Based on the way Vail stiffened, I suspected he felt it too.

“Let’s go. Samara wants us all together.”

“Sheslammed the door inmyface. So, clearly, she doesn’t want usalltogether.” He pushed off the tree he’d been leaning against. “I’ll keep scouting ahead. You go running back toher,” he tossed over his shoulder as he stalked farther into the woods.

My temper snapped.

Between one blink and the next, I had Vail pinned against a tree while roots shot out of the ground, winding around his waist and legs. My claw-tipped fingers dug into his throat, and his dagger pressed against mine.

I missed my whip. That would be priority number one once we reached House Devereux. No doubt they had a large weapons stash for me to raid and I could find something that would work.

“Get your hands off me, pretty boy,” Vail snarled, “before I cut off your fingers and shove them down your throat.”

“You’re already on Samara’s bad side.” I snorted. “My fingers are her second favorite part of my body.” My brows bunched together. “Maybe her third, I’m not sure where my tongue liesexactly. I’m good, but I have Kier to compete with, and his tongue skills are?—”

Vail shoved me away, his blade drawing a bit of blood in the process, and started slashing at the roots holding his lower body. I sighed. This wasn’t my problem to fix, and hehadbetrayed Samara, which was something he hadn’t really accepted yet. In his mind, he was trying to be loyal to two people at once, but that wasn’t possible when they were so opposed to each other.

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