Semua Bab The Bride Wore Blood: Bab 71 - Bab 80

The bedchamber felt too small, the air thick with the scent of faded roses and old arguments. I had retreated there, the Duke’s words still ringing in my ears, a cold, sharp chime that wouldn't stop. ‘Dragon blood,’ he had whispered, and the world had tilted on its axis.I was standing by the window, staring out at the silvered gardens where I had just been branded with a heritage I didn't want, when the heavy oak door creaked open. I didn't need to turn to know it was Thade. His presence was a familiar hum against the back of my neck.He stopped just inside the threshold. The silence between us was a physical weight, stretched thin by the echoes of the argument we’d had before the dinner. I could feel him watching me, his uncertainty radiating across the room. He didn't know if I wanted him here, and for a moment, neither did I.'Lana,' he said, his voice low, cautious.I turned slowly, my silk skirts hissing against the floorboards. The mask I had perfected at the dinner was cracked

Lana’s POVI wake, secure in Thade’s arms. At rest and feeling at peace. Thade shifted beside me, his warmth radiating through the covers of the royal suite. Sunlight filtered through the heavy velvet curtains, casting long, dusty beams across the opulent room. I watched him sleep for a moment, tracing the line of his jaw with my eyes before he stirred, his gaze finding mine.'Thade,' I whispered, resting a hand on his chest. 'We need to talk. What are we going to do?' I couldn’t attempt to rest any longer. Not when everything seemed to be so dire beyond the walls of the Palace.He pulled me closer, ‘what are your thoughts?’ He stifled a yawn, voice still husky from sleep.‘Perhaps there’s something I can do with my gift,’ I murmur, heart thumping quickly. ‘I’ve spent the last two years researching the Otherworld, there were suggestion that…dragon blood should have significant power to draw.’ I searched his face, looking for understanding. 'I want to see what else I can do. I need t

The dawn was a bruised purple smudge against the horizon, the air sharp enough to sting my lungs before the heat of the day could begin. I stood on the stone steps of the palace, the cold seeping through the soles of my slippers as I watched the departure. Thade was a silhouette of tempered steel and dark leather, his horse Koal dancing restlessly on the gravel. Behind him, a line of armed guards stood like statues, their spears catching the first, watery light of the sun. This was going to be an official visit to the border. I felt Rune’s presence a step behind my left shoulder, her hand likely resting on the hilt of her sword as it always did when the air grew thick with tension. To my right, Moira was a wall of silent, predatory heat. I could sense that her wolf was pacing just beneath her skin, her eyes fixed on the man she considered her leader.Thade didn't look back until he reached the heavy iron gates. For a heartbeat, he paused, his gaze finding mine across the distance. Th

The stone beneath me was unforgiving, the chill of the private courtyard seeping through the silk of my skirts and biting into my skin. I sat cross-legged on the cracked pavement, surrounded by the skeletal reach of ivy and the persistent sweetness of the climbing roses. 'Sit still, Lana,' Moira commanded, her voice a gravelly scrape against the silence. She paced the perimeter of the small space, her movements fluid and predatory, while Rune stood like a sentinel near the entrance, a silent shadow in the gloom. Maggie and Rosa perched beside her, listening intently.'Otherworld blood doesn't respond to frantic hearts. It requires the stillness of the mountain and the depth of the sea.'I closed my eyes, but the darkness behind my lids was far from quiet. It was filled with the echoing accusations I’d hurled at Thade, the sharp sting of betrayal that still burned in my chest. Every time he called me his Little Investigator, every time he’d looked at me with that guarded affection.'I

As I say the words, I can’t help but take note of all the tendrils of black magic as they stretch across the table towards the men seated. Extending from Valerius himself they seem to seethe in silence, writhing like snakes in the air. The air darker around my Father, his skin covered in places with a shadow. I wonder if it remains beyond Valerius’s presence. I can feel the prickle on my own skin, as the magic creeps toward me. But to what end? What is the spell that he weaves? 'The King’s end is near,' my Father says, his voice cutting through the heavy, stagnant air of the library. He doesn't look at me, his gaze fixed on the map spread out before him, a tapestry of lands I am meant to rule but barely know. 'Once he is removed, the transition will be swift. You will marry Valerius, and with his house behind you, your position on the throne will be stronger than it has ever been.'The air seems to thicken around us, the black tendrils of Valerius’s magic pulse in time with my father