Page 79 of The Blood Crown

Desperate to change the subject, she asked, “Have you heard any more about Valea?”

His half-sister no longer seemed on the brink of death, thanks to Embra’s healing magick and a steady dose of Karro’s blood.

“Recovering well, so Embra tells me," Ven answered, his tone guarded.

“Do you think the Wraiths will accept her? Allow her to stay?”

Ven leaned back in his chair, lean legs stretched out before the softly crackling fire. “They’ll tolerate her presence so long asI tell them to . . .” He took another sip of the wine in his glass, his expression turning thoughtful. “Whether they accept her or not is up toher.”

“You don’t trust her,” Aurelia hedged.

They shared blood—but they might as well have been strangers. She was still the daughter of an enemy kingdom.

“I trust her actions,” he replied. “And so far—those have been self-serving . . . Only time will tell where her loyalties truly lie.” He swirled the wine in his glass, just wine tonight. Not Red.

The taste of Ven’s blood was still fresh in her memory, but she didn’t take the availability of the synthetic blood the Allokin developed for granted. Especially now.

A small smile tugged at her mouth at the thought of Valea trying Red for the first time. She could only imagine the look of horror on the female’s sharp features at the thought of synthetic blood. Although if Valea had the nerve to ask, she didn’t doubt Karro would continue giving it willingly.

Did she have any memory of the hours he sat at her bedside? The deep purple smudged under his eyes from the sleepless nights? The melodies he hummed to her when he thought no one else was listening?

Giving blood was intimate—a vulnerability, but Karro hadn’t hesitated for a second to offer it to speed Valea’s recovery.

Whatever one-sided attachment had formed between them was so obvious to her that Aurelia wondered if everyone else saw it, too.

Thatwas something that didn’t feel safe to bring up just yet.

If Ven had noticed the way those two circled each other, sized each other up—he didn’t let on.

At first, Aurelia had suspected it was the excitement of a worthy opponent—Valea was one of the few people they’d come across who could hold her own against Karro . . . and then itseemed as though he simply enjoyed the challenge. The female all but hissed at him whenever he spoke to her.

The image of Maloch’s heavy blade slashing through the air ripped through Aurelia’s thoughts. Valea’s bloodied body at his feet.

She’d thrown herself in front of him—and there had been nothing self-serving in that . . .

And the look of anguish that had twisted Karro’s features as he’d laid her at Embra’s feet, begging—beggingfor Embra to heal her . . . She couldn’t quite make sense of it.

If Ven spent any time wondering about it, he didn’t say. Or he’d rather not think about it at all. Valea was his sister, after all.Half-sister. But Karro was nearly a brother to him.

It definitely wasn’t something she would have cared to think about if she’d found herself in the same position.

“And your brother—are you satisfied that he is safe and well?” Ven quietly asked.

She considered the question for a moment.

It was strange to find a piece of her old life fitting into her new one. But now . . .

Asher was here. With her. Withthem.

When she’d seen him again for the first time, his eyes had been lit up in laughter—his mouth split wide in unfettered joy, nearly making her feel like an outsider in this place that she had come to call home.

But maybe he could call it home as well.

What came after was something she hadn’t had the time or the energy to consider. She was so overwhelmed with the mere fact that he washere—alive—that nothing else really mattered at this moment.

“Yes,” she finally answered, her words closer to a sigh of relief as she sank back into the chair.

“Good,” Ven answered, snapping his fingers.

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