Page 88 of A Hunt So Wicked
“So what does it mean?” Ciar asked, looking from Kael to King Ero.
“Can we please get on with this ceremony? I’m hungry,” someone in the crowd complained.
I hadn’t taken my eyes off my best friend. The one I thought I’d lost forever. “Kael,” I whispered, my voice choked up with emotion.
He opened the arm that wasn’t wrapped around Dair for support. “C’mere, Eves.”
I launched myself at him, not thinking about how it would look. Several grumbles of disapproval filled the hall as I wrapped my arms around him and sobbed. “I thought you were dead. I couldn’t handle—”
“Shh, it’s fine now. I’m here.”
“I told you she wasveryclose to him,” Belinda’s nasally voice came from behind me, and I went dead still.
Desmond pointed at Kael. “Thisis the guard?”
I pulled back from Kael and looked at Belinda. “It’s not like that, and you KNOW it!”
She shrugged, looking extremely pleased with herself. “It’s not the first time I’m seeing this, and I think everyone else can see what it’s like just fine,Eves.”
“That’s cause for severe punishment, soldier,” King Oberon stated, looking at Kael.
“Nothing inappropriate has ever happened between me and Miss Evie. I am simply her guard, the one she trusts with her life.” Kael held his head high, even as his body quaked from fatigue and dehydration.
Torin was suddenly there, eyeing Kael suspiciously. The one who was responsible for Kael’s ‘death. The one who had fucked up everything.
“My lord,” Corvus said. “There is only one explanation for this guard’s survival.”
“I’m aware,” he snapped.
Murmurs rippled through the crowd.
“Well, what is it?” Torin barked, his irritation rolling from him.
Ero sighed. “Only members of the Volos family are immune to dragon fire.”
But that would mean…
“Corvus?” Ero turned to his sorcerer. “Can you perform a blood test?”
Corvus bowed his head. “Of course, Your Majesty. I’ll just need to collect your blood and the young man’s.” I looked up at Kael, who was pale as snow. Corvus stepped right in front of us and held out his hand. “Your palm, please.”
Kael obliged, holding his hand out, palm up. The whole room seemed to be holding its breath as Corvus waved his free hand and whispered an incantation. I gasped as a jagged dagger appeared out of thin air. The hilt was an intricately designed dragon with garnets for eyes that shimmered as the blade twirled in the air, untouched. Abruptly, the dagger sliced Kael’s palm, and I hissed quietly, knowing how much it had to hurt. Kael, however, didn’t flinch.
The dagger floated between Kael and Corvus, who now used both hands, circling them together before bringing them together and apart like he was playing an invisible accordion. Sparks of light sputtered and flared, earning more than a few shocked gasps from the women who could see what he was doing.
A glass jar materialized, and Corvus raised his arms, while Kael gasped. The blood that had pooled in his palm began to rise in hundreds of droplets, hovering over the jar.
“Sire, your palm?” The sorcerer waved his hand, guiding the dagger to Ero, who held out his own hand. The king didn’t betray any emotion as his palm was sliced, nor when his blood floated up, just like Kael’s had.
Corvus began chanting louder than I had ever heard him. The blood drops merged together, swirling in the air like a cyclone. I slipped my hand into Kael’s, not caring if anyone noticed. When he gripped my hand like I was tethering him to reality, I knew he needed me.
The blood tornado spun at an unnatural speed, causing everyone in the room to wipe their hair from their eyes. Suddenly, the entire thing disappeared into the glass jar that Corvus held.
“So, what now?” Ciar asked, breaking the silence and earning himself a glare from his father.
Corvus placed a lid on the jar and held it out for everyone to see. “In a moment, I will smash this jar on the ground. If the dragon that emerges is silver, this man is your son, Your Majesty. If the dragon is black, he is not your direct blood, but he is related.”
The dragon that emerges? Wait. Did that mean—
