Chapter Three #3
“Did you see his wings?” Nerissa asked.
I jerked. Wings were everything to a draken. They were freedom, power, and identity.
Nerissa frowned. “Both wings had clean breaks at the joints.”
My stomach tightened and Wren flinched from her cocoon. That kind of break didn’t happen in a fall. That kind of break happened when something grabbed hold and snapped hard.
Purposefully.
“His wings were broken so he couldn’t fly,” Wren said softly.
“So he couldn’t escape,” I finished, my jaw tightening.
Kieran shot me a look.
Calm down.
I forced myself to breathe slowly. Wren was only a few steps away. She could feel everything through our bond, and I didn’t want to bring any more stress to her or the baby than we needed.
“There was one more problem. Did you notice?” Ronan asked Nerissa directly.
“He’d been drained of blood,” she answered quietly.
I whipped around as a cold silence settled between us.
“Are you sure?” I asked.
Nerissa tossed her thick hair over her shoulders. “I know blood as well as a draken.”
“Vampyres,” I said, even though the word tasted foul in my mouth.
Kieran’s face turned murderous, but he didn’t disagree.
“Possibly,” Ronan agreed. “Were there bite marks on his wings? I didn’t notice any in the obvious spots.”
“Could just mean that whoever did this knew exactly how to break a draken’s wings and bleed him,” Kieran added.
I clenched my fists. “So they caught him, broke his wings so he couldn’t escape … and drained him.”
Nerissa’s features twisted. Wren struggled to get up, but Ronan held out a hand.
“The pergainsa juice, please. Offer Nerissa some,” she said, resigned to being stuck and accepting help.
Ronan darted around the small treehouse, offering up cups.
“Something stronger, if you have it,” Nerissa told him. She rubbed her face hard with her hands. “I am a bloodwitch,” she muttered. “And this is how my son dies?”
Her grief was sharp as it cut through the humidity. Chimes and dried herbs whispered as they rustled, and a bird cawed from somewhere in the jungle.
Ronan handed Nerissa a cup of wine. Once his hands were empty, I turned to him. “How are the lykoses and vampyre lines since the Overlord fell?”
Clearly something had changed with our temporary allies since the war had ended.
Ronan sighed.
“The lykoses have kept the pact,” he said. “King Varun’s pack has honored his word. They’ve settled into the forests. Vela says they’re even helping the human kingdoms hunt rogue predators.”
“And the vampyres?” I pressed, waving away his offered goblet of juice.
Ronan’s expression turned thoughtful. “They’re scattered. No central leadership anymore. Small bands. Farms emptied along the coasts. People disappearing.”
Exactly the kind of chaos predators thrived in.
“When the Overlord fell, everything changed,” Ronan said quietly. “The lykoses withdrew as promised. The vampyres fractured. Some fled inland. Some took to rivers. Others … might have … returned to old habits.”
Wonderful. We had predators without a master, desperate and dangerous.
Wren sighed as she downed her juice.
“More, love?” Ronan asked.
She nodded and held out her cup.
“We’re not facing armies,” Kieran said. “Just predators.”
“Predators with nothing to lose from what it sounds like,” Nerissa added.
I scowled. “Why haven’t the human kingdoms reported this to us?”
No one answered.
Kieran spoke carefully. “Hunting them openly could provoke retaliation. Better to send scouts. Trackers.”
Ronan nodded. “Small groups. Quiet ones.”
Nerissa barked a bitter laugh. “You want to negotiate with the creatures who killed my son?”
Her grief burned like wildfire. I understood that kind of anger, but strategy had to come first. Two problems appeared at once: rogue vampyres, and an entirely new enclave of drakens.
Which did we face first?
Nerissa began to pace, working herself up into a fury. Her skin flushed red as bloodmagick flared across it. “I am going nowhere until those bloodsuckers are at my feet. I will find the truth.”
Ronan handed Wren her second cup, wiping his hands.
Nerissa studied me carefully. “Do you intend to force my family to come here and be your subjects?”
My head tilted to the side. “I—”
“That they’d kneel to a stranger king?”
“That isn’t what I want,” I said calmly.
“If anything, we would ask for volunteers. From both islands,” Wren butt in from her cache of cushions.
I caught onto what she was saying immediately.
“Exchanges,” I continued. “Strengthen both bloodlines. Mates where they wish them.”
Nerissa studied me for a long moment before nodding once. “Fine.”
She flopped down next to Wren and snapped her fingers at Ronan for more wine. Wren shot us a bright, unapologetic smile.
I shook my head. Females formed alliances faster than storms formed clouds.
“Other drakens. Other females,” Kieran mumbled, not yet believing it.
“I’ll believe it when I see it,” I muttered.
The world had shifted beyond the horizon, and I was no longer certain how large that world truly was.
I only cared about getting through the coming storm with my family and my people intact.