Chapter 1 #3
Lucian had been the consort of Velika, the queen Samara’s aunt had slaughtered in her quest for power.
He’d actually been working with Carmilla all along, but after her death, the cunning bastard had vanished.
Rumors were circling in the Velesian realm that cast the Moroi—and Samara in particular—in a bad light.
We were almost positive Lucian was the source because there were kernels of truth in all of them.
Twisted truth, but truth all the same.
Every time a new one surfaced, it made the already tense relations between the Moroi and Velesians worse.
“Vail and Draven were hunting for him but they found no trace of him in our realm or in the Furie realm.” She blew out a frustrated breath. “And it’s not like they’re welcome in the Velesian realm to continue their search.”
One of the first rumors to spread was that Draven was the son of the Seelie King. He hadn’t exactly been liked before, but now he was despised.
That particular rumor was unfortunately true, but all the context had been conveniently left out. Like how Draven hadn’t been given a choice in serving his father. Or that there was likely nobody else in all of Lunaria who wanted Erendriel to suffer a painful death more than his own son.
Unlike Draven, Vail had been liked by most Velesians; he and his rangers had regularly been invited onto our land to hunt down monsters, often alongside packs.
But the Alphas had forbidden him from stepping foot in the Velesian realm after he’d made the incredibly foolish decision to knock me out and steal something from me for Samara’s aunt, who he’d thought was doing the right thing at the time.
Vail could be really stupid sometimes.
I’d forgiven him, but the Alphas hadn’t, not because they specifically cared about me, but Vail had directly attacked one of their people. Between that and his mating bond to Samara, Vail was no longer welcome in the Velesian realm either.
“I haven’t heard anything that would suggest he’s in the Velesian realm, but I can dig into it more,” I offered. “Both Cade and Bastian have been traveling a lot lately, so maybe they’ve heard something.”
“Maybe,” she replied but didn’t seem all that convinced. “For now, Vail and Draven are working on other matters. Nyx has picked up the hunt. Or at least they were supposed to. They seem to have vanished from our realm.”
Shit. I looked up from my book. “Do you think they went into the Velesian realm? If Nyx gets caught—”
“I know,” Samara cut me off. “It’ll be bad. Really fucking bad.” Hesitation flashed across her face.
Great. More bad news.
“Out with it,” I demanded.
Samara let out a harsh exhale. “Cali was visiting the day Nyx went missing. According to the rangers who keep an eye on Nyx’s home, she went there after parting ways with me. The rangers didn’t see either of them leave, but when they checked the cottage later, it was empty.”
“So . . .” I let the book drop to my side with one hand and rubbed my forehead with the other.
“We suspect that our best friend, the most powerful Furie in existence, who isn’t exactly known for her emotional stability, and a young Moroi ranger, who is constantly on the verge of losing their humanity and turning Strigoi, are hunting together in a place neither are technically allowed to be? ”
“Yup,” Samara said with a pop.
“Fantastic.” I let my head fall back and stared up at the ceiling. “Anything else you want to throw at me?”
“Roth thinks there’s something on that wall.”
I raised my head back up to find Samara pointing at a blank section of the wall. It was a little strange that there wasn’t anything there, considering the rest of the walls had floor-to-ceiling shelves.
“There’s a spot like that in a room beneath the Alpha stronghold too,” I murmured. “Next to that mirror I can’t figure out.”
The mirror had become my obsession when I wasn’t working on stuff for Cade. From what we knew of the mirrors, they always came in pairs. This was the first one we’d found that didn’t work, and I desperately wanted to fix it and find out where it led.
So much of what we’d discovered over the past year had been because of these mirrors. I’d found the hidden levels we were in right now because of one.
“You mean the mirror your fancy Velesian instincts are telling you is important?” A sly smile spread across Samara’s face.
“Laugh it up, harlot.” I stuck my tongue out at her. “My instincts have gotten us out of trouble more than once.”
“True, true.” Her grin widened. “But I recall them getting us into trouble almost as often. Given how curious you are, I’d think you were a feline shifter, not a wolf.”
“Rude.” I pointed the book at her. “If I find anything neat when I fix that mirror, I’m not telling you.”
“Yes, you will,” she said confidently. “If only to rub it in my face that you were right.”
“True,” I smirked before setting the book down and flicking my gaze to the ceiling. “How’s our guest behaving?”
