The Blood Crown (The Blood Folk #2)

8. Chapter 8

Chapter 8

A urelia’s eyelids fluttered open.

Wiping away the cold sweat from her brow, she pressed a hand to her chest to will her heart to stop pounding. Another nightmare . . .

The forest was quiet around them, the veil of night still heavy across the Shades. The river gurgled softly in the distance, the water never far off from where they chose to make camp for the night, but there was another sound. . .

She lifted her head, glancing to where Ven lay beside her. His eyes bled through the darkness as he lifted a finger to his lips. Karro was already awake, poised at the edge of their makeshift cover, completely silent as he crept closer to the branches that veiled them from the rest of the forest.

Something heavy slithered over the dead leaves.

Warning prickled the back of her neck as the sound drew closer.

They hadn’t been fortunate enough to find another cave last night. The camp they’d made was against the husk of a fallen pine. The giant tree provided enough shelter that they had been able to conceal themselves, but they wouldn’t be able to fend off an attack from this position.

Aurelia removed her dagger, scenting the air, waiting for the tell-tale stench of sulfur. But none came.

Ven had soundlessly moved to lookout into the night-drenched forest, his movements so fluid and controlled that Aurelia wondered if she would ever possess that kind of stealth.

Karro reached a hand over his shoulder, gripping the broadsword that was strapped there. Neither he nor Ven moved from their positions, the two Wraiths like pillars of stone as something passed directly in front of them.

The forest had gone eerily quiet as she, too, held her breath.

A clear, haunting note pierced the silence.

The sound had barely finished echoing through the pines before Ven dropped down to the forest floor, his hands moving furiously, pulling dried leaves and moss from the ground and stuffing it into his ears, careless now with his movements.

“What are you doing?” she hissed, but he was already kneeling in front of her.

“Trust me,” he whispered urgently. “Do not remove this—no matter what you see.”

He stuffed scratchy wads of lichen into her ears until every sound was completely muffled, turning toward the space where Karro had been only a second before—

Ven mouthed a curse before he ducked under their covering and ran out into the forest. Aurelia followed closely behind, keeping a firm grip on her dagger as Ven unsheathed his curved blade.

A glowing silvery light radiated through the trees—a large silhouette, black against the bright aura nearly fifty feet ahead of them already.

Karro.

He stumbled along the forest floor without the usual grace of his movements that betrayed the centuries of his training as a Wraith. Tripping and faltering over roots and rocks as if his feet were being pulled along by an invisible string. Like a man intoxicated and enthralled.

Ven ducked close to the ground as he followed, moving from tree to tree until Aurelia finally caught up to him.

Muffled from the moss that was crumpled in her ears, she could still hear the faint sound of a beautiful voice. Inhuman and ethereal. Impossibly pure. The song was too muted for her to understand, but the melody was lulling and soothing, something about it making her body turn to liquid.

Her vision went hazy as thoughts of the library at Ravenstone flooded her mind. Of a lazy afternoon spent in front of the fireplace, nestled in the corner of the second story. A book was open in her lap, and the chair beneath her shifted unexpectedly. Only it wasn’t a chair.

Ven’s crimson eyes glittered with mischief as he pulled her across his lap with a laughing smile. They darkened with desire as he tangled his hand in her hair and pulled her mouth to his, hungry and soft and tasting of red wine. She bit his lip and he let out a low growl of pleasure . . .

The picture dissolved, the vision dispersing as someone jostled her from the dream—or was it a memory? It felt so vivid that irritation flared through her senses at the intrusion. She gazed into the deep red eyes in front of her face.

Ven was wreathed in an aura. Bathed in gold light. So impossibly beautiful that it nearly hurt to look at him. It was like looking at the sun.

He bent down, scouring the forest floor for something, but she couldn’t understand why he was moving so quickly. They weren’t in danger here, not anymore.

He tore another layer of moss from the bottom of the pine, shoving it further into her ears until the voice was blotted out entirely.

The fog cleared from her mind, the vision shattering completely as she snapped back to the darkened forest around them.

Silvery light glowed ahead, to where Karro stumbled his way toward the river’s edge. Now that they’d gotten closer, she could make out the faint shape of a woman in the ether.

Ven crept forward into the clearing, motioning for Aurelia to stay hidden behind the tree as he made his way toward Karro. But it was too late—

Karro took a step into the icy water and a silvery hand wrapped itself around his thick, gear-clad arm.

Ven sprinted toward the river’s edge just as two more glowing female forms rose out of the water and Karro’s waist was submerged in the river. Supple curves emerged from the rippling light. Luscious hips and heavy breasts that were hidden behind glossy sheets of pale blue hair that shimmered like liquid moonlight.

Karro was strong enough to fend off their advances, but for some reason he was allowing them to drag him further into the water . . .

The song.

Whatever creatures possessed those beautiful, ancient voices were using their song to cloud his mind. Aurelia had only fallen under their spell for a moment, but Karro was deep in their thrall, and by the time Ven reached the banks of the river, he was neck-deep in the current.

The water must have been near freezing, but nothing except the drowsy look of pleasure crossed Karro’s expression.

Ven dove into the water. The otherworldly faces of the females turned at the sound and their sensuous lips parted to reveal flashes of razor-sharp teeth.

Aurelia stuffed her fingers deeper into her ears. Whatever song those creatures were singing, she didn’t want to hear.

The three females tugged the Wraith further out into the current, but Ven reached him before they could pull him under completely, struggling to keep his head above the water. He looped an arm around Karro’s waist, trying to pull him back toward the shore—but the females were much stronger than they appeared, and Karro’s sense of self-preservation had all but evaporated.

Slender opalescent fingers wrapped around the Wraith's wrists and arms as he was finally pulled under the surface of the water.

Biting out a curse, Aurelia sprinted into the clearing, toward the river.

Ven’s dark hair was halfway across the raging current as she leapt into the water with a clumsy splash.

The sting of the cold punched the breath from her lungs, the noise distracting one of the females into releasing Karro for just a moment. His head bobbed above the surface again as he sputtered out river water with a dazed look on his face.

Now that the females had stopped singing, whatever spell they had cast over Karro seemed to be broken. He wrenched the fingers from his wrist, kicking at the chest of the female in front of him as she hissed in anger. The second female was dodging Ven’s dagger point as she snarled and fought to grasp his wrist. The third—

Aurelia spun around, treading water in search of the last female.

Cold fingers encircled her ankle as she was yanked under the surface.