Chapter 16 August #2
After dinner, the castle stirred again. Distant music filtered through the halls, laughter drifting from the great room.
Halston met us as soon as we stepped inside the great room, stepping a little too close. “What have you done?”
I could smell the human blood on him and I pinched the bridge of my nose to stop my eyes from turning red. I needed to feed soon. Desperately. The scraps of animal blood weren’t enough.
Not when the one I craved was standing right next to me.
“We had dinner if that’s what you’re asking.”
He scoffed. “No—I am talking about your visit to town.”
Now I understood why he wasn’t in the dining hall. He was upset and wanted an audience. I shrugged my shoulders. “Oh, that.”
“You.” He pointed a finger at Winnie, his face flushed with fury. “Have you found a way to spell him into obedience? Just know that Carrow will not be happy with this when he returns.”
Who the fuck did he think he was talking to her like that? I considered ripping that finger off of his hand so he could never point at her like that again. But instead I kept my composure, adjusting my coat and trying to look as unbothered as possible.
Winnie wasn’t as good at hiding her emotions. Her hand flinched like she was considering grabbing him.
I think I’d let her.
But I didn’t know if that was the smartest thing to do right now. We had enough eyes on us as it was. Me bringing a witch home wasn’t normal and I could smell the suspicion on some of the vampires.
Halston was one of them.
“Careful, Halston,” I said smoothly. “You’re speaking to your queen.”
He turned to me, disbelief etched across his face. “You made a decree legalizing witches! In front of the humans. In front of the Legion. Are you trying to disobey Carrow?”
Oh yeah, the decree wasn’t helping either.
“Did you really expect me to go down easy?” I asked as I stepped closer. “You know me better than that.”
He’d been at my birth. Been around me when I disobeyed Carrow constantly. I had run through the halls and destroyed everything in my path even as a child, only caring for my mother. Is he truly so dim that he thought I would let this be an easy transition?
I planned on stopping Carrow, but if I couldn’t, I was going to mess up everything that he had done before he came back.
His mouth opened, then closed. He looked at Winnie again, as if trying to decide whether she was the source of the madness or simply the match that lit it.
A crowd had begun to form.
I started to speak, but Winnie’s smile stopped me. She stepped closer to Halston and lifted her chin. Halston tensed. I held my breath.
“I don’t need a spell to make him obey.”
Her eyes flicked toward me, something sharp and amused passing through them.
Halston scoffed. “You’re throwing centuries of order into chaos. Carrow—”
“Carrow is not here. I am. And I will not be asking your permission to rule Joveryn.”
Halston’s jaw tensed. “You’re playing with fire.”
“Good,” I said coldly. “I’ve always liked fire.”
I felt Winnie’s heart rate spike.
For a moment, no one spoke. The silence echoed off the walls like a warning.
Halston bowed, stiff and reluctant. “As you wish, Your Grace.”
But as he bent forward, his eyes shifted to the guards standing at the entrance. He wasn’t bowing in deference. He was checking. Calculating. Gauging whether any of them might stand with him if he made a move.
He was testing the boundaries. Testing me.
So I crossed the distance between us in the blink of an eye and my hand closed around his throat, lifting him an inch off the ground. The guards tensed, but didn’t move.
“Are you looking for a fight, Halston?” I hissed through clenched teeth. “Is that what you want? You think they’ll side with you?”
His eyes bulged slightly as he clawed at my wrist. I leaned in, close enough that he could see the red bleeding into my gaze. “They’re not stupid enough to forget what I can do.”
I let go abruptly, and he crumpled forward, coughing, humiliated.
“Now,” I said, voice like ice, “let’s try that again.”
He looked up at me, confusion flickering across his face.
I tilted my head, smiling coldly. “As you wish, Your Grace,” I mocked, every syllable dripping with venom.
He stood, slower this time, one hand still rubbing his throat. He didn’t meet my eyes. He bowed, deep and stiff, gaze locked on the ground. “As you wish, Your Grace.”
He turned and disappeared into the crowd, but I felt no satisfaction in watching him go.
Because Carrow would return if we didn’t find a way to stop him.
We sat on the dais. Winnie kept her gaze fixed firmly on the dance floor, but I couldn’t look anywhere else. My eyes stayed on her, tracing every subtle movement.
She wore black tonight. Not just any black—something sheer and glimmering, a shadow stitched from sin and silk.
It clung to her waist and dipped low along her back, the fabric whispering against her thighs with every step she took like it was just as desperate to touch her as I was.
Slits ran up both legs, high enough to make my breath catch, and the sleeves—if they could be called that—were little more than threads of beaded lace hanging off her arms.
It was dangerous letting her wear it now. Dangerous to let her sit beside me like that, eyes glinting with amusement, knowing exactly what she did to me.
And gods, her smell was stronger now than ever.
The scent curled around me. It was enough to make my restraint falter. I could hear her pulse in my skull, feel it echo through my limbs.
I curled my fingers around the throne’s armrest hard enough to crack it.
I closed my eyes, trying to breathe through it. To remember who I was and what she was and how dangerously close those two things had become.
But when I opened them again—I was no longer in my seat.
I was kneeling in front of her.
I didn’t remember moving.
I was so close I could see the flutter of her pulse beneath her skin.
My mouth hovered just inches from her thigh, parted and hungry, drawn to the warmth of her blood like it was the only thing left that mattered.
My body leaned toward hers instinctively, helplessly, every muscle coiled with the need to taste.
The scent of her, the heat of her, it overwhelmed every rational part of me.
And still, I didn’t move. Not yet.
Her skin glowed in the candlelight, flawless and tempting, and I imagined how it would look marred by my teeth. How she would sound if I sank them in. Pleasure or pain—did it matter?
It was the sound of her voice that snapped me back.
“Don’t you dare.”