Page 184 of The Princess and Her Grand King

The once-immaculate bed was soaked in blood. The trails marked every corner of the room…everywhere he’d dragged her, taken her, ravaged her.

Their intrusion made the beast pause in his feeding, head whipping around, bloody fangs bared with menace.

But as the act of drinking ceased, the last of its strength abandoned him, and the beast collapsed onto the floor beside the motionless woman.

Emeriel hadn’t moved, since they entered. Not a stir.

“Ukrae,” Ottai cried sorrowfully, staring at her.

Vladya tried not to look.

Avoiding the broken figure curled on the floor, he stared at the beast now satisfied and slumbering peacefully.

“Now is our chance,” he murmured, his voice hoarse. “We have to move him.”

Dragging his eyes away from the girl, Ottai glanced at the unconscious beast. “What do we do with him?”

“He’s still in beast form,” Vladya replied grimly. “And we don’t know when—orif—whatever’s happening to him will fade. We’re taking him to the Forbidden Chambers.”

Ottai nodded, his face pale.

The two of them shifted into their beast forms and carried Daemon out of the blood-soaked room into the dark corridors of Blackstone.

The fortress was eerily silent. Hallways stretched ahead, empty of life. No servants moved about, no slaves loitered. Only the soldiers remained at their posts, still like statues.

As though the entire citadel was inmourning.

Maybe they were.

It was that night two years ago, all over again, when the court reached the decision to kill Feral Daemonikai.

The journey to the Forbidden Chambers of Frostfall was long. When they finally arrived, they sealed the beast inside, shutting the massive oak doors and metal gates behind them.

They dismissed the lone guard stationed there and returned to Blackstone, heading straight back to Aekeira’s bedchamber where it all happened.

Emeriel still lay exactly as they had left her.

She hadn’t moved from the fetal position she’d curled into, her face hidden beneath a cascade of tangled hair.

“I will take her,” Vladya told Ottai who nodded, pained, remaining in the doorway.

Bending low, Vladya lifted Emeriel into his arms. She felt so light, so small, stirring his alpha instinct within him.Protect.

Too late.

Trying not to notice her bruises, he kept his gaze ahead, cradling her broken body like glass.

Vladya carried her from the chamber out to the hallway, bringing her to one of the master chambers in Blackstone.

Livia stood waiting inside with a few human slaves and Urekai maids. Her face was composed, but those swollen, red-rimmed eyes betrayed how much she had cried.

When Vladya entered, a young human girl began to sob openly at the sight of Emeriel.

“Amie, now is not the time to cry,” Livia said sternly, though her own voice trembled. “Get the herb bag—quick!”

The girl scrambled to obey.

“Yella,” Livia continued, “start preparing the potions.”

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