Page 28 of The Blood Crown

“Enough,” Ven uttered.

Taking a single stride forward, he gripped the girl’s slender neck in his hand. Murmuring words under his breath so softly that Aurelia knew they were for her and no one else.

You will feel no pain, no fear. Go to your gods and leave this place behind.

With one swift motion, he bit into her throat, piercing the vein steadily pulsing there. The dazed look on the girl’s face only dulled as he took pull after pull of her blood, the light slowly dimming from her eyes.

Color drained away from her face, her body slumped to the ground as Ven finally released her.

The king stood from his seat, a satisfaction written on his face as he looked to where Ven stood between his piercing stare and Aurelia, as if it answered an unspoken question. “And here Ithought the separatists had made you soft.” His steps echoed as he made his way to the floor.

The girl’s lifeless body was dragged to the pile at the edge of the cavern, leaving twin streaks of scarlet along the stone.

The king came to a halt a breath away from her. And Aurelia flinched—gods damn her—as he lifted a pale hand and stroked icy fingertips down her cheek. “Why do you protect her from her true nature?” he asked.

“Touch her again,” Ven said with quiet menace, “and I’ll kill you where you stand.”

His father chuckled, dropping his hand. “I think you would, too.” He studied Ven now, curiosity plainly written across his features. "You compel two of my men to help her escape—yet you don't attempt to your own." He turned toward the Captain. "A pity, that Valea ruined your plans."

It was only then that Aurelia noted the distinct scent of burned flesh hanging in the air—the same smell that had lingered in her nose, her mouth, after she'd watched the First Brother die. Her eyes fell to a scrap of singed red fabric on the floor before the throne. All that remained of Ven's attempt to free her.

The king sniffed the air between them, the gesture obscene with the gleam in his eye as he turned back toward Ven with a smirk. “All this—and you haven’t claimed her?” Ven's jaw clenched, his gaze hardening as his father scoffed, “The separatistshavemade you soft.”

“If you care to find out, I’ll happily oblige,” Ven answered with grim invitation, revealing the fangs that were usually hidden.

Solari vermin,someone spat—though no one stepped forward to claim the insult. The king’s pale red eyes broke off from them to scan the room, the look in them enough of a threat that the cavern fell silent once more. Whatever power Ven’sfather possessed must have been mighty enough that it brooked no argument from the rest of his court.

The king’s gaze landed on them once more, his smile cold and calculating, sending a fresh wave of shivers down her spine. “I think we’ve all had enough entertainment for one evening,” he murmured, the guards closing in around them.

“Am I your prisoner or your rightful heir?” Ven spat, his face a mask of cold defiance.

After a moment of consideration, his father raised a white hand with an indulgent smile and the guards fell back at the silent command.

Chapter 15

Footsteps echoed after them in the darkened tunnels, a glance behind told Aurelia they were being distantly followed.

An arm pushed her back against the wall, all of the questions poised on her tongue roughly cut off as Ven pressed his body into hers.

Ven’s eyes blazed with urgency as he bent his head toward her. His skin was flushed, the dark circles that had been under his eyes disappearing as he lifted his arm to his mouth and tore into his wrist “You need to drink.”

The metal shackles still circled his wrists, his power just as useless as her own here.

The scent of him mingled in the air between them, every one of her senses focusing on the steady rhythm of his heartbeat, the sound of his blood rushing through his veins.

She swallowed thickly, a dull ache spreading through her jaw as she tried to deny herself.

“None of us can afford to be weak in this place,” he murmured, “drink.”

She ran her tongue across her canines, every nerve in her body reacting to the command in his voice as her lips parted and she sank her teeth into the smooth skin at his wrist.

The adrenaline that had kept her upright until this point finally drained out of her, leaving her gasping. Fire crept up her throat, the hunger and the exhaustion from before crashing down on her all at once as her knees threatened to give out. Ven hooked his arm around her waist, his scent filling her nose and blocking out every thought. Pine, and citrus, and something earthy, something utterlyhimthat was impossible to describe.

Her teeth seemed to grow sharper, relief crashing through her body as she drank, hating herself for how ravenous she was, but Ven never moved to step out of her grasp as she took her fill.

She hadn’t taken his blood like this since she’d gone into stasis in that dark, quiet cavern in the belly of Ravenstone. And her memories of that time were fleeting and hazy, only the torturous pain that she’d endured to be forged into this new, unbreakable thing. There was an echo of the exquisite relief that she’d felt as her power had finally flooded back into her, alloyed and welded into her very being. But now—drinking Ven’s blood from his vein was something akin to ecstasy.

Forcing herself to pull away, she gasped from the sheer effort of releasing him as heat wound through her body. His blood feeding more than just her magick.

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