“For now,” I whispered. “Aiko said as I grow used to taking and sharing, I’ll learn to control it.”
Rilen stood with me in his arms and walked to the patient horse on the line. “You didn’t sleep with him?”
“Love, I already share a bed with three men. I would have broken all of your trusts if I had. The blood was enough.”
He helped me up on to the horse and held the reins from me for just a moment.
“He loves you, Kimber.”
I let out a long, slow breath. “I know.”
Offering the reins, he stared up at me. “And you? Do you love him?”
A small pause held in the air. I bit the inside of my lip and stared at Rilen’s handsome face and worried look. Grabbing the reins, I finally answered a moment and lifetime later.
“I could.” My hand found his cheek. “But Rilen, always remember that I chose you over him. And I always will.”
“The blood…”
“Let’s get Dorian back. Then we can fight, argue, and have make-up sex. Good deal?”
He smirked. “A very good deal, my lady mistress.”
THESTRONGHOLD STOODIN THE DISTANCE,and we waited out of firing range of any cannons, as Aiko advised.
It had taken us two long days to get from the city to this point. The void in the Chasm had been strange to pass through. Nearly a hundred strides long, it was disconcerting to feel as though I had no senses. I knew I had put it there, but the magic didn’t even allow me to penetrate it.
Aiko and I led the company through and out the other side into East S’Kir. There were dozens of vampire warriors standing on the other side, but none of them moved.
Creepy.
Even creepier because they were vampires.
Roran rode up next to Aiko. “My lord?”
“I don’t know,” he said, shaking his head in anticipation of the question. “Something has happened at the Stronghold if they are not attacking.”
Rilen looked at him. “Good something or bad something?”
Aiko pursed his lips. “When your king is insane, there’s no possible way to know that.”
I nodded. “That is the truth.”
All through our day, it seemed the vampires were lining the entire road. Thousands upon thousands.
“It’s an illusion,” Aiko stated at lunch.
As the last of our battalion passed the end of the vampire ranks, they ran ahead and reformed their lines. Over and over, league after league. Through the whole day. And when we stopped for camp that night, they surrounded us. Two deep and a constant vigil.
Savion was a bastard.
It was mid-afternoon by the time the Stronghold came into view. The vampires lined the rest of the road to the front door.
“The arch is disgusting,” I stated. “It’s bones and sinew and just… beyond anything I could ever think to do with bodies of the dead.”
“Smells too,” Aiko added. “There’s always a festering body somewhere.”
“Sounds like quite the welcome,” Roran grumbled.
