Page 34 of The Crimson Princess
“Satima.” My name is a plea and a demand. “You cannot—”
“You already said that. Twice. When I marry,ifI marry, it will not be to a druid prince I despise. I’m not my father’s possession to gamble away. I’m not anyone’s possession. Nor do I think joining the druids is the safe move for Ravengale, but he doesn’t seem to think joining you is either. You’ve never acknowledged Ravengale as the ultimate rule when everyone else has.”
“Because he claims that’s what the book wants doesn’t mean it’s what the book wants. How do we know no one else can read it? He won’t let me try.”
He knifes me with those words, driving home my biggest worry over my father’s actions. He’s afraid of Toren. “I’ve never seen the book. I don’t…know, Toren. I don’t really know a lot right now.”
He presses two fingers to the bridge of his nose and then looks at me again. “He could force you to marry him.”
“He can’t force me. I won’t do it.”
“Did you sign a commitment to marry him?”
“No.”
“Once you do,” he warns, “the druids will be obligated to fight with your father. They’ll also try to take your kingdom.”
A sick feeling rolls over me right along with a hard dose of reality. “My father will most certainly try to link us during the Challenge, at least publicly establish a courting ritual is taking place.”
“I’m not as convinced as you are, that you can just say no.”
“I can.I will.”
“In which case, the druids will be enraged, and your father will be forced to reconsider me as an ally.”
“And you’ll protect the gales?”
“Despite your father, and because of you, Princess Satima, yes. I give you my word.”
I study him a moment, really study him, allowing my magic and the instincts we’ve been discussing to guide me forward, and I trust Toren. “And I shall take you at your word,KingToren.”
“But if Ravengale attacks—”
“I know. I’m going to do everything in my power to keep my father from this partnership with the druids. On that you have my word, King Toren.”
“Then I too, will take you at your word.”
For several beats we just stare at each other, and there is this pull between us, this need that I can feel easing us closer, back into each other’s arms, but I resist. It’s late. So very late and I fear being missed. “I have to leave.” I attempt to get up and he catches my hand, and with the touch goosebumps lift on my arm. I can kill a werewolf, but a vampire king can bring me to my knees with a mere brush of his hand on mine.
“We need to talk about your bloodlust.”
I blink in confusion. “My bloodlust? You meanyours?”
“No, Satima. I meanyours. We both know you enjoyed the blood in the way no full gale is capable.”
My throat is dry and my heart is barely beating. “What are you saying?”
“It’s true that your mother came to me like you did today, to avoid a war, but there was more to it than that alone. She also felt loyalty to me because I’d done her a favor.”
“What kind of favor?” My voice squeaks out, dread I do not understand in my belly.
“Obviously she was found by the river at age five, no knowledge of her origins. When she asked to meet me, it was because she’d been in a battle, and during that battle she’d experienced bloodlust. She was convinced she was a vampire.”
“That’s impossible. Gales and vampires can’t—can we?”
“That’s a complicated question and answer. When your mother came to me, though her claim defied reason, I had a hard time denying her reasoning. I took her blood samples back to one scientist I trust completely, and under lock and key, he studied the results.”
“And?”
