Page 88 of The Blood Crown

Like my father.

Seth shifted slightly, his voice its usual low timbre. “For our kingdom to stand a chance against the Dark King—you may not have a choice.”

It was one thing for Karro to relinquish his claim to the throne, quite another for the Blood Folk to accept it.

Ven was not deaf to the rumblings. He’d been the Commander of the elite warriors protecting the Blood Kingdom for long enough to know every threat—both within and outside of Ravenstone’s black walls. Those left of the older generations believed Karro should have ascended the throne and taken his sister’s crown immediately following her death. The fact that Ven’s own father had wielded the blade only bolstered their opinions.

The cries for Karro to take the throne had dwindled to murmurings in the centuries since—mostly because of his repeated and vocal refusal of the title. But there were still some of the oldest families that longed for the kingdom they once possessed—as did Ven.

The noble houses lost their sons, their daughters, their claimed. The glorious days of the Blood Kingdom had been shattered, and immortal memory was long and bitter with loss.

But this was the dawn of a new era, a new kingdom reborn from the ashes of the old.

And birth was a bloody thing.

Chapter 44

When Aurelia finally looked up from the book in her lap, night had fallen beyond the towering windows of the library.

Stretching her arms above her head, her stomach gave a small groan. How many hours had passed since she’d eaten anything?

Leaving the stack of books on the table, she made her way down the spiral staircase, seeking out the kitchens. Passing the long row of desks on the first floor, Seth glanced up from his usual seat, his eyes meeting hers briefly as he offered her a small nod of acknowledgment.

Ven had told her of his gift, but it wasn’t until they’d returned that she seemed to notice the darkness etched into his lineless face.

What was it like to have some small glimpse into the future?

Did his visions come to him in symbols that he had to decipher? Or depictions that played out in his mind exactly as they did in reality? Did they alter with his actions or was he a passive bystander to their inevitable conclusion?

If he had the choice, would he rid himself of it?

Curiosity made her search his face for some answer to the questions that she didn’t have the nerve to ask, but the male hid his emotions even better than his power.

Someone grunted as she ran straight into the solid back blocking her path, completely lost in her own thoughts.

An apology was on her tongue as her eyes lifted to the familiar set of broad shoulders, further up to the tousled copper hair.

“Asher—” she started, “what are you doing here?”

Her brother had the same stricken look across his face as when their mother had caught him emptying one of Galina’s digestive tonics into Brother Bald’s cup of tea.

Asher scanned the library, as if searching for the answer to her question and coming up short. “I—read,” he replied indignantly, his fair skin turning shadeberry red.

He’d easily been the least studious of the three siblings, always preferring to be outside or tagging along on patrols atop the gate. How many times had he gotten scolded for neglecting his lessons—their mother dragging him by the ear when she would find him training in the pit with Bastien instead of practicing his sums.

“Sure,” she said slowly, not quite certain when her brother had decided he enjoyed reading as a pastime, or libraries, for that matter; she’d never seen him sit still long enough.

His green eyes snagged on something behind them, and Aurelia turned to see what had commanded his attention so thoroughly that he seemed to have forgotten her completely.

Not something.

Someone.

Across the room, an Allokin librarian balanced a stack of thick tomes in her arms. A particularly irreplaceable looking volume slipped from her grey hands, the book seeming tofall in slow motion as a bronze hand whipped out with such preternatural grace that Aurelia flinched from where she stood.

Seth handed the book back with a polite smile, dark head bent over his reading once more.

Her gaze flicked back to where Asher stood beside her, realization dawning.

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