“Refusing to speak to me currently.” She rolled her eyes.
“Which is frustrating because despite how much knowledge is gathered in this room, we still have some very big questions with no answers. Like what the fuck happened to the Unseelie? And how did the Fae end up in Lunaria in the first place? Where did they come from? I want some damn answers, and that asshole is being all pissy about it.”
I snorted. “I mean you did trick him and then trap him in the temple.”
Sam shrugged like her getting the best of a centuries-old Fae King wasn’t a big deal.
I narrowed my eyes. “And you’ve probably been taunting him about it every time he does something to piss you off.”
“Rynn.” She gave me a serious look. “I am the leader of my people—with my mates, of course. It would be beneath me to mock a fellow ruler. Even one I disagree with.”
She stared at me for a long moment, and I held her gaze without flinching.
Samara’s lips quivered before she broke and chuckled. “I totally do. Arrogant asshole tried to force me into marrying him, plus he was a vindictive prick to Draven.”
“Well, let me know when he’s in a better mood because I’d like to try talking to him about the mirror.
” I knew he was unlikely to help me, at least directly.
But we’d learned that sometimes, if we could get Erendriel pissed off enough, he’d speak without fully thinking it through, and sometimes we’d get something useful out of it.
Or just learn a bunch of new Fae swear words.
“If you want to talk to Erendriel, have at it. Just remember to arm yourself appropriately.” Samara reached for a book from the stack we hadn’t closely read yet.
“Always.” My hand dropped to the dagger on my thigh as I glanced at one of the other tables in the room, this one piled high with weapons, or at least, what was left.
However they had been crafted, the blades worked extremely well against wraiths.
Unfortunately, there was a limited amount of them, so we’d had to carefully allocate who could carry one.
Most of them had gone to the rangers, but Samara had made sure I’d gotten one as well, and as a token of goodwill, she’d given one to each member of the Alpha pack.
We needed more.
“Roth still trying to recreate the spell?” I asked.
“Yes, but they’re juggling several things at once.
” Samara flipped through the book, her eyes quickly scanning the page, and I felt mildly envious.
I was getting better about translating Unseelie on the fly, but I wasn’t nearly as quick as Samara.
She was as close to fluent as one could be, considering we couldn’t really ask any Unseelie Fae if we were translating or pronouncing something correctly.
“As am I. That ward holding Erendriel isn’t going to last forever.
I’m trying to find a way to strengthen it, but I’m concerned if I mess with the magic too much, it’ll fail entirely. ”
“And then we’ll have a very pissed-off Seelie King on our hands,” I said wryly. “Plus all those wraiths locked in there with him.”
“Just another fun day in Lunaria,” Samara muttered.
I grunted and dropped the book onto the desk to reach for another but paused when the surface of the mirror in the corner rippled. May the moons damn it all.
Samara’s gaze rose from the page she was reading to the mirror. A subtle change overcame her features as she became less my best friend and more the central member of the Blood Sovereign.
A stunningly gorgeous man stepped out of the mirror. Just over six feet tall with broad shoulders and a tapered waist, he sauntered across the room towards me, giving Samara only a brief nod in greeting. Bright green eyes with thin vertical pupils latched on to me.
“What are you doing here, Bastian?” I frowned. “You and Cade aren’t supposed to be back until tomorrow.”
“There was a change of plans.” He stopped in front of me and extended a hand. I did my best to ignore the way his dark, golden-blond hair fell around his shoulders. Bastian knew he was stunning. I would never give him the satisfaction of admitting it out loud though. “Come along, beautiful.”
I killed the flinch before it manifested at the casual endearment.
Samara was lovely with her ridiculous curves and striking eyes.
Even Cali was beautiful in a terrifying way.
I’d never exactly been comfortable in my own skin.
It wasn’t that I hated the way I looked or anything.
I liked my body well enough. At just under six feet, I had a lean, muscular build that allowed me to run for hours and not feel a thing.
My eyes were two different colors, one a rich earthy brown and the other a deep ocean blue, which threw some people off, but I thought it just made me unique.
I was just . . . me.
The reason my pack had selected me to join the Alphas was because I’d ticked all the boxes. Right bloodline, female, and pretty . . . enough. The exact words my uncle had used when he’d made the announcement. “Rynn is pretty enough, I suppose.”