Page 72 of The Blood Crown

Something shattered behind his eyes as he looked up at her and whispered, “Please—just let me explain.”

Their breath mingled in the small space between them, the charged air enough to set fire to the stone fortress around them.Heat flared down her spine at his touch. At the feel of his large body beneath hers. She was so close to doing something stupid. So close to forgiving him . . .

He made to sit up, but she placed a single hand on his chest, trying desperately to ignore the smooth swells of muscle under her callused fingertips as he submitted, laying back against the cold stone floor.

She grasped the copper crescent hanging from the chain around his neck, warm from his bare skin as she rubbed her thumb along its stamped edge.

“All of it—or none of it,” she bit out through clenched teeth. “No more half-truths.”

Chapter 35

Ven swallowed hard, the golden column of his throat bobbing as he gave a single nod from where he was trapped beneath her.

“You’ve seen who my father is.Whathe is. Maybe there was a time when he wasn’t the monster he is now,” he said with a shake of his head, “but I only knew the ruthless male my mother fled. Weeks after we arrived at Ravenstone, I witnessed the aftermath of my father’s wrath for the first time. He left guards, servants, anyone he suspected who had helped my mother escape at the wardlines, tied to trees—facing the East . . . What they did to the humans was worse."

She recalled what he'd told her, the bloodshed at their border—but it wasn't until now that she understood his father had been responsible for all of the death. Why he was telling her this now . . . she didn't dare question the pieces of his history he was finally offering her.

“Decades later, war broke out," he continued. "I’d just been chosen as Commander by my fellow Wraiths, and we knew the brutal, bloody battles that would be ahead of us when wesided with the humans. AndIknew that eventually I'd meet my father on the battlefield." His voice rumbled through her, low, detached. As if he were telling someone else's story. "He started hunting down my mother's people along with any other half-breeds . . . leaving them for me to find."

Breath caught in her throat at the brutal words, but Ven plowed on. "It was meant to bait me. Meant to beat me down even as we were winning . . . because Iknewthat he would always leave me alive." He let out a halting breath. "I went into every battle ready to finally face him—ready to kill him.” He swallowed hard. “Until my mother confessed the burden of my blood, what would await me should I succeed.”

She stifled a shudder, hardly daring to move—to breathe as anguish filled his eyes.

“You’ve seen the crown my father wears," he uttered.

It had appeared as nothing more than twisted metal to her, but he’d spoken of the power it bestowed on his father, enough power that it kept what remained of his court submissive.

The pulse at his throat hammered. "Every heir in the Nostari’s long and bloody history has been doomed to wear it—doomed to wield its ancient, terrible magick." The look in his eyes was haunted now. "I scoured every book in Ravenstone’s library for answers to its power, searching for a way to refuse it, a way to destroy it. But the blood crown is far older than our histories. There are few records of it, but all of them are clear on one thing," he said. "Fate always finds a way to ensure it falls to its rightful heir."

A cold sweat slicked her skin, nothing to do with the chilled air whipping across the Ledge as his words sunk in.

"All magick exacts a price. And it seems the price the crown demands is the bearer’s soul—carved away over time until there is nothing left," he uttered. “And so I fought every battle as if it were my last—thinking that at least I might die a heroin my people’s eyes before that fate could befall me. I was a madman . . . suicidal."

The Black Veil of the Battlefield.There was a reason he'd earned the title and the fear it inspired, even amongst a ruthless people like the Nostari.

"And Karro,” he gave a rueful laugh, “Karro refused to leave my side, going into the worst of the fighting without a single thought.”

As he always had. As he always would, she thought.

Ven's voice grated as he said, “And then one night, we had been in the thick of fighting, lost in the haze of killing—" his eyes flared with captured rage. "And I saw her, andhim.” His voice grew heavy with the weariness of reliving a moment and being powerless to change its outcome. “You’ve seen the scar my father bears.” His finger traced the left side of his neck. “It was the price he paid for breaking his blood oath to my mother when he cut her down."

She flinched at the words. A harsh, bitter truth.

"It was then that I knew," he whispered, "there was nothing left of my father's soul. Whatever my mother once saw in him died long ago, maybe she’d only ever imagined it." His eyes darkened, sadness in their depths. "Whether it was Fate forcing their destinies together or something more, I'll never know. But I think she loved him—even until the end.”

He closed his eyes, seeming to blink away the memory. “For three hundred years I’ve held together what was left of my mother’s people—this kingdom. For three hundred years, magick waned and I was . . . alone. I never let anyone get too close, never allowed myself to see a future beyond what I already had. Karro, Nira, Seth, Embra . . .” He listed their names like a prayer. “They were more than a bastard like me deserved in this life, so I counted myself lucky and didn’t wish for more. And year after year . . . when I never felt that pull that Nira had described,it was a relief that at least I’d never burden someone else with my fate.”

His eyes raised to hers, flecks of black and gold glimmering in the crimson. “And then a whisper of magick spoke to me through the wind. Through my restless sleep and in my waking hours—for years. Until one day, I was nearly brought to my knees with the force of it . . . Power that spoke to my own.” He shook his head, as if he didn’t quite believe it himself. “I felt your magick awaken. Somethingdifferent,like myself."

Something cracked behind his expression, shattering the veneer of control. "And from the moment I saw you,” he whispered, “I wanted you beyond reason. Beyond logic and sense.” His eyes fell to her lips. “I compelled all of those people to forget me—just to have the chance to be near you."

Her thoughts drifted to that night in the Capitol, when no one else had remembered the handsome stranger she'd danced with.

"It was reckless. Thoughtless," Ven continued, "But even then, I think something in me recognized the power that burned brightly in you. Too much for others to understand—" His deep voice was rough with emotion. “But I felt like I knew you in my soul.”

She’d felt the same about him. Some pull to him that she hadn’t understood at the time. Something that transcended all rational thought.

“Then the night that Asmodeous broke through the wards, I realized I hadn't been the only one drawn to your power . . . And then I found you, half-dead in the Shades."

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