She nods at me, eyes brightening at my comforting words. “Good—you’d better. Now eat your food. You’re going to need energy for later tonight.” Grace winks and shoves a roll in my face, and I chomp at it, wondering how I ever got so damn lucky in this life.
CHAPTER 3
VEYA
Present Day
WHAT DO YOU MEAN, you don’tknow?” Second glowers, the torches at the entryway of Prosperity Castle flickering over his face.
The royal guard backs up a step, and I press my lips together to leash my reaction.
It’s not funny, Veya.
“I’ve never been across the border, sir. I don’t know the way to Goreon Castle.”
Second shakes his head. “You didn’t think to mention this when you were assigned to leave ahead of us?”
It’s a rhetorical question.
“Useless!” Second shouts, wresting his cloak from the line of hooks on the wall. “Looks like we’re all traveling together then.” He points his sword at the guard before sheathing it at his back. “Next time, I hear about a problemwhen itsurfaces. Notafterthe fucking fact, not two minutes before we’re supposed todepart, not when it’s too late.” Second crosses his other sword behind him, sheathes it, and palms his daggers. “Better yet, try some forethought on for size. See how that works out.”
The guard backs up one more step. “Yes, sir. I’m sorry.”
Second shoves the daggers in his hip sheaths. “I don’t want to hear ‘sorry’ when I’m having to save this entire court from Goreon filth because we didn’t follow theproactiveplan.”
“You’re right, sir. Sor—” The guard clears his throat. “It won’t happen again.”
Second points a thick finger at him. “Good. Now bring the carriages around since we’re all leavingtogether.”
The guard sprints out of the front doors and down the wide stone steps of my castle before the words are even out of Second’s mouth.
“This kid,” Second mumbles to himself.
“We never planned for the guards to leave in advance,” I say, confused.
Second sighs. “I know that, but he didn’t. And it took him way too long to be honest with me.Andhe obviously didn’t ask anyone how to get there. He needs to toughen the fuck up and stop being afraid of his shortcomings.”
“You were testing him? Brutal.” I laugh. “Theo’s eighteen years old. He’s learning, he’s trying.”
“I know,” Second says, jaw ticking as he snatches his bag. “But our enemy doesn’t give a shit about his age. His inexperience will get him killed. Better it be my temper than his life.”
The pride Second has in the army he’s built me has given him purpose over the last century.
I release a loving smile. “You’ve always been a big softy.”
Second glares at me as the crunching of wheels filters through the open castle doors. “Do you have everything youneed?” he finally asks, face softening as his eyes count the weapons on my person.
“Yes,” I say, daggers strapped to my thighs, sword at my back, and seven wooden pins in my hair, gilded in innocent gold—along with a racing heart, sweating palms, and an eagerness ripping at my skin like it’s already five miles down the road ahead of us.
It’ll require three days to travel from Prosperity to Goreon Castle at the heart of their territory. We could fly, but that would completely drain our energy and leave us vulnerable for days while we recovered. Summoning our wings is a great feat.
We’re not doing that.
Vampires rarely fly; it’s not worth the vulnerability and mostly reserved for life-or-death moments. Snapping is preferred, but we can really just flit about a room with it, moving in a blink to a location we can see. We might be the apex predator, but the gods sure threw in some limitations.
Correction. We’reoneof the apex predators. Never lose sight of a Hunter.
“Why do you needfourtrunks?” Emmanuel admonishes behind us.
