Page 24 of A Dagger of Ice and Intrigue
I wanted this done even more than the Protectorate and Serpents.
Today was a Blood Moon, an occasion my own people took as seriously as funerals. I should have been back home, overseeing the rituals, not cowering two Clans who thought they were above the Code. But as the Blood Brotherhood Commander, it was my duty to stand by our heir, Zandyr.
Especially in this, a slight against his honor.
As Zandyr prowled toward the altar, “The Mountain” Brawd jumped to his feet, fists glistening with faint blue tendrils. The Huntress’ spell had gotten to him before my powers.
Zandyr didn’t even turn around.
The garden was so silent, even the hiss of his blade landed like thunder as it stopped only a breath away from the man’s wife’s pregnant belly.
“I’d reconsider if I were you,Orion,” Zandyr said. “The midwives said you’re having twins, yes?”
The woman nodded and squinted her eyes shut, twin tears streaming down her cheeks, while her husband shook with rage and powerlessness.
“Sit down,” Zandyr said. “Or this ends in more than one grave.”
My eyes sparked.
The courtyard was too quiet.
Our arrival should have cowered the humans, not the birds which had been chirping in the trees.
“Pay attention,” I whispered to Calyx and Soryn, two of the Blood Brotherhood’s best-kept weapons. The rest of the Clans only saw Calyx’s muscles, without knowing he was our weapon’sspecialist, and Soryn’s brains, when he was perhaps our best magic-wielder in generations. “Something is wrong.”
A current of fierce understanding passed between us.
We were prepared for the worst, as always, and had the heir coffin on the Blood Brotherhood war ship to attest to that. But whatever happened, Zandyr–the future of our Clan–needed to survive.
I swept the crowd with a narrowed gaze, looking for danger.
The Serpents were dead weight. Those who hadn’t been frozen kept snarling and showing their alcohol-yellowed teeth, but not much else. The Protectorate were frightened, but stoic.
Waiting.
Biding their time.
Dangerous.
As Zandyr marched forward, the silence brimmed with unspoken threats.
At the altar, The Huntress kept flicking her right palm, fingers twitching, but no blue tendrils shot out–
One beat.
Three beats.
Dragging her middle finger against her palm, those fierce green eyes focused not on us–the bloody threat crashing her cousin’s wedding–but on her family.
I clenched my jaw.
She was sending a secret message to her father and cousins, in front of us all.
The absolute cheek of this Vegheara brat.
I would have been impressed if I hadn’t been annoyed that she had the gall to do it while facing the Blood Brotherhood Elite. Like we weren’t the danger they only dared whisper about at night.
Her audacious plan was broken by Fabrian.
