Page 6 of The Blood Crown

She whirled to face him fully. The early morning light gilded him; a flawless, beautiful creature beside her. His nostrils flared slightly at the prospect of a battle, but his mouth remained a thin line, the muscles at his jaw working.

“You were supposed to protect Lanthius while he sealed the wards, and then fuckingleave,” she spat venomously, standing to her full height and trying to hide the wince at the sharp pain in her calf. “Thatwas your end of the bargain.”

Ven shook his head with a humorless rumble that sounded more growl than laughter. He tilted his chin slightly to meet her eyes, his forearm still resting on his thigh where he sat on the bank, allowing her the small courtesy of towering over him for a moment.

Something like desperation tinged his voice as he pressed her again, “What happened, Aurelia?”

The words were spoken so softly, so gently, that the anger leaked out of her like spilled wine. Her breath ragged as she saw the emotion that darkened his eyes.

Images flashed through her mind. The same ones that replayed over and over again.

Asher’s green eyes staring lifelessly up at her. The look on Bastien’s face when she’d shown him a small glimmer of hermagick.I can fix you.The First Brother wreathed in flames as she'd watched him die . . .

She was a monster. And what was worse—

She didn’t regret a moment of it.

Silence stretched between them, the rush of the rapids near deafening.

“I realized—I don’t belong there anymore,” she finally answered. Because the truth was; she was much too dangerous to exist in her old life.

Her fingernails bit into her palms where her fists were balled tightly at her sides, bracing for an argument about who should have stayed, who should have left. About all the things that should have gone differently and everything they were powerless to change.

But instead, Ven silently shucked off his jacket, the black shadowskin peeling away from his body and daring her to look. He lifted the heavy silver chain over his head, tucking it away. And when the shirt underneath peeled off, too, she still didn’t take her eyes from his. A silent competition now, and she’d be damned if she lost.

When his jeweled dagger appeared in his hand, she focused on the tight line of his mouth, swallowing hard as he gripped the shirt tightly, his knuckles turning pale. With a flick of his wrist, he sliced through the cloth, his gaze never straying from her face.

He knelt in front of her, the action sending a lick of fire down her spine. The muscles rippled across his shoulders as his warm, callused hands gripped her calf and her eyes dropped to the black ink etched into his skin. The language tattooed down his spine that she knew to be the Wraith’s prayer to their goddess. The dashes that spiraled down his arm, marking every enemy slain.

Then he wrapped the wide strip of cloth around her injury with such tenderness that it threatened to extinguish the fury that he’d coaxed from her mere moments before.

“Why did you stay?” she asked, her voice barely above a whisper.

“I just—couldn’t go,” he answered, tying off the strip of cloth. “And Karro refused to leave me,” he added.

A stubborn grunt in response came from behind her, and Karro emerged from wherever he’d been hiding, mumbling something under this breath that sounded a lot like,suicidal bastard,as he clapped her on the shoulder affectionately. “Glad he did, too.”

Chapter 3

The surface of the Kesh glittered like liquid crystal in the fading winter light as they followed its meandering curves.

Karro’s baritone rumbled over the burble of the river as he hummed a tune beside Aurelia, his voice surprisingly pleasant.

She glanced to where Ven walked ahead, his broad shoulders cutting a path through the pines. Her eyes trailed down his spine, quickly landing on a nearby tree as he glanced over his shoulder.

Karro’s humming ceased as he glanced between the two of them, raising a dark brow.

“A cave, further up,” Ven threw over his shoulder, jerking his chin toward the steep climb ahead of them, and Aurelia was grateful for the distraction as they plowed ahead in silence.

They’d barely spoken a word to each other since he’d bandaged up her leg, but the things she wanted to say to him—needed to say . . . they were still too delicate, too fragile to speak aloud.

The gaping mouth of the cavern was mostly hidden by shrubs and pines, curving away as Karro’s broad back disappeared intodarkness. He emerged a few moments later, ducking under the rock. “Looks like some animal had its den here at one point, but it’s not been back for some time. Months, if I had to guess, but the scent should keep away any other predators.”

Glancing between the two large males in front of her, dark blades gleaming from where they were strapped across their chests, their arms, their hips. She let out a small huff of breath at the thought that either of them were concerned withotherpredators.

“It’s a good enough place,” Ven said. “Dusk isn’t far off. We’ll make a fire, fill our bellies for the night, and stay hidden.”

“I’ll find some kindling,” Karro replied, brushing off his shadowskin as he turned away toward the pines.

---