“And the vampyres?” I pressed, waving away his offered goblet of juice.
Ronan’s expression turned thoughtful. “They’re scattered. No central leadership anymore. Small bands. Farms emptied along the coasts. People disappearing.”
Exactly the kind of chaos predators thrived in.
“When the Overlord fell, everything changed,” Ronan said quietly. “The lykoses withdrew as promised. The vampyres fractured. Some fled inland. Some took to rivers. Others … might have … returned to old habits.”
Wonderful. We had predators without a master, desperate and dangerous.
Wren sighed as she downed her juice.
“More, love?” Ronan asked.
She nodded and held out her cup.
“We’re not facing armies,” Kieran said. “Just predators.”
“Predators with nothing to lose from what it sounds like,” Nerissa added.
I scowled. “Why haven’t the human kingdoms reported this to us?”
No one answered.
Kieran spoke carefully. “Hunting them openly could provoke retaliation. Better to send scouts. Trackers.”
Ronan nodded. “Small groups. Quiet ones.”
Nerissa barked a bitter laugh. “You want to negotiate with the creatures who killed my son?”
Her grief burned like wildfire. I understood that kind of anger, but strategy had to come first. Two problems appeared at once: rogue vampyres, and an entirely new enclave of drakens.
Which did we face first?
Nerissa began to pace, working herself up into a fury. Her skin flushed red as bloodmagick flared across it. “I am going nowhere until those bloodsuckers are at my feet. I will find the truth.”
Ronan handed Wren her second cup, wiping his hands.
Nerissa studied me carefully. “Do you intend to force my family to come here and be your subjects?”
My head tilted to the side. “I?—”
“That they’d kneel to a stranger king?”
“That isn’t what I want,” I said calmly.
“If anything, we would ask for volunteers. From both islands,” Wren butt in from her cache of cushions.
I caught onto what she was saying immediately.
“Exchanges,” I continued. “Strengthen both bloodlines. Mates where they wish them.”
Nerissa studied me for a long moment before nodding once. “Fine.”
She flopped down next to Wren and snapped her fingers at Ronan for more wine. Wren shot us a bright, unapologetic smile.
I shook my head. Females formed alliances faster than storms formed clouds.
“Other drakens. Other females,” Kieran mumbled, not yet believing it.
