“Like you did in Bael.” Daire’s voice is carefully neutral.
“I was lost…feral…screaming into the cruel Void for the other half of my soul…”
“He’s delirious,” I point out.
“Am I, dearheart?” Suddenly, Lanlin sounds frighteningly lucid. Was he playing us all along? He reaches to trail the iron tip of his finger just in front of the cut on my chin. “May you acceptmy apologies that I failed to protect you. I swear on my fangs that I won’t tomorrow when I introduce you to the Blood Court, which will be more dangerous than anything you have yet faced.”
CHAPTER TEN
Sin Audience Chamber, Blood Kingdom
Freya
I standon the raised dais of the throne room next to Daire, anxiously shifting from foot to foot.
I scrunch up my nose at the scent of citrus blossoms, which is mixed with the sweet resin from the guttering lamps that hang on the walls.
The walls are painted inky blue with scattered stars.
Moonlight spears down from the high windows, which are set in the four sides of the pyramid shaped audience chamber.
The chamber is vast and ceremonial.
The floor is inlaid with tiles of turquoise, lapis lazuli, and gold-flecked ochre, forming patterns like a rippling sea.
Daire wraps his wing around me. I rest my head on his shoulder.
Shadow yawns, revealing her razor-sharp teeth, before settling back down on one side of the throne, while her sister guards the other.
Lanlin sprawls on the throne like he wasn’t just carried back the night before to his palace slumped over his demonic lion.
I bite my lip, barely able to look away from the Shadow Vampire King’s face.
Lanlin looks as resplendent in his glimmering night sky robes, with ribbon and jewel decorated hair, and cat-like eyes, as he did when he arrived in Bael.
The Alpha dominantly stares out over his court without moving, as if he’s carved out of stone.
His pheromones are thick and overwhelming.
But then, vampires can use their pheromones as a weapon both to allure and harm.
I mustn’t drop my defenses and forget that.
The Bloods’ beauty is also a weapon.
A trap.
Am I already caught?
“Is that bone?” I blanch, pointing at the sharp shards that branch out of the pale throne that reaches almost to the roof of the pyramid.
The armrests of the throne are shaped into lions with diamonds for eyes.
“The bones of their enemies,” Daire murmurs into my ear, pretending that he is merely nuzzling me. He’s still careful not to say anything that would give us away. Vampire hearing is enhanced. Who knows how good Lanlin’s is? “Cute, aye? Dragon wings, mainly. But also, fae…” He breaks off. “The bones of my brothers and sisters too.”
Bile rushes into my mouth.
Lanlin is sitting atop a throne of bones in a court that worships pain and blood.
