Chapter Eight
Tovi
Dark, ominous clouds seemed to have followed Tovi all the way from Drystan to the Vadon Mountains. She, Yennifer, and Lou had returned to the Drengr Village late the night before, climbing into bed and waking with the sun for morning training.
As they weaved through the main street, headed back towards the Shield-maiden, Tovi braced against the sneering stares from surrounding werewolves. Merchants stopped mid-sentence, mothers drew their children closer, and the smithy paused his hammering.
Walking through Drengr Village was like pushing through a tangled holly bush—the werewolves’ stares pricked every inch of Tovi’s exposed skin, all because she was a vampyr. But why did Tovi expect anything less?
It’s one of the reasons she’d refused Eldrick’s request. How could she remain in a place that hadn’t accepted her?
Lou caught up to Tovi’s side. “Do you think it’s wise to stay at Lucy’s tavern?”
“Where else would I stay?” Tovi asked, feigning ignorance.
“Lār,” Yennifer called over her shoulder. “As a political guest.”
Tovi ground her teeth, her muscles growing taut with the biting cold.
“I agree,” Lou said. “It’s far safer.”
She almost snorted. Eldrick resided in stone fortress to the north, and she considered staying—sleeping—beyond the same four walls as the alpha far more dangerous territory than risking a disgruntled werewolf at the Shield-maiden.
She could at least fight her way against an unfriendly foe, but the mere thought of Eldrick unraveled her resolve.
Tovi wasn’t certain she couldn’t resist him.
To the left, warriors sat huddled together on a lone wooden table, waxing their shields. The crests etched into their armor glinted various colors—evergreen, violet, midnight blue—indicating they were all from different packs. Yet, they shared the same caustic energy.
Spit landed near Tovi’s boot, jarring her to a halt. Shei stepped forward, a hiss vibrating through her chest, but Yen grabbed her wrist, halting her in place.
“It isn’t worth it,” her friend whispered.
Tovi seethed, but Yen was right. If she reacted, she gave the warriors a reason to attack.
“Let’s go,” she muttered.
Tovi, Lou, and Yennifer turned the corner, and thankfully onto a busier street brimming with activity.
Red splattered all over Tovi’s boot as she trudged through a puddle.
The crimson resembled blood, and Tovi had to blink past the haze of her vampyr hunger.
She inhaled, scenting metallics. Paint. Why in bloody hel was there red pain in the middle of the street?
Her senses were honed enough that she caught Yen’s gasp. Tovi whipped her head up and stilled.
A single, horrid word was painted across the Shield-maiden’s front. The fresh letters dripped down the doorway, the color crimson running with the grooves of the redwood trunks.
Winter wind barreled into Tovi, but the cold force was nothing compared to the numbness buzzing in her limbs. This was her doing. She’d been staying at the tavern, and her presence had brought unwanted attention.
Closer to the door, Lucy wrung her hands into her apron, moisture glistening in the usual proud and jolly tavern owner’s eyes.
“Did you get sights on who did it?” Yen asked, loose wheat curls from her braid whipping in the wind.
Lucy sighed. “No. The Shield-maiden was empty this morning, and I thought maybe the frost had kept everyone away. When I went to check the state of the sky, that’s when I found . . . this.”
Tovi set her shoulders back, fighting the rage flushing through her centuries-old being. “Lucy, I’m sorry—”
“Don’t you dare apologize for something you didn’t do.” Lucy’s tone left no room to argue. “This is someone else’s hate, not your own.”
Silence ballooned between them, tension brimming in the street air.
Hate.
Tovi swallowed, her sense of foolishness like lodged glass in her throat.
Eldrick had declared her an ally, but he was one werewolf.
Their alliance was up against a deeply woven prejudice.
Demons and caillte, vampyrs lost completely to the Blood Curse, had crossed the Void and ravaged and slaughtered innocents in Sorin for hundreds of years.
All because of the curse her father had set in motion.
Tovi held the weight of the painted word on her shoulders and her father’s mistakes.
Worse, her brother, Riven, was following in their father’s footsteps.
Which was the reason she needed the werewolves to ally with her.
To break the curse. Undo her family’s mistakes.
Yet did she really expect relations between vampyrs and werewolves to change in a matter of weeks?
“You’re not the only vampyr in the village, Tovi,” Nadia’s words ceased Tovi’s rampant thoughts.
The werewolf-vampyr emerged from an alley, lips down turning at the sight of the paint on the Shield-maiden’s front.
Tovi shook her head. “I brought this to your village.”
“No.” Nadia approached the door, running her fingers through the wet paint and rubbing it between her pale fingers. “I’m partially to blame.”
Lucy’s brows pinched, and she rested a hand on her hip. “You’re our female alpha.”
Nadia sighed, the gold in her eyes dimming. “I haven’t held that title in a long time.”
Tovi’s stomach tightened. She’d turned Nadia into a vampyr and honed her into one of the best spies in Drystan. Under the disguise of Tala, she’d had a front-row seat to Riven’s council and plans.
With the news that Nadia Drengr wasn’t dead but a vampyr, they feared she’d blown her cover as Tala, and so she’d remained in the village, home at last. Tovi’s heart had warmed at the sight of her friend returned to her mate, sons, and pack.
Yet it appeared they’d both been na?ve.
“There’s a chance it wasn’t a Drengr, seeing the other packs have remained after the council meeting,” Yennifer said.
Nadia sighed. “Whoever it was, they’ll answer to Aramis—”
“Filthy bloodsuckers, indeed,” a male voice sneered.
Behind them, three male werewolves prowled towards the Shield-maiden. Tovi assessed their weapons and clothes, noting the leader possessed Johannes green on his breastplate. Her stomach dropped as she spotted the other two’s Drengr navy cloaks layered under furs.
