Page 8 of The Blood Crown

The real betrayal was the realization that she hadn’t known him at all.

And it had cost her everything. Her home, her family, Asher . . .Jab. Cross. Hook.

Images flashed through her mind.

Her fists pounding against a locked door. The look on Bastien’s face when she’d realized what he’d bargained—not remorse, but guilt for being discovered . . . His vacant stare as she’d compelled him. The ferocity flashing behind Asher’s green eyes as the life flickered out of them . . .

“I ripped away someone else’s free will.” The words spilled out of her, her fists landing strike after strike as Ven’s eyes flared with understanding. “But I’d do it again—without hesitation, if it meant saving the people I love,” she confessed. Ven remained a silent target as she pushed on, needing the words to leave her body before they could poison her. “And when I found the First Brother,” she panted, her arms barking in protest as she raised them again. “I burned him to ash.”

Her fists fell at her side, balled up as she waited for a response.

Fear. Disgust. Some confirmation of what she knew to be true. That she was the monster Bastien believed her to be. Unworthy of remaining in the Capitol. Unworthy of her place at Ravenstone.

But when she finally dredged up the courage to look at Ven, his gaze was unflinching.

“Good,” he uttered, dropping his palms and turning back toward their camp without another word.

Chapter 4

The sun was still high above their heads as Ven built a fire.

Not wanting to risk the flames drawing anything’s attention, they ate their roasted squirrel in silence as the afternoon light began to fade into amber.

Karro sang a tune, his voice low and lilting as dusk crept across the forest. Hands busy with one of his black-bladed knives as he whittled curls of wood from a small branch, tossing them into the fire. Her gaze strayed to where Ven sat across the flames, arms braced on his thighs, the flickering light turning his hair indigo and scarlet, highlighting the sharp planes of his face.

Why did you leave, Aurelia.

She was a fucking coward for not telling him the truth—for not admitting the truth to herself.

Attempting to break free from her thoughts, she glanced up at Karro. “You have a voice people in the Capitol would pay good money to hear.”

Karro paused, a smile tugging at the corner of his mouth. “The halls of Ravenstone were always filled with music when Iwas a child. My father was a battle-hardened warrior, but he was a musician at heart.”

It was the first she’d heard him speak of his father; Ven’s grandsire. “What was he like?” she asked.

“A born leader,” he answered, “like my sister, like Ven.” He tilted his head toward his brother.

His nephew in truth. A fact that still surprised her. They'd been raised together, looked enough like each other that she hadn't realized until Ven told her Karro was his mother's much younger brother.

“Not you?” she pressed.

He shook his head with a half-smile. “No—never desired it.”

She studied him, turning over the admission. From everything she’d witnessed of him, he was brave, selfless. The Wraiths seemed to pay the same reverence to him as they did to Ven, so she was reluctant to believe him.

Ven’s gaze had fallen to Karro as well, some undercurrent to this conversation that she was missing. His eyes snagged on her, his wistful expression quickly falling into a smirk. “If I recall, quite a few females tumbled into your bed for a song.”

Karro smiled, eyes trained on the edge of his blade. “A few—but it never seemed to keep them for long.”

His voice was heavier with the words than she’d expected. But before she could consider it, his singing resumed.

He smothered the fire as the last dregs of sunset began to recede over the mountains, covering it with damp leaves until the flames died out entirely and not even a single glowing ember remained.

Dread pooled in Aurelia's stomach as she watched the shadows stretch throughout the forest.

“Get some rest,” Ven said quietly, standing up and helping her to her feet.

Karro gave her a nod as he took up vigil just inside the cave mouth, hidden behind the pines, but with a good vantage point of the hillside below.

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