Page 96 of A Vow of Blood and Tears

Your presence will be required today. Please meet me in the ballroom.

Yours, Wyn

Normally Iwouldbein agony at having to set aside the Red Epoch books for the day, but I was still glowing from Bane’s poem, and it didn’t bother me so much to leave the library.

It took me less time than I’d expected to find the ballroom, where we’d held the silly little party after our wedding vows. I couldn’t say my memories of it were fond; mostly I remembered the skeptical looks and wavering smiles.

And I expected it to be mostly empty, not draped with scarlet banners and silk hangings. Wyn stood in the middle of it all, clutching a sheaf of papers and watching the keep servants affix veils to the marble columns so that they floated down like sheer wisps of blood.

“There you are,” she said, keeping one eye on the decorations. “So. I know that humans celebrate Bloodrain, yes?”

I nodded, my brain slow to catch up. It was a holiday to celebrate the downfall of the Red Epoch, the death of ourvampire overlords and the freedom of humanity. Every year the children would knock on doors and receive pieces of red, sweet-salty candy, and a bonfire would be built up—over which an effigy of Liliach Daromir, made of meat, would be roasted and shared out to the revelers. The humans symbolically consuming vampire flesh, as they had consumed us.

Which was a little macabre, now that I thought about it from the perspective of my husband’s people.

“So do we.” Wyn turned to grin at me as I pulled my journal out. “Although for very different reasons.”

Have you ever been to a human Bloodrain celebration?I asked.

“Indeed. It was positively barbaric. Which is why you’re here—Bloodrain is next week. We host it every year, so the human nobility can gorge themselves on our food and stores of wine. It keeps them sweet and docile.”

I blinked. Where had the time gone? I had never celebrated Bloodrain with any great enthusiasm back in Argent, so it wasn’t particularly ingrained in my mental calendar, but still… it seemed to have come out of nowhere. I’d lost all track of time in my studies.

“We’re receiving guests who are coming to celebrate with us.” Wyn frowned at her notes. “Lady Auré fel Seren. A very powerful vampire, and a very good friend of the fiends. She’s been acting as an advisor and intermediary for Lord Wroth, in Owlhorn Keep, but she’s offered to carry messages and remain for the holiday. I want you by Lord Bane’s side, visible to the public at all times, while she and her retinue are in residence and the celebrations are ongoing. Your visible happiness is of utmost importance; she’s always had their ears, and her opinions carry weight with them.”

I tipped my head, wondering why that was so important—they’d shown me to the human nobility for very brief spans oftime. I’d been a figurehead then, a breathing statue fulfilling the purpose of the Blood Accords.

But the last time I’d spoken to Wyn… she’d made it clear that if things didn’t change, she would have offered to Bane to remove me for all other purposes, allowing him to find a lover of his own kind. Her aside about this Auré’s opinions felt rather pointed.

A chill crept over me as I stood there, pen poised over the journal. I didn’t want to ask the question. I didn’t want to commit that fear to paper, as though ink might make it true.

And Bane still didn’t want to fully consummate this marriage…

Wyn tipped her head, and as though she read my mind—perhaps she did, there was no telling what a bloodwitch could do—she softly said, “Yes. She was the one I had in mind, should things not proceed as desired. But, my dear Cirrien, we don’t have to worry about that now, do we?”

Her eyes lingered on the fresh new marks on my throat.

So this vampire, this Auré fel Seren, had once been considered as a lover for my husband. Did that mean he’d returned her regard? The base physical attraction?

I touched the folded poem against my heart, and forced myself to take a breath and calm my spinning thoughts.

He didn't want sex because he feared he’d hurt me. It wasn’t because he didn’t find me attractive, or was disgusted by me in some way. The Light knew his thirst, his hardness, gave the lie to that.

Maybe it was because my advances had been rejected only last night, and my feelings were still sore, but this fear found fertile soil. I hated this Auré already, sight unseen.

Let’s not act like a silly, melodramatic little girl, I told myself, caressing the poem. There was no reason yet to hate a woman I’d never met.

Bane had reasons for what he did. This vampire had nothing to do with it. I wouldn’t allow myself to behave like a jealous, angry harpy for no reason.

But sometimes I wished Wyn would lie to me, keep me in the dark, if only for my peace of mind. I didn’t need to know that this woman might have been his lover if life had taken a different path.

So… the reasons you celebrate this holiday?I wrote instead.It has a different meaning to you?

“Yes. Your kind celebrates Bloodrain to rejoice in our deaths—the rain of blood that showered upon the stones when humans rose up against their masters.” Wyn looked up as the servants began working on the next drapery. “All very well and good, the ancestors know we can’t say Liliach and her kin didn’t deserve it, but it has roots in a much deeper tradition. Humans took that tradition and warped it, as victors will do. For the rest of us, Bloodrain is not only a reflection on the folly of that era, but a celebration of Mother Blood giving us life. It is a time of gratitude for our rebirths, our very existence.”

I nodded, following her as she strode across the wide room. A team of several servants were unrolling crimson carpets; Wyn directed them via diagrams she’d drawn.

“Now,” she said, turning back to me when they’d been dispatched. “It’s a very simple holiday at heart. We’re not going to be building fires and roasting those primitive effigies to eat like savages. There will be a ball, of course, but you must know that the blood will be flowing here. Those humans who choose to slake us will be doing so openly. Can you handle that?”

---