I throw my arms out wide, looking at them. The deep groove of the muscles I’d trained all my life to build have softened some, it can’t be denied. “I’m already thick.Toothick, probably.”
“Never thick enough,” he replies with a mischievous wink.
While I blush like a child, he leads me around the manor toward the stables. I’m letting him take the proverbial reins because I don’t want to make decisions tonight. At least not now. I’m fine following the dhampir’s footsteps for a while, listening to him jest about life as a half-blood.
“Master says he needed to shore up allies for the cause, in preparation for your illustrious meeting.”
“Illustrious meeting?” I scoff. “You mean the one that’s a farce, with Overlord Barnabac?”
He dips his chin severely. “Just so, my lady.”
We stop at the stables, watching the stalls where horses whinny and rustle. A half-blood stableman marches out of the barn toward us.
“So I guess we have the evening to ourselves,” I say.
“I was hoping you wouldn’t be too heartbroken over Master Skar’s absence.”
“Are you fooling, Garro? I canalwaysuse some time away from that possessive, overwhelming man. It’s the only thing that keeps me sane.”
“Only thing that keeps you off his cock, too.Distance.”
He laughs and I flush with warmth. I open my mouth to retort, but then the stableman is there and I bite my words off, annoyed but also tingly.He knows me too well.
Garroway speaks to the groom and the man wanders off to gather two horses from the stalls. He attaches the bridles, draws them out by the reins, and moves to strap them to the carriage cart off to the side of the barn. A minute later, the carriage is ready.
“Where are we off to this brisk evening, lass?” Garro asks. He steps onto the bench of the carriage and holds his hand out to help me up.
Looks like I have to make the decisions after all.I join him and sit back, letting him handle the reins of both horses. “Military Ward, cub. I’d like to see how the Chained Sisters’ newest member is doing.”
“They are treating me well,” Sister Cyprilis tells me as we meander through the garden and flat prairie near the Chained Sisters’ abode.
The dainty vampiress still looks frail, but there’s a new determination in her lackluster red eyes. She’s not been here long, yet I can tell her resilience and endurance for pain is high.
Despite looking like a girl barely into adulthood, Cyprilis understands the world far better than most. Likely better than me, after being forced to birth three whelps that she can no longer see for fear of killing them with her vampiric whims.
It’s a tragic situation to be in, and I’ll never stop feeling awful about it, as if it’s all somehow my fault.
Cyprilis reads my face as I walk alongside her, smiling coyly. “Your mother is a taskmistress, but I think it’s for the best. Iron Sister Keffa is kind—surprisingly adept at handling vampires, though I am one of few in the sisterhood. She provided me blood just this evening. I didn’t ask where she procured it.”
I let out a small laugh. “I’m glad to hear you’re getting along well with them, Cy. And the other Sisters? Do you find them agreeable?”
Her bony shoulders rise. “As agreeable as one can imagine. The younglings give me wary glances whenever I walk into the main room. They mostly have questions for me: What’s it likebeing a vampiress? Do I feel strong and mighty, or evil and wicked? Those sorts of things.”
Cyprilis wears the clean gray robes of her sect well. She’s bathed, too, no longer stinking of the streets. A lot has changed quickly—her uplifted mood and demeanor being the most obvious signs.
We stop at the trickling creek, and I glance over my shoulder to see Garroway keeping a respectful distance. He scans the surrounding hills and roads in the distance for any signs of trouble.
Like Vallan, who used to escort me when I’d talk to myself. The roots of my fabricated friend, Jinneth.I still miss Jin’s twanging voice in my head, and think of her near daily, especially when I walk the routes that colored my tall tale to Kleora.How I wish she was real and not just the voice of a mad-touched, broken woman.
We stop at the creek and stare down at our reflections in the water. I’m unnerved when I blink and realize it’s only my reflection I see. My head snaps to my right, a gasp on my lips as I briefly wonder if I’ve gone truly mad and Cyprilis is a figment of my imagination in the same way Jinneth was.
“Everything quite all right, Sephania?”
I breathe out heavily.Right. Vampires and their reflections—or lack thereof.Skar told me once that a vampirecouldshow their reflection if they had strong enough blood to force the image. It took control to do, and a vampire’s natural state showed no reflection in mirrored surfaces.
“They say it’s because of our tarnished souls, our evil, corrupted ways blinding us to reflections of light,” Skar had said at the time, scoffing. “I think it’s horseshit, and I’m not afraid to admit we have no fucking idea why we don’t show in mirrors. Perhaps if we had a Knowledge Ward in this damnable city still, we might learn why.”
I had rolled my eyes, smiling at Skar’s outburst. He never shied away from criticizing his home of so many decades. And, even more, of chastising his own people.
