Page 133 of A Vow of Blood and Tears

“I was hoping for more of a continent,” I mused, watching as Kajarin emerged from the keep, surrounded by servants loaded with trunks and boxes.

The breeze carried her scent to my nose: the jasmine perfume, mingled with men’s sweat and seed. A spurt of sickness rose in my throat, that Wroth would have to breathe that all the way south to the Rivers.

Or he would leave her for the wargs. If that were the case, I wouldn’t blame him.

My brother was the last of the retinue, the other vampires well ahead with Auré. I would never have allowed Cirri to travel by carriage alone, without vampires guarding her. It said much of their feelings that they silently went ahead without the Lady of the Rivers.

But the fiend said nothing, his nostrils not so much as twitching as he strode by the carriage and his wife. His pale eyes flicked between me and Cirri, tufted tail thrashing.

I stretched out a hand. “I was glad to see you, brother.”

So many things were left unspoken. I’d already said my piece.

And Wroth understood that perfectly well. He nodded slowly, the tips of his fangs showing, and clasped my hand. “For your sake, I will invite my misery on Andrus next year. Far be it from me to bring storms upon your sunlight.”

“No.” I pulled him in for a rough embrace, squeezing his hand. “Bring yourself whenever you wish. You’re still my brother.”

Wroth exhaled, a low rumble deep in his throat as I released him. “Always,” he said, low and gruff. “Perhaps I needed… blunt advice. But it will take time.”

“We have all the time in the world.”

I half expected him to ignore my wife, but when he looked back at her, Cirri said,Things are what we make of them. We’re here for you.

And he took her hand, pressing a kiss to the back, and bowed over it. “My lady.”

Even Cirri looked surprised, but she squeezed Wroth’s huge paw in her hands. To think that only a few days ago, those claws had been raised against her, and I had been prepared for—dreading—the need to kill him… but I hoped he would see that it was possible to find happiness in this necessary arrangement.

Even if it took an extra lifetime—but we had all the time to wait.

He straightened, shook out his mane, and didn’t offer Kajarin a single backwards glance. But as he strode through the gates, he lifted a hand to us before dropping to all fours, racing into the freedom of the forest.

Cirri exhaled slowly.I feel for him.

“As do I.”

Kajarin’s servants packed their lady into the carriage, climbed in after her, and two human guards took up their places on the driver’s seat, cracking the reins and driving the horses out through the gate.

The Lady of the Rivers looked out the window as they passed, and blew a kiss to Cirri. “Don’t forget, darling!”

Cirri only had time to scowl at her, and then the carriage was gone, and my people were closing and barring the gates. Thankthe ancestors, it was all over, and I hoped that next year, we could simply celebrate Bloodrain by raising a glass and calling it a night.

Silence reigned in the courtyard for a long moment.

“Don’t forget what?” I asked.

She twitched irritably.The usual spew. She’s a human loyalist.

Ah. That one sentence made everything so clear. “I see.”

She tried to recruit me to the cause. Cirri snorted through her nose as she talked, shaking her head.Clearly I have other plans. But it makes me wonder how a loyalist was chosen at all. It couldn’t possibly have worked out.

“It is questionable.” I stared at the closed gates, thinking it through. Surely Auré had found at least one other candidate? Pureblooded Veladari women weren’t exactly growing on trees, but neither were they uncommonly rare. Plenty of noble families, particularly those to the west and south, had held out during the Forian War, turning their estates into fortresses, avoiding the warg attacks so common on their eastern neighbors. “And insulting, that she tried to lure my own wife away.”

Don’t be insulted. She reached up and stroked my cheek.Nothing she said could take me from you. Not even if she offered the world.

“Ahh, but what if she offered… alibrary?” I leered down at her, and Cirri rolled her eyes upwards.

Oh, well, inthatcase, I’d certainly have to hear her out. I’m absolutely mad for libraries.

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