Page 86 of Our Sins in Silver (Coven of Sin 3)

Fangs ground angrily, audible even over the tortured cries of the human prisoners. The moon had dipped lower in the sky, making it so only the Elders’ dark silhouettes were visible, with their cold eyes stabbing through the dark.

“What do you mean, ‘no?’” Elder Grigori snapped.

My heart thrashed violently in my chest. Despite that, I held my head higher. “To put it more lightly, fuck that. Take your test and shove it, you geriatric fucks. I’m not going to kill these innocent people. You seem to have forgotten that I’m mortal. When I take the throne, I will be the queen of the vampires. But that doesn’t mean that everyone gets to pretend I’m not half-human. These people deserve to be valued for more than their blood.”

Four of the Elders glared. The fifth—Sterling—smiled.

“I’ve had enough of this.” Grigori rose from his throne and, to my smug satisfaction, took a step back as I took one forward.

“I’m not done!” Deep rage, laced with the niggling anxiety in my belly, mixed to create a potent cocktail. Not a fun cocktail, even though I could really go for one of those right now. More like a Molotov.

My monster clawed at my insides, ripping apart my nerves and doing her best to shred my willpower so she might be freed. I held her back with everything I had. I’d promised Sterling. I’dpromised. As much as I wanted to see how well these assholes pulled off the headless look, now wasn’t the time to make more enemies.

There would be a time and place when I’d have the opportunity to clean up the ol’ vampire council. People this old and this evil had no right to make decisions about people’s lives.

“I also refuse to take Sterling or any of the other princes as my king. I can rule by myself, thanks. And don’t think I won’t do whatever it takes to protect them from you jerks and my evil father. They’re my mates. Mine. The throne is mine as well. Your approval, or lack thereof, doesn’t change that.”

Four of the Elders shifted uncomfortably from the shadows. The fifth—Sterling—leaned forward, so the silver light lit up his face and highlighted the pride in his eyes.

“Enough!” My heart crumpled when Grigori darted toward the mortals, and a scream froze in my throat at the flash of fangs and the spray of blood that painted some of the oil portraits mounted on the wall. There was a gurgling sound as one human dropped lifelessly to the ground, his throat ripped out.

I lunged for Grigori, but Sterling moved faster. He was behind me in a span of a blink, with his arms looped around my waist to hold me back. “Ruby. You promised me. No good will come from more bloodshed. Not today.”

I knew he was right, but it was hard to listen to reason as I watched this evil-ass sociopath moving down the line and slaughtering innocent people like livestock. As the pool of blood on the floor grew bigger with every death, the vampire council remained completely still, their eyes stained crimson in the dark.

Vincent was in my other ear, the devil on my shoulder, the counterpart to his brother’s calming nonviolent words. “Don’t worry. We’ll kill them. We’ll kill them all.”

I forced myself to pick up the pieces of what remained of my composure while waiting for the carnage to end.

When every human was on the ground, their life force bleeding around their executioner’s shiny loafers, Grigori looked up at me and smirked. He picked a piece of gore from his beard, pierced it between his grossly long fingernails and popped it into his mouth. “There. Let this be a lesson in power, Princess.”

Yeah. Big man killing helpless chained-up humans.

I sent him a baleful smile. “Don’t worry. I’m taking notes.”

Sterling stepped between the freshest name on my shit list and me in an attempt to alleviate some of the noxious tension stretching between us. “Council. Thomas Knight will return in a matter of days. We all know how the old king doesn’t like others playing with his toys. So I promise you his first order of business will be to murder his daughter. And it is her right to defend herself. I propose that whoever lives this time next week is who the throne defaults to. Show of hands, who agrees?”

Sterling, Magnus, and Servius raised their hands. The woman hesitated before raising hers—probably only because she believed there was no chance that I’d be able to go up against a three-thousand-year-old vampire and come out the survivor.

Grigori was the only one who didn’t raise his hand.

What a jerk.

“That’s four against one. It’s settled. Now I believe that adjourns our meeting—”

“It does not,” Elder dickface growled. “We still need to determine the fate of the dark fae. It’s not safe to allow him to live.”

The Elders’ attention moved from me to Vincent.

“You’re fucking insane if you think I’m the biggest problem you’ve got right now,” he growled, looking like he was having an even harder time reining in his true nature.

As always, Sterling remained as calm as a cucumber, even as he radiated a lethal eminence. “This is my brother, council. His life is not up for negotiation.”

Grigori’s expression turned withering. “In most situations, your seniority would afford you the final say, Prince Sterling. But not this time, considering the weight of Feral’s crimes.”

“Shifting in front of witnesses who have otherwise been eliminated is hardly a crime worthy of true death.”

“That is not what he’s on trial for. This is about the murder of Thomas Knight.”

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