Page 88 of A Throne of Blood & Vengeance

I didn’t bother hiding my smirk at his ungraceful dismount.

“Knock it off.” Samara gave me and then Alaric a warning look. “Both of you.”

“Could you fly us across, Cali?” Kieran asked from behind us, where he and Roth were holding on to the three horses. I looked around, trying to spot where Draven had gone, and tried not to be envious of how quietly he could move. It didn’t take long to find him, crouching down with his hand flat against the earth a short distance away from us.

“Possibly,” Cali answered Kieran. “It’d be easier if we backtracked and climbed up one of the mesas so I could glide and not waste energy just trying to get off the ground. Even then, I’m not sure if I could carry Draven or the asshole.”

I assumed I was the asshole.

Fair.

Samara chewed on her bottom lip. I wanted to reach out and brush my thumb across it to get her to stop, but I wasn’t sure if my touch would be welcomed. Despite what had transpired when we’d been riding together, I didn’t think we were there yet—and I didn’t want to fuck up what progress I’d made. So instead, I had to watch as Alaric brushedhisthumb across her lip and Samara gavehima small smile in return.

Cold, green eyes cut to me as soon as Samara turned her attention to where Rynn was nimbly trotting back to us, thenAlaric arched a dark brow at me. Out of all of Samara’s lovers, he seemed to be the one who had the biggest problem with me, which I found interesting because he was also the one who had been the cruelest towards her.

Sure, I’d tried to kill Samara a few times, but Alaric had spent his teenage years delivering perfectly crafted insults that cut right through her armor. He’d picked that habit back up as soon as she’d returned to House Harker. One day, they were at each other’s throats—the next, he was in her bed.

I didn’t get it, which was probably how he felt about me and Samara.

Figuring out how this would all work long-term would be challenging, and I suspected there might be a little bloodshed. Samara clearly wasn’t going to choose between us. I just needed to make sure she chose me at all.

Which meant I couldn’t punch that arrogant expression off Alaric’s face.

Rynn finished making her way to us and shifted back to her human form. I almost rolled my eyes at how Alaric suddenly found the ground so interesting. Clearly, he hadn’t spent much time around Velesians because nudity was nothing to them.

Unless mates were involved and someone was being disrespectful, but while the Alpha Pack had claimed Rynn, there was no mate bond between them—and likely wouldn’t be, given the way things were going.

“Thoughts?” I kept my gaze on Rynn’s eyes. Velesians were comfortable wearing nothing, but leering was still considered rude—or an invitation. Neither was of interest to me. I only had eyes for my dark-haired, curvy beauty, but I hoped to mend some bridges with Rynn, so I waited respectfully for her to answer.

Rynn glanced at me, a cool distance in her gaze, before she sighed. “I suspect this colony goes on for a ways. There are a lotof trapdoors, and from what I could see, they don’t decrease in any direction. So we could walk for miles and still be in it.”

“We don’t have that kind of time.” I frowned. It was past midday. We’d traveled a good distance, but we still had a ways to go before reaching the temple. Dealing with trappers was difficult but doable—we just had to avoid those damn doors. If darkness fell and the wraiths came for us though . . . we wouldn’t be able to fight themandavoid the trappers.

“Can you sense anything?” Kieran called out to Draven.

The former prince shook his head and rose, dusting off his hands as he walked back towards us. “Yes, but it’s not all that useful. I’m pretty sure I can feel the tunnel system, but I can’t differentiate between what are tunnels and what are traps. My magic only senses the spiders when they move; otherwise, I just kind of have an awareness of them but not an exact location.”

He ran a hand through his long hair, causing the silver strands to shimmer as they caught the few rays of sun that peeked through the clouds. I tried not to roll my eyes as both Kieran and Samara practically drooled.

“Well, you’re doing better than me.” Samara wrinkled her nose. “I can’t sense anything.”

Draven gave her a small smile. “You only found out you had magic a few weeks ago. It takes practice to draw it out and then manipulate it to your will. Even I struggle with it, and I’ve been practicing a lot longer than you.”

Samara nodded, but I could tell it still bothered her. Samara liked to be the best at everything. She was one of the most competitive people I’d ever met. It was probably driving her insane that she had a well of magic inside her that she had no idea how to wield.

I frowned at the ground, imagining the tunnels running beneath them, before glancing at Draven. “Could you collapse the tunnels?”

“I thought about it,” he admitted. “But I doubt I could do it all at once. I’d probably have to pick a spot and then expand. It would give them time to escape to the surface.”

“Yeah, let’s not do that.” Kieran kissed Draven’s cheek. “I’d prefer to not be suddenly surrounded by dozens of giant spiders.”

“More like hundreds,” Rynn commented idly, her mind clearly trying to work through other options.

“In the words of Samara responding to that asshole Demetri’s marriage proposal . . .” Kieran grinned at Samara. “Pass.”

She snorted. “He really was the worst.”

My frown deepened. I was happy he was dead—and that she’d killed him—but I’d kind of been looking forward to twisting his head clean off his shoulders, and I hadn’t even gotten to see Samara cut the fucker’s head off.

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