Page 9 of A Throne of Blood & Vengeance

That alien presence brushed against my mind again, and I felt the hairs on the back of my neck stand up.

“I have much to attend to over the next couple of days.” Carmilla’s hands fell from the crown as the corners of her mouth pinched slightly, fighting a frown. “I’ll have servants come down for you in two days so you can get cleaned up. Perhaps afterwards, we can see about keeping you somewhere else—under supervision of course—depending on how dinner goes.”

Then she launched into a speech about how she truly did care about the Moroi. That she was doing what had to be done for the survival of all, and if I’d just see that, I could be of help to her. It wasn’t my aunt’s speech I was paying attention to though. It was the other voice drifting through my mind. One that felt ancient and devious.

Hello, my little forgotten one.

Chapter Three

Vail

Samara wasin so much pain, she was delirious. I knew this because she was currently curled up on my lap—a place she would never have been if she weren’t out of it. It was the second day of her cycle. The first hadn’t seemed too bad, although that was most likely due to the fact that she’d chugged the tea I’d brought her like it had been the answer to all her problems before asking for more.

I’d traumatized the kitchen staff with the way I’d barged in there repeatedly throughout the day, demanding more of the tea brewed specifically to dull cramps and help with pain.

When Samara had thanked me after the fourth cup instead of threatening to cut my balls off, I’d known things were about to get bad.

But bad had been an understatement.

Samara had barely moved all day. She’d just curled up in the corner of her cell on the pile of blankets I’d stolen from every vacant bedroom I could find. She’d practically bitten my head off when I’d suggested she ask to be moved to a bedroom just until this was over.

“I’m a prisoner,” she’d spat. “Carmilla will want something if I make such a request.” Then her eyes had flashed black. “She will getnothingfrom me.”

I thought about going behind her back and asking Carmilla directly, but she had to know the state her niece was in. Even if she hadn’t been to see Samara herself, Carmilla was the type of leader who always knew everything that was going on under her roof, and given how I’d stormed into the kitchen demanding the tea . . .

If Carmilla wanted to ease her niece’s suffering, she could have done it at any time, which meant Samara was right. If she asked for a room and a more comfortable setting, she would have to agree to something.

Samara was frustratingly stubborn but not without reason. If the situation were reversed, I would have remained in the cell too.

Which was why I was sitting here with Samara wrapped in several blankets and tucked against my chest. She’d been drifting in and out of sleep, mumbling something about a crown that I couldn’t quite make out. My arms tightened around her soft body.

This was the first time she’d allowed me to touch her since everything that had gone down in the throne room. Since I’d chosen Carmilla over her. At least, that was the way Samara viewed it.

I hadn’t known this was how things were going to go though. I’d thought that once Carmilla and Samara spoke, everything would be okay. That they’d work it out and everything would go back to how it had been—the two of them working together. I mean, they both wanted the same thing—for the Moroi to survive.

It was Draven’s fault. Samara had fucking lost it when that prick, Lucian, had stabbed him through the chest, and now itfelt like there was a growing divide. Carmilla and her followers—myself included—on one side. Samara with her lot on the other.

I didn’t know what Kieran, Alaric, and Roth had been told, and Carmilla requested that I not inform them of anything for now because she wanted to manage what information got back to House Harker. But the rumors about Velika’s downfall and Carmilla’s rise had to be spreading throughout the Moroi realm, so I wasn’t really sure how well her plan would work.

Nobody was better at collecting rumors than Kieran, and he would have shared whatever he’d discovered with Alaric and Roth. I would’ve thought they would have been here already, demanding her release. But then . . . they knew about the crown. Surely Carmilla wouldn’t use it on them though? Roth was a bit of an unknown, but Carmilla had known Alaric his entire life, and she liked Kieran. Maybe if they were here, they could talk some sense into Samara.

Because she sure as shit wasn’t listening to me.

She let out a pained whimper, and I slipped one of my hands beneath the blankets to rub her back. “It’s okay, Samara,” I said roughly. “I got you.”

“Vail,” she murmured, turning her face into me to inhale my scent.

I bent my head down to nuzzle her hair. She’d be back to either ignoring me or trying to stab me in a couple of days, so I had to take what I could get. I hoped she’d go for my throat honestly. When she’d looked at me with hate in her eyes after everything that had gone down in the throne room, it’d hurt, but that was nothing compared to when she’d coldly blocked me out.

The violence, I could handle, because at least I knew she was feelingsomethingtowards me. I’d happily take that over pretending I didn’t exist.

Samara had always consumed my soul. Love or hate, it had always been her.

I spent every waking moment thinking about her, and the fact that she could so easily cast me away pissed me off beyond reason. It was exactly why she’d done it. Samara could be a vicious fucking cunt.

And gods, I loved that about her.

My body went still as I heard someone coming down the stairwell. The guards did regular sweeps of the dungeon levels, but they never stepped foot inside this one if I was here.

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