Lew let out a snarl. “That’s Vaughn. He’s one of ours.”
Oh no. I swallowed hard. “Esetta said the rest of the Blood were safe as far as she knew.”
“Then she—and they—were betrayed.”
:I’m already looking for his image to determine which house he went to,:Sekh said.
“Keep going, my queen,” Lew said flatly, though his hands fisted at his sides. “Though I can tell you now, we’re going to see more Isador Blood going into those fucking trees. Just like Thierry and Greyson.”
Seeing Greyson’s image in Thierry’s memory had been a gut punch, even though I’d hated the monster who’d killed Mom and then hunted me for years. I had no idea he’d been Selena’s alpha before she abandoned the nest in London and left court life behind. Trapped as one of the Dauphine’s zombies for years while her magic rotted and corrupted not just his body but also his mind and memories…
I didn’t forgive him exactly. Not after he killed Mom. Though even that hadn’t really been his fault. I at least had more empathy for him.
Before I could allow the Dauphine’s vision to continue playing, Sekh showed me a grand ivory-colored stone house withimmaculate green yards and meticulous gardens of fountains and flowers. A white graveled driveway encircled a large pond fed by another fountain. The mansion itself was two stories tall and had two larger towers on either side of a grand façade.
“House Valois,” Guillaume said. “Or Palais de Valois, located in the 7tharrondissement of Paris.”
Which meant Rosalind Valois had given Isador Blood to her grandmother, Jeanne.
“Who else?” Lew’s gravelly voice shredded my heart. He’d been their alpha for centuries. He’d loved my mother with them. He may have even loved them, as much as he loved Thierry.
As much as Rik and Daire loved each other.
Dread choked me. I didn’t want to see who else was in the trees.
But I allowed the magic to flow.
LLEWELLYN
Gryphons mated for life,and I was mated to House Isador. While I might have only been able to fuck Isador queens, I considered every person inside my queen’s house as mine. It was more than love. More than honor.
Every drop of blood in my gryphon heart burned for my house.
I’d hoped the other Blood who’d served with me might have escaped Thierry’s fate. Yet we all watched as the Dauphine’s Blood used the tip of a knife to pluck a leech off a human and put it into Vaughn’s mouth. He was already helpless to deny anything the Dauphine ordered him to do.
Now he was also tainted with human blood. Turning himinto a zombie-like thrall to slowly rot inside one of the giant trees.
Shara paused the vision, focusing on the other cypresses in the circle. “They look normal to me. So this happened before Thierry or Greyson were trapped.”
The knight made a low grunt of agreement. “House Valois sent them over fairly quickly.”
Goddess. Thierry had only been in the tree a couple of years as best as we could tell. That meant Vaughn had been trapped as long as my young queen had been alive.
At least twenty-two years. While he slowly rotted to death.
My teeth ached from clenching my jaws too hard. Hands fisted, I fought to keep my talons sheathed. Every muscle burned to leap into action. Shred and tear and rip the trees apart to save my friend. But which tree? What other traps might the Dauphine have lodged inside?
Shara flowed the magic forward to the next Blood.
My breath rushed out as if Rik had stomped on my abdomen. “Mallac.”
Tears streamed down her face. “I’m so sorry, Lew.”
Thierry had been my closest friend among the Blood. We often shared our queen together, and we worked well together in all ways. I’d shared more with him than any of the others.
But Mallac had been the one to make us all laugh. He and Thierry combined had balanced me, somehow keeping the darkness from swallowing me with their jokes and pranks. Even in the grim shadow of House Skye, with our queen’s departure from this earth looming before us, Mallac had dared Thierry to moon the mighty tower while he spotlighted him. No one else would’ve dared such a prank. It wasn’t very Blood-like, especially for Isador, which had always prided itself on formalities and proper behavior.
Which was only one of the reasons Esetta had loved him so much. He helped balance us all.
