Novels by Kelace

Amanda's POV Neither of us says anything for a while. Alex stands at the window with his back to me. Outside the gardens are going from grey to gold, and I can see his shoulders working under his shirt. He's trying very hard to breathe like a man who is fine. "Alex?" He doesn't turn around. His voice carries that grating sound I have come to know as anger. "Five years, Mandy. I understand your reluctance at first, but you knew how I felt. Didn't it occur to you I would have been happy to know she was alive? That she survived?" He stops, presses two fingers to the bridge of his nose. "I poured my heart out to you and you didn't trust me enough. Not even a year after." He turns and looks at me, grim. "No, not tonight. If I start I will say something I cannot take back, and you have only just come home." I want to tell him I'm sorry. It's true, and it's not enough, and we both know it. So I say, "Later this evening I'm going to see her. Grace. She doesn't know I'm in the city. I

Alex’s POVFor several seconds, I cannot move.I simply stare at my sister.The words she has just spoken seem to hang between us, impossible and obscene in their simplicity.Rosalinda is alive.No....My mind rejects it before my heart can even process it.Rosalinda died. At least, we believed she had. For years, I had forced myself to accept that truth because there had been nothing else to hold on to. Christopher had confirmed what the hospital told him. He and Maximus had arrived too late. Rosalinda and the child had died. A pureblood child.There had been no miracle waiting at the end of that story.There couldn't have been.A human woman, Sancta or not, should not have been able to carry a pureblood pregnancy in the first place let alone survive it.Sancta pregnancies are dangerous enough. One with a pureblood is something else entirely. The blood alone is too demanding. The transformation required of the mother's body is too profound. Human physiology simply isn't designed to

Amanda's POVI do not answer immediately.The question does not surprise me. If anything...I have been expecting it since the moment Roland met us at the airport.With how relentlessly Alex has tried to persuade me to return over the centuries, he would naturally assume something significant had changed.Something serious.I draw a slow breath. "Can we at least sit?"He studies me for a moment.Then, without another word, he turns and walks deeper into the mansion.I follow him.The room he leads me into is unmistakably his.Large without feeling extravagant. Dark wood. Floor-to-ceiling bookshelves.A fireplace that has clearly seen centuries.Tall windows overlooking the eastern gardens where dawn has only just begun to soften the horizon.His office.Alex walks toward the crystal decanter resting on a side cabinet.He pours himself a measure of amber liquor before lifting the bottle slightly in silent question.I know exactly what he's offering.I also know exactly how badly I need

Alex's POVI take my place at the top of the entrance steps long before the vehicles emerge from the darkness.For centuries my sister has existed beyond the borders of this estate. A carefully guarded secret. And once every decade I make the same journey to Isidora. Staying no longer than an hour.Running a foundation that maintains blood preservation programs throughout the region keeps my inspections routine enough to escape notice.Only Roland and a handful of trusted staff knew that every itinerary concealed sixty stolen minutes with my twin.And each visit ended almost identically."Come home, Mandy."She always smiled."I like Isidora, Alex."Peaceful. Quiet. Away from politics.Away from the old houses. From everything Father had spent decades protecting her from.Eventually I stopped asking.She had built a life that belonged entirely to her. A successful medical career. Genuine friendships. Freedom from noble expectations.Everything I could never give her inside these wall

Amanda's POV The flight had been long but the quiet anticipation buzzing beneath my skin had kept me awake.I am coming home.The thought settles over me with an unfamiliar weight.Home.I have spent most of my life saying this word while referring to another country, another city. A totally different life altogether. My existence buried. Long before I even understood what that meant at all.Father had erased me from all records. Council ledgers. Every official document that might have invited questions. To the outside world Princess Annabelle Graham had withered and died shortly after birthing her Sanguinari's sole heir. Alexander Graham Matesson.According to records I do not exist. Remaining invisible had been my parent's only way to shield me from the machinations of the Aldercrests.I understand it now. Perhaps better than either of my parents ever expected I would.An understanding that has never quite filled the quiet ache of longing for everything I have sacrificed.Beside

“Because your bloodline remains among the oldest surviving branch outside the throne itself.”Ah. There it is again.Contingency. Succession. Containment.Subtle enough to maintain plausible deniability while still testing my reaction.Pathetic.“You overestimate my interest in political opportunism” I replied calmly.“Do we?”Another voice this time. Lord Cassiel Rothadam.Audrey’s father.Cassiel Rothadam. Son of Elias Rothadam and heir to one of the oldest hybrid bloodlines still in existence. Fortunate enough to have successfully created a pureblood female before the ban, a circumstance that later elevated his house far beyond its peers. He eventually took her as his wife, and Audrey inherited much from that union. Strong blood. Noble standing. Enough purity that her house has spent centuries polishing her into a future consort candidate.Unlike his daughter, Cassiel rarely wastes words unnecessarily.“The Council requires stability” he said evenly. “If the throne becomes comprom