“I need some air.” I gathered up my skirts. The elderly vampires were still watching us with pinched features, and more guests had stopped and were gazing back, probably tasting the tension in the air.
“Wait.” Kieran took a step toward me.
I scowled. “I’m going for a walk. I’ll return when I’m ready.”
Pivoting, I rushed away, heading not toward the reception area but the path that meandered through the forest. I needed to leave all the stares and whispered conversation behind, if only for a short time.
The forest waited ahead, cool and shadowy, holding the kind of quiet that could either soothe or swallow you whole. I welcomed both.
I tore the enchanted veil from my head and flung it to the ground, where it dissolved into mist. Quandary flapped his tiny wings to keep his balance on my shoulder as I hurried down the main path. Sasha’s raised voice and Kieran’s quieter response followed me, but I didn’t hear what they said. Didn’t look back.
I needed air. I needed space. I needed to not set the vampire king on fire in front of diplomatic witnesses.
And most of all, I needed to figure out how I was going to keep from falling for him all over again.
CHAPTER FOUR
CYRENE
Afew hours later, I sat alone in a nightwing-drawn coach, pressing my face against the cool glass as the vehicle descended through the evening mist toward Shadowborne Castle. The massive structure emerged from the fog like an ancient beast waking after a long sleep. Spires of black stone pierced the clouds, their points sharp enough to slice open the sky. Narrow windows glistened with light, too few to counter the fortress’s darkness.
This would be my home now, this forbidding place that looked like it would rather eat joy than welcome it.
Fantastic. Exactly the vibe a girl hopes for on her honeymoon.
Quandary shifted on my shoulder. He hadn’t spoken since the wedding, sensing my need for quiet.The reception had been a blur of fake smiles and awkward small talk. Kieran and I had circled each other like wary predators, never coming close enough to speak. When it was time to leave, he’d chosen to ride with the driver on top of the coach rather than share the interior with me.
So much for wanting to talk.
That stung—annoyingly so. I’d spent the journey flipping between wanting to scream at him and feeling like I was going to cry, neither of which was like me at all. I wasn’t built for this heaviness. If joy was my specialty, I was seriously underperforming tonight.
We could still make a run for it,Quandary said in my mind.I could set the coach on fire as a distraction.
Despite everything, I smiled. “And go where, sweets? Back to Grandmother who arranged this mess? I need to figure out what game Kieran’s playing.”
I don’t think he’s playing a game.
“You like him.” My companion pretty much betrayed me by purring for him. “What’s up with that, anyway?”
He’s…alright. And yes, I met him earlier. He personally delivered his reply to your grandmother, and I happened to be there. He couldn’t stay long, or you might’ve met him too. Maybe give him a chance?
“I don’t know.” How could I when he hurt me?
The coach touched down on the wide stone courtyard and came to a stop. Gardens stretched beyond the cobblestones in all directions, and everything looked too perfect, made up of neathedgerows and symmetrical plantings that screamed control issues. Everything here looked so precise it made my teeth itch.
The coach door swung open, and Kieran extended his hand to help me down. I ignored him and stepped out on my own, nearly catching the hem of my travel gown on the coach step.
Grace, thy name is not Cyrene.
His mouth tightened, but he didn’t say anything.
Quandary shifted on my shoulder, his tiny claws digging to help keep his balance. Smoke tendrils curled from his nostrils as we took in the massive castle looming over us.
“Welcome to Shadowborne.” Kieran’s voice came out stiff and distant. “The ancestral home of my family for forty-seven generations.”
“It’s certainly impressive.” It wasn’t a lie. The castle was huge in a forbidding way, a sprawling structure of dark stone that looked carved from the mountains behind it. At least four times the size of Grandmother’s manor house, dozens of towers and wings spread out around it like the wings of an enormous bat.
Bat. Vampire. I almost laughed at the thought.
