Page 37 of Commanding Blood And Bonds

I smiled, lifting my brows. “Blaz.”

“He wouldn’t have had to say anything.” Reyna’s eyes gleamed. “I’ve been waiting for you to pull a stunt like this. Watching as you tried to force yourself into compliance when every bone in your body is bred for rebellion.”

I didn’t bother hiding my laugh. She smiled in turn. Stunning, in a way that was terrifying.

“I found a peculiar dossier in your room today.”

“You searched my rooms?” I bit out.

“It’s not in my nature to trust without verification—not even for one of Aren’s people.”

“So, that’s a yes?” I snapped.

Reyna took a long step to the side, prowling like a cat around its prey. “Color me curious, Miss Porter, that your notes on the Paladins predate your arrival here.”

“I’m thorough when researching allies, and even more so with enemies.”

“I noticed my surviving niece and nephew were absent from your file. Perhaps you’re not as thorough as you think.”

“Children don’t belong in blackmail,” I stated flatly. Lana had disagreed with me on that. Any ammunition was worth leveraging in a worthwhile acquisition. But using innocents had never been my style. Even if it were, Reagan and Ciaran Stuart’s offspring were ghosts.

Cyrus and Calypso Stuart had no social media accounts, no professional pages, not even birth certificates. The only documentation of their existence came from Grayshell’s spies. The only reason I believed in them at all was because the Oracle owed me a favor and had answered my questions this week. While Cyrus had won the power ranking, Calypso was the expected heir to the throne through matriarchal enchantment. Much like their sisters to the west, Paladin power flowed from the strongest female to the next. The magic itself would choose the heiress, marking its chosen soul every thirty years.

Their Queens were magically bound to their partners through a Guardianship Bond, ensuring no man could seduce his way into power. Any such attempt would cost him his freedom—the Guardians compelled to place their Bonder above all else.

Unlike the witches of Hazelharbor, the Paladins had no shortage of males, and royal marriages had been arranged for centuries to preserve their bloodlines. By ensuring only the strongest magic lines mixed, they had all but forced the enchantment to secure their reign. If an outsider emerged with a power ranking that threatened that sacred line, they were bound in contracts—heirs spoken for before they were even conceived. An agreement I knew all too intimately in my last life.

To refuse the pairing was tantamount to challenging the matriarch to a duel—a moment of idiocy none had survived.

Yet.

“They’re scarcely children,” Reyna contradicted with a smirk, unraveling the knot that train of thought had tied in my belly. I wasn’t sure if she was baiting or sincere, as my soul mother had been. “The Paladin Heiress is five years your senior, and her second only two years younger. Both fully ascended. Both active in the family business.”

Well, that was intriguing. “That’s very young to have both ascended.”

“Renown,” she said curtly, her jaw working before she wet her lips, her next words rushed. “Forced rapid ascension, same as you.”

I arched a brow. More often than not, souls that young failed to ascend. “That can’t be coincidence.”

“There are no coincidences, Miss Porter. God doesn’t make mistakes. Not in your ascension, not in your skillset, not in who honed it, or in who you’ll meet while you’re here. Not in who you’ll kill or who you’ll ally with. You are here when you are because you are meant to be. And your Commander and his second know it.”

“You sound like Alec.”

“Mr. Carter and I always made for amusing company,” she said, tone unreadable, though I was almost positive her lips quirked again. Had she waited until we were alone for this conversation? If so, was it fear of what confessions might spill from my lips, or knowledge that my defiance could undermine her before her men? “But none of this explains why you were gathering intel before I even assigned you the task.”

For a long moment, I stared her down, but Reyna was as unflinching as an asp, her gaze unwavering. Ally would be eternally disappointed to know I blinked first. When it was clear she would outlast me, I admitted, “Past life debts are long overdue. I intend to collect.”

“I remember,” she said. “I remember dredging that body from the water and Aren’s ensuing devastation. You’re one of his favorites.”

“And he’s one of mine.”

“But it’s not Aren confronting old demons tonight, is it? This would be a very different conversation if that were the case.” She arched a lone, expectant brow, walking the perimeter as she surveyed the estate, delicate hands clasped before her chest. “You know who claimed your life last time, don’t you?”

“You’re smarter than you look, Commander.”

“And your mother is just as adept at backhanded compliments. She’d be proud, you know?” Pausing, she took a breath. “Dress like a doll—check the boxes of a prim princess, and it’s amazing how candid men become when they think you’re a doe. My, are they surprised when a wolf emerges from the skin they so love to objectify.”

“You’re like a poisonous plant,” I teased, taking far too much pleasure in the lethality in her eyes.