Page 17 of The Blood Crown

Something heavy slithered over the dead leaves.

Warning prickled the back of her neck as the sound drew closer.

They hadn’t been fortunate enough to find another cave last night. The camp they’d made was against the husk of a fallen pine. The giant tree provided enough shelter that they had beenable to conceal themselves, but they wouldn’t be able to fend off an attack from this position.

Aurelia removed her dagger, scenting the air, waiting for the tell-tale stench of sulfur. But none came.

Ven had soundlessly moved to lookout into the night-drenched forest, his movements so fluid and controlled that Aurelia wondered if she would ever possess that kind of stealth.

Karro reached a hand over his shoulder, gripping the broadsword that was strapped there. Neither he nor Ven moved from their positions, the two Wraiths like pillars of stone as something passed directly in front of them.

The forest had gone eerily quiet as she, too, held her breath.

A clear, haunting note pierced the silence.

The sound had barely finished echoing through the pines before Ven dropped down to the forest floor, his hands moving furiously, pulling dried leaves and moss from the ground and stuffing it into his ears, careless now with his movements.

“What are you doing?” she hissed, but he was already kneeling in front of her.

“Trust me,” he whispered urgently. “Do not remove this—no matter what you see.”

He stuffed scratchy wads of lichen into her ears until every sound was completely muffled, turning toward the space where Karro had been only a second before—

Ven mouthed a curse before he ducked under their covering and ran out into the forest. Aurelia followed closely behind, keeping a firm grip on her dagger as Ven unsheathed his curved blade.

A glowing silvery light radiated through the trees—a large silhouette, black against the bright aura nearly fifty feet ahead of them already.

Karro.

He stumbled along the forest floor without the usual grace of his movements that betrayed the centuries of his training as a Wraith. Tripping and faltering over roots and rocks as if his feet were being pulled along by an invisible string. Like a man intoxicated and enthralled.

Ven ducked close to the ground as he followed, moving from tree to tree until Aurelia finally caught up to him.

Muffled from the moss that was crumpled in her ears, she could still hear the faint sound of a beautiful voice. Inhuman and ethereal. Impossibly pure. The song was too muted for her to understand, but the melody was lulling and soothing, something about it making her body turn to liquid.

Her vision went hazy as thoughts of the library at Ravenstone flooded her mind. Of a lazy afternoon spent in front of the fireplace, nestled in the corner of the second story. A book was open in her lap, and the chair beneath her shifted unexpectedly. Only it wasn’t a chair.

Ven’s crimson eyes glittered with mischief as he pulled her across his lap with a laughing smile. They darkened with desire as he tangled his hand in her hair and pulled her mouth to his, hungry and soft and tasting of red wine. She bit his lip and he let out a low growl of pleasure . . .

The picture dissolved, the vision dispersing as someone jostled her from the dream—or was it a memory? It felt so vivid that irritation flared through her senses at the intrusion. She gazed into the deep red eyes in front of her face.

Ven was wreathed in an aura. Bathed in gold light. So impossibly beautiful that it nearly hurt to look at him. It was like looking at the sun.

He bent down, scouring the forest floor for something, but she couldn’t understand why he was moving so quickly. They weren’t in danger here, not anymore.

He tore another layer of moss from the bottom of the pine, shoving it further into her ears until the voice was blotted out entirely.

The fog cleared from her mind, the vision shattering completely as she snapped back to the darkened forest around them.

Silvery light glowed ahead, to where Karro stumbled his way toward the river’s edge. Now that they’d gotten closer, she could make out the faint shape of a woman in the ether.

Ven crept forward into the clearing, motioning for Aurelia to stay hidden behind the tree as he made his way toward Karro. But it was too late—

Karro took a step into the icy water and a silvery hand wrapped itself around his thick, gear-clad arm.

Ven sprinted toward the river’s edge just as two more glowing female forms rose out of the water and Karro’s waist was submerged in the river. Supple curves emerged from the rippling light. Luscious hips and heavy breasts that were hidden behind glossy sheets of pale blue hair that shimmered like liquid moonlight.

Karro was strong enough to fend off their advances, but for some reason he was allowing them to drag him further into the water . . .

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