All Chapters of BLOOD FOR A BRIDE : Chapter 51

— ASARAIAH KAINE —The morning after felt wrong.The mansion was too neat, too polished, like someone had scrubbed the blood out of it overnight even if no blood had been spilled. Shadows still clung to the corners, heavy as secrets, and the silence was the kind that pressed against your ears until you wanted to scream just to break it.Malrik was gone. I knew before I even asked. His absence was a weight the house carried, an emptiness too deliberate to be coincidence.“Business,” Afsana muttered when I pressed her. Nothing more.Business. That could mean anything. A deal. A body. A war.I tried not to think about it.Instead, I painted.The new paints Leina had ordered waited on my desk, unopened tubs of color bright and too clean. I dipped my brush into them anyway, dragging lines across the canvas until the shapes turned restless. Gold bleeding into black. Light trying and failing to push through shadow. My hand shook more than it should have, but I didn’t stop.“You’re going to s