Page 19 of Heir of Blood and Moonlight

My blush burned hotter at his confirmation that he could scent my arousal.

“Notjustwith him,” Bastian said. “A queen requires a harem to maintain her power. One immortal isn’t enough.”

“Aharem?” I repeated, twisting in my seat to gape at Bastian.

A wicked smile twisted Bastian’s lips. “You like that idea, don’t you, Soph,” he said, leaning forward until his mouth was a few inches from mine. “I can see it in your eyes. You’re imagining what it would be like to have seven immortals at your beck and call, waiting to fulfill your every desire.”

“Seven?” I whispered, again thinking back to the dream. “Is it always seven?”

Bastian’s amusement faded as he searched my eyes. “Why?”

“I had a dream,” I said, too stunned to hold back the truth. “About seven immortals.”

“When?” Gavin asked, luring my attention back to him. “The other night, after you tasted my blood?”

I gulped and nodded. “Why does that matter?”

“Prophecyis another of a queen’s powers,” he explained. “Was I there, in this dream?”

My cheeks were on fire, but I nodded shakily. “And . . .” I glanced at Bastian.

His eyes widened as understanding dawned. He smirked and settled back in his seat, looking utterly pleased with himself and not doing a damn thing to hide how my revelation of his apparent destiny to join myharemaffected him. He was hard as a rock.

“A shifter as a queen’s consort,” Gavin murmured. “That hasn’t happened for centuries.”

“For nearly two millennia,” Bastian corrected. “Not since the curse.”

I didn’t know what they were talking about, and I was growing more confused by the second. “Damn you, Javier,” I grumbled,facing forward once more and crossing my arms over my chest. He should have explained more of our world to me, rather than keeping me in the dark. I silently fumed as I stared out at the towering buildings of downtown Seattle.

“What did you just say?” Gavin asked after a long moment of silence, his voice low and controlled.

“What?” I glanced at him, then shook my head dismissively. “It was nothing.”

“Javier,” Gavin said. “You said his name. Do you know him? Do you know where he is?”

I shook my head. “He raised me after . . .” I blinked several times, annoyed by the sudden sting of tears. Javier had raised me after the House of the Sun revolted and slaughtered all the vampire queens, my mother and sister among them. “But he’s gone now.”

“TheJavier?” Bastian said. “The vamp slated to be the Prime Consort to the next High Queen?”

But Gavin overrode Bastian’s questions with another. “What is your true name, Sophie?”

I sighed, sensing it was finally time to let go of my closest-held secret. I wasn’t just some random living vampire who somehow fell through the cracks. I was the only living daughter of High Queen Diana, making me the rightful heir to the throne of the House of the Moon.

“My name is Luna Sofia Teresi Athanasiou,” I finally admitted aloud. My voice was quiet, but it was as though those hushed words carried with them the weight of the world, and once I had spoken them aloud, I felt a million pounds lighter.

Until the silence within the car became suffocating.

It was Gavin who finally broke the silence. “Did you know?” he said, his voice razor sharp and carefully controlled. I glanced at him, about to ask him what he meant, but he was staring at Bastian in the rearview mirror. The question hadn’t been for me.

“Did I know we’d found the last heir to the throne of the High Queen of the House of the Moon?” Bastian said, releasing a humorless laugh. “No, we didn’t fucking know. We just thought she was one of the lesser vamp queens who escaped.”

Gavin guided the car into an underground parking garage and pulled into a stall near the entrance, then shut off the engine.

I looked out the windshield, staring hard at the concrete wall in front of the car. I could feel both Gavin’s and Bastian’s weighty stares.

Again, it was Gavin who shattered the increasingly tense silence. “Luna—”

“Sophie,” I corrected. “I haven’t used my birth name since Javier . . . well, for decades. It’s not who I am anymore.”

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