Page 5 of Of Nine So Bold

“What?” I turned to the vampire in alarm, and my sudden motion made my horse dance beneath me, sending a dull throb through my middle. My body was healing faster thanks to Clay and Lars both letting me bite their wrists while we rode through the night. But I still ached where a soldier’s crossbow bolt had torn through my shadowy vampire form.

The king of Zenirya’s expression turned slightly apologetic for his words, but it was Roan who spoke, his voice quiet and reserved. “There’s blood in the water.”

Dread sank over me, though my chest still did a hot little twist when Roan’s coal-black eyes found me, the concern in them still taking me aback. Up until his demon broke free during the Voidborn attack on the city of Duteliera, he’d done everything in his power to treat me like he couldn’t care less about me, if not outright hated me.

But to my shock, that hadn’t been the truth. In reality, he’d been trying to protect me. He’d spent years living in fear that everyone around him would die if the demon emerged. After all,that’s what happened to his family. So he was convinced if he didn’t push me away, I’d die too. Even after he shifted back that first time and discovered his demon had kidnapped me away from the other men, he’d been sure every last one of his friends was dead, murdered by the monster he hid inside.

Finding out the demon hadn’t done anything of the sort had nearly sent him to his knees.

But it didn’t mean everything was better now. He’d still been hiding the truth from his friends for years. He still didn’t trust the creature inside himself. And the demon itself was so strange, soalien,in its ways that I still wasn’t sure what to make of it.

It was demanding. Unhinged with an almost black-and-white simplicity to its thinking. And willing to unleash a level of violence to get what it wanted that even my vampire side found surprising. The soldiers who’d thought to capture us—all but one of whom were now lying dead in a forest missing their limbs or, in one shocking example, a heart—were clear testament to that.

Roan hadn’t said much when he shifted back after that. He’d barely met anyone’s eyes, and to their credit, the other men hadn’t pressed for more. The secrets between us all had torn everything apart, but figuring that out would have to wait. Right now, we needed to save Niko.

And to get across this damn river.

Bracing myself, I urged my horse closer to the rushing water. The scent of blood began to tinge the air, so faint that if I’d still been a human, there’d be no way I could have detected it.

But my vampire side stirred with hunger.

“He’s right,” I said tightly.

“Holy shit…” Clay backed away from the water. “What the fuck did they kill?”

Casimir gave a considering look to Roan, as if waiting for the man to speak, and when he didn’t, the vampire shook his head. “That, I cannot tell you. The blood is human, though. It’s barelydetectible, but…” His brow rose and fell. “It seems unlikely they would destroy their fellow soldiers. Perhaps our unwilling friend would know more.” He tilted his head back toward the Aneiran soldier we’d captured.

Pinned by Ozias’s grip on the ropes binding him, the man blanched. “I-I don’t—” A growl from Ozias cut off his sputtering. “These don’t come off without the key. We didn’t have a key holder with us.”

“So theydidkill their allies after all,” Casimir amended.

Sickened looks passed among the others, while Ozias glanced at me. Like Roan, he hid another side to himself. He could shift into a horned wolf creature that made him look like a forest god, and he’d bonded with me as his mate. We shared a magical connection now, one that let us know each other’s emotions.

Which meant he could feel the dread inside me, and it mirrored his own.

A strained sense of reassurance followed soon after, though, and I was grateful. Especially since I could feel how he was trying to offer that for my sake.

In truth, he was worried. Deeply. Even if Niko never spoke to him again, he still didn’t want anything to happen to the younger man.

I sent him back as much reassurance as I could before returning my eyes to the water.

My stomach churned. My people had committed so many crimes. But killing our own just to block a road?

For the thousandth time since I returned to Aneira, I found myself wondering what in the names ofallthe gods had become of my home country.

“In that case,” Byron began, his meticulously careful manner of speaking clearly struggling to cover the scholar’s alarm. “How do we go about crossing this?”

I bit my lip. I could think of one way to deal with the bodies down there and clear them from our path, but I didn’t like it.

I’d never been comfortable around the dead.

“I can clear them away,” I made myself say anyway, because it was that or let my stepmother’s forces get farther ahead of us with Niko. “I’ll just shift and go down there to move them. It’s not like I need to breathe, so it shouldn’t take?—”

Ruhl made an irritated noise, and then the shadow wolf surged forward, turning into smoke and diving into the river.

“What the…” Clay started.

“I rather think our canine companion is no more enamored of letting the princess handle the bodies than we are.” Casimir regarded the water with an annoyance that seemed reserved for the obstacle in our path rather than the wolf currently clearing it away.

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