Page 129 of A Bond in Blood

I let out a breath and set my parchment back on my workstation. He was still waiting for me when I turned around. His expression behind his mask was soft.

“I decided I would like to have our meal brought to the bedroom tonight. If that is alright with you.”

“No, that is not alright with me,” I replied.

He smiled. “The red moon is especially bright tonight. I wanted the view from the bedroom windows to accompany my meal. Olen will be joining us, if that makes you feel any better.”

“Olen is as much trouble as you are.”

Ulrich’s laugh followed at my back while I passed him. “I’m very aware of that.”

We walked side-by-side, and I noticed—once again—there was no music humming throughout the palace.

“What happened to your nightly parties?”

He let out a breath. “I have grown tired of them.”

“Why?”

“Because there is something more interesting to take up my attention,” he replied bluntly.

I snapped my gaze forward, refusing to acknowledge his words. Deciding instead to continue our silent approach.

He opened the bedroom door for me when we arrived, positioning his body in an invitation for me to enter first. I hadn’t expected what I would find when I crossed the threshold.

My hand went to my chest, tears lined my eyes in awe.

The red moon was so bright, so close in the sky, it was as though it were right outside the window.

“How is this possible?” I asked.

“It happens every blood moon,” Ulrich whispered. “Before the cycle ends, and on the first day of spring that year, the moon lowers in the sky.”

“I’ve never seen this.”

“That’s because the blood moon has been in the sky as long as you’ve lived. My bedroom was carved in this exact spot to admire this phenomenon during the rare times it occurs.”

I stepped back, sitting myself on the bed wiping away the tears threatening to fall.

“I feel called to it,” I admitted.

“What?” Ulrich whispered.

“The moon. Like—” My words caught in my throat, but I cleared it. “Like it’s part of me. A force controlling my body and my destiny.”

“I thought you did not believe in Fate.”

I rolled my eyes, turning to him. “Those are two entirely different things.”

“I disagree,” he countered with a grin.

We held our challenging gazes untiltrollentered the room rolling a round table and pushing carts loaded with food. Three of them went to the plush chairs that sat by the window, dragging them to the table.

The plates and utensils clattered while Ulrich’s staff set our places, but we didn’t pull our eyes away from each other.

I was sure our gazes would melt one another in place when the hidden door slammed open and Olen sauntered into the room.

I broke first, twisting toward the beast-man.

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