Chapter 15 #2
“Got it!” Kieran announced as he strode back into the room with a book in his hand. “You really should clean your room, Roth. It’s a mess in there.”
“That was Samara’s doing and you know it,” Roth hissed, tossing the axe back onto the table. “She’s staying in your room from now on.”
Kieran winced, and I smirked, well aware of how messy my best friend was.
“What’s the book for?” I set the axe down and held my hand out to Kieran. Before he could pass me the book, Roth snatched it.
“Rynn, take your shirt off,” Roth demanded, flipping through the pages.
“Buy me a drink first,” I grumbled but got to my feet and obediently pulled my tunic off. I wasn’t wearing anything underneath, but neither Kieran nor Draven leered at me. Instead, the latter looked over the still-healing scabs on my stomach.
“How’s your movement?” Draven asked. “Feel any lingering pain or discomfort?”
“No, just tired is all.” It wasn’t a lie. Draven and Kieran had sunk a lot of magic into healing me. Another few hours, and I’d be good as new. Although a nap would be nice.
“I’ll escort you back,” he said.
“That’s not necessary,” I protested. The only Moroi more hated than Samara was Draven. He hadn’t exactly been well-liked when his mother had reigned. Most of the Velesians viewed him as everything that was wrong with the Moroi: spoiled, pompous, and just useless in general.
Draven was none of those things, but he’d played the part well.
Now he was hated because someone, likely the same person spreading rumors about me and Samara, had made it known that Draven was the son of the man who was in charge of the Seelie Fae.
That, more than anything, was why we were fairly certain it was Lucian behind the rumors.
He’d been close with Velika, Draven’s mother, and had known about Draven’s lineage.
We hadn’t kept it a secret that all Moroi had at least some Seelie blood, but only a handful of people had known who Draven’s father was.
“I think it is necessary.” He shrugged.
I looked to Kieran for help, but he just shook his head at me. “You showed up on death’s door, Rynn. Honestly, I have half a mind to keep you here until tomorrow, because we both know you’re not fully healed yet.”
“No,” I said quickly. “Bastian can’t know I left. He’s a nosy bastard and he’ll want to know what I was doing. The Alphas can’t know about any of this.”
“Then accept Draven is going with you,” Kieran replied. His tone was light and conversational, but his expression said I didn’t really have a choice in the matter. And he thought it was adorable that I thought I did.
“Fine,” I relented and glanced at Roth. “But we need to get going. Can we move this along?”
They shoved a chair into the middle of the room and pointed at it. “Sit.”
With a huff, I did as I was told.
Roth was so bossy. Samara probably loved to push their buttons. I wrinkled my nose at the table next to me, realizing my best friend had probably been fucked senseless on it, and every other piece of furniture here for that matter.
Probably more comfortable than the rocky floor of the cavern.
“Next time, we should do this in a bed.”
I swallowed. How would Ryker react when I left the Alpha pack permanently? Would he track me down all the way into Moroi territory? He always seemed to find me.
Did I want him to?
No. I mentally slapped myself. No more bad decisions.
This is where the hate fucking comes in, isn’t it? Talis asked in excitement.
Shut. It.
I don’t have a mouth to shut. But I’ll leave you to your thoughts. Sticky thoughts. Their amusement raced through my mind before they withdrew. Samara and Kieran were a bad influence on Talis.
Roth collected both axes and pulled up a chair in front of me. Then they balanced the axes across their lap before flipping the book open and setting it on my lap so it faced them. “Hold that.”
As anxious as I was to leave, I was also really curious about what Roth was doing. My eyes skimmed the page, trying to make sense of the words. It was challenging, because not only was I reading it upside down, but it was also written in Unseelie, and I’d always been better with Seelie.
Something about hiding things and recall.
A tangy scent filled the air, and I realized Roth had made a cut on their arm. They moved their bloody fingers to my chest, painting something over my heart.
I tried to hold still but couldn’t stop myself from laughing.
Roth paused and looked up at me, arching a single eyebrow in question.
“I’m just imagining what the Alphas would say if they saw this.” The laughter poured out of me a little more. “Me topless and you smearing your blood over my tits while Draven and Kieran watch.”
Roth rolled their eyes. “It’s not all over your tits, and those two probably haven’t even registered that you’re half naked.”