Though, she didn’t spy any evidence of a red paint, not a single drop. They hadn’t been the ones to write the word, but they agreed with it.
“Move along.” A male growl echoed off the buildings, and Bétar emerged from an alleyway.
Todd joined his side, the Gray Fenris weapon’s master emerging from the shadows.
Orange hair streaked with pink popped into the light next.
Linx’s catlike eyes focused on the lone wolf.
Belle was last, and the air tingled as she flexed her fingers.
The tension on the street grew tauter and tauter, like Yen’s bow string before she released it.
The Johannes werewolf’s gaze narrowed on Tovi, and she fought the instinct to bare her fangs.
Any other instance, she’d give the bastard a piece of her mind.
Let him feel her anger. But if she reacted, she gave him a reason to attack.
She couldn’t afford to escalate the tension in the village with a fight, and as much as Tovi hated it, she refused to give him the satisfaction they riled her.
The werewolves grumbled, disappointment bleeding into their expressions as they left without another word.
A collective sigh eased from Tovi and the group, and she averted her attention back to the Sheild-maiden’s door, ignoring the questioning glances sent her way.
Lou cleared her throat. “Tovi, I really think it’s best you stay at Lār. You’ll be—”
“No.” Tovi flinched at her own tone, clamping her eyes shut.
Despite the danger she faced in the Drengr Village, she feared something else more. Eldrick. Tovi didn’t trust herself around him, and she’d rather face a unit of Drengr warriors than sleep in the same building as him, battling the temptation to—
Tovi cursed and shook her head. She refused to dwell on such traitorous, wicked thoughts. She was a queen, and slipping into bed with an alpha was anything but queenlike. In fact, she was certain any sort of relationship other than allies worsened the relationship between vampyrs and werewolves.
“If I leave, it’s a sign of weakness.” She paused for a moment. This affected not only her. “But I can understand, Lucy, if you need me to.”
“I’ve made my decision about you, Tovi Verena. No number of slow days at the tavern or paint is going to change that. You’re welcome to stay here as long as you like.”
Tovi gave her a small smile. “Thank you.”
She avoided Yen and Bétar’s worried stares, objections pursing on their lips. Todd studied the paint, Belle at his side.
“What do we do next?” the weapons master asked.
Tovi removed her cloak, thrust it to the side, and rolled up her sleeves. “We start by cleaning this off.”
“Tovi, you’re the vampyr queen. Are you sure cleaning up vandalism is your job?” Lou asked, brows creased with concern.
Tovi braced against the winds tunneling through the village street. More snow lay in the air, and she tried to inhale that promise and ignore the battle warring inside her. She’d fought so long for the title of queen, yet she wasn’t sure what it meant. How to act. Who she was.
But she knew one thing. “Leaders set the precedent.”
“She’s right.”
Eldrick’s commanding tone thrummed up Tovi’s spine. She shuddered and fought the urge to run. Instead, she turned to face him. Sharp jaw. Proud shoulders. Assured walk. She blinked past it all, but there was that insatiable tug, the invisible thread that pulled them together.
“We get rid of this word as quickly as we can, and then we move forward.” Eldrick addressed everyone, and then his stare landed on Tovi and stayed. A thousand words stirred in his gem eyes, and by the way his jaw ticked, he fought them all.
For they’d not seen one another in weeks.
Tovi severed their intense connection and glared back at the painted door, but she couldn’t shake the way her body responded to Eldrick. Tovi had faced challenges, yes, but no enemy or power had thrown her off balance like Eldrick Drengr. His eyes. His touch. His words.
Stay.
Eldrick’s request after the council meeting played in the back of her mind, but it was different words in another voice that intruded on her thoughts as constantly as the chirping of the nearby songbirds.
The wolf and dove.
Opal, her brother’s wife, had whispered that line from the prophecy, and it haunted Tovi’s thoughts, following like Drystan mists.
That was why she stayed away. Run to Drystan and let the cursed cold of her homeland nip at her skin and remind her of what was truly at stake. What her people faced.
Yet, the power of fate frightened Tovi. She’d searched for answers on how to break the curse for decades. She’d believed in Evelyn and Kade, the third borns. Tovi never imagined that the prophecy included her. When she considered what the words meant, she couldn’t breathe. Couldn’t think.
Because it begged the question, what was Eldrick to her?
And why was she so afraid?
Later—
“They’re right, you know.”
Tovi snapped her attention to the alpha werewolf who’d joined her side, sour ire coating her teeth. “About?”
Eldrick leaned in close, too close, his next whisper tickling her ear. “As an ally of the Drengr Pack, you’re a formal guest staying at Lār. I’ll have servants collect your things, as well as Lou’s, from the Shield-maiden—”
“That isn’t necessary—”
“This my village, and ensuring your safety protects the rest of my pack, too.”
Eldrick didn’t give Tovi room to argue and stalked off into the tavern to retrieve cleaning supplies with Lucy, leaving her rooted to the cobblestone.
Hours later, as she scrubbed and washed paint away, Tovi tried to convince herself it didn’t matter.
Not Eldrick’s words. Not Opal’s words. Not now.
She had to focus on maintaining a relationship with the werewolves, especially with Riven’s growing power back home.
A diplomatic kind. Prove vampyrs weren’t all monsters and working together saved Sorin.
But as the paint cleared and her mind wandered, Tovi’s stomach tangled into knots.
She’d fought relentlessly for her people for centuries, to free them of this curse, to disprove the very word she tried to wipe away, but perhaps the freedom she’d battled to win for herself was slipping through her fingers.