“True.” Kieran pulled up a chair next to Roth, reversed it, and sat down so his arms rested over the back of it. “What I want to know is how often the Alphas have seen you naked?”
I scowled at him, and Roth resumed painting their blood over my heart in careful strokes. “You do remember I’m doing all this to get away from the Alphas, right? Because they’re assholes and I hate them?”
Kieran grinned. “Doesn’t mean you can’t get some solid hate fucks in before you go. I’m sure Bastian would be willing.”
My brain stopped functioning as the memory of getting off to Bastian fucking those other travelers in the tavern collided with remembering how it felt to have Ryker pinned beneath me.
“What are you thinking about?” Draven purred in my ear, causing me to jump.
Roth swore and glared at Draven. “Knock it off, you two.” They studied what they’d done on my chest before grabbing my right hand and drawing a glyph on my palm.
Desperate to change the subject before Kieran and Draven could weasel some uncomfortable truths out of me, I asked, “So what is Samara currently up to?”
Roth gave me a look that said they knew exactly what I was doing before reaching for my left hand. “She took Alaric and Vail with her to deal with Ary and Aniela’s bullshit. They’re at House Tepes.”
Ary was the Heir of House Tepes and Aniela was the Heir of Salvatore.
They were about as opposite as you could get in terms of personality.
Ary was gorgeous in a rogue sort of way, but I was also pretty sure he was crazy.
Out of all the Heirs, he was the least interested in politics and preferred to spend as much time as possible out in the wilds with his rangers, hunting down monsters.
Aniela, on the other hand, always looked like she was on her way to a party.
She was all fancy gowns and perfectly put together makeup and hair.
That wasn’t to say she wasn’t dangerous.
I’d seen her training a few times with her rangers while visiting House Salvatore with Samara.
Aniela was incredibly skilled with daggers, preferring up-close fighting, where she could use her speed to her advantage.
Even for a Moroi, Aniela was impressively fast.
“Those two still can’t decide to fight or fuck, huh?” I chuckled.
Recently, it had been rumored that Ary’s father would be stepping down as the Head of his House, which meant Ary would be claiming the title.
I had no doubt he wasn’t happy about that.
Ary loved being the rogue Heir, but Aniela likely didn’t have to worry about becoming the Head of House Salvatore anytime soon because her cousin, who was only a few years older than her, currently ruled.
I knew enough about the Moroi to spot a political marriage brewing. The difference between this and what Samara had been forced into with House Laurent was that Aniela and Ary liked each other. They just refused to admit it.
According to Samara, when everything had been going down with her aunt, Aniela had raced off to warn Ary. She’d fought her way through the wilds entirely on her own just to get to him. Whatever had happened between them after that, no one knew, because they both refused to talk about it.
Even Kieran didn’t know.
“They’re definitely fucking.” Kieran scoffed. “But they’re also still fighting.”
“So a typical Moroi relationship then?” I smirked.
Kieran squinted at me. “I’m starting to think it’s a typical Velesian relationship too.”
Don’t you dare say anything, Tal!
You can’t preemptively yell at me.
“You’re talking to Talis, aren’t you?” Kieran grinned. “Care to share with the rest of us what you two are discussing?”
Do not! I ordered Tal while raising my left hand to punch Kieran, but Roth snatched it back and started drawing a glyph on my palm.
Kieran grinned at me, and I stuck my tongue out at him before looking at my right palm. It was hard to make out what Roth had drawn because the blood was messy and most of it had blurred together. Even though I couldn’t cast magic, I understood the concept behind it.
Moroi used their blood to draw glyphs and Furies used their shadows.
In both cases, they poured both their magic and intent into it.
The latter was the tricky part, and it was something I would never fully understand since I couldn’t do it.
Samara had described it to me as holding an idea close to your soul and focusing on it and only it while you were creating the glyph.
It meant crafting glyphs was as much an art as it was a science. Some Moroi were better at it than others. Roth was easily the best, with Samara and probably Draven closely behind them.
Maybe Roth was trying to create a spell similar to Samara’s recall?
She had a pair of daggers she could throw and then call back to her hands.
While that was useful for Sam, I didn’t see how it would help me since, when I was in my wolf form, I wasn’t carrying weapons around with me.
Roth never did anything without reason though, so I waited.