All Chapters of His to protect, theirs to sacrifice : Chapter 31 - Chapter 40

The banging came without warning. Three hits against the door, hard and deliberate, the kind that does not ask permission, and I felt Caius go from still to moving in the same second with no transition between them. "Stay here," he said, already on his feet in the dark. "Caius..." "Do not open this door for anyone," he said, his voice dropping to something that left no room for argument. "No matter what you hear on the other side. No one opens this door except me. Do you understand." "Yes," I said. I heard him feel his way to the exit in the dark, heard the door open and a thin line of light cut through the black for just a second, and then he was gone and the door closed and I was alone and the dark settled back around me like it had never been interrupted. I sat back down on the bench and pulled my knees to my chest and listened. Voices on the other side of the stone. Too muffled to separate into words, just the shape of urgency, more than one person, something being communic

Caius pov The bell was still finishing its third toll when I heard the announcement echoing through the palace corridors. I stopped walking and stood there and listened to the words move through the stone walls and the formal hallways and the rooms where people were already reacting to what they meant. Good. Not good that he was gone. That part was sitting in a place I was not going to touch right now because if I touched it I would not be able to walk into that council room and I needed to walk into that council room. Good that the announcement meant the council was already convening. Good that I did not have to go looking for any of them individually because I did not have the patience for individual conversations tonight. I straightened my jacket and walked. The council room was already full when I pushed the door open. Every elder in their seat, backs straight, folders open, water poured, candles lit. The room had the specific energy of people who had been sitting in it

"I have it," Queen Camille said.I could not help it. The laugh came out before I could decide whether to let it.She turned and looked at me with those eyes and I held her gaze and kept the smile exactly where it was."Can we see it," Dominic said, his voice neutral, looking at her across the table."What do you mean by that." Camille's voice went flat. "I just told you I have it. I have it means I have it.""We understand that your highness," Dominic said. "But given the significance of the ring to the coronation process, protocol requires that it be presented to the council for verification before proceedings can continue. That is not a reflection on your word, it is simply.....""Are you calling the queen a liar," Elder Coran said, his voice going sharp, sitting forward in his chair."I am not calling anyone anything," Dominic said. "I am citing protocol.""We need to...." Dominic started."We need what exactly," Elder Soran cut across him, his palms flat on the table. "You have b

Unknown PovThe map on the table was old.Not old in the way that things get old through neglect but old in the way that things get old through use, the edges soft, the creases deep, certain sections marked and remarked so many times in different inks that the original lines underneath were barely visible anymore. Wrenfield sat at the center of it, ringed in red, and from that ring lines spread outward in every direction like cracks in glass.Lord Valdris stood over it with both hands flat on the table and his red eyes moving across it slowly."How long," he said, without looking up.Bernard straightened from his position on the other side of the table. He was a large man, broad through the shoulders, with the particular stillness of someone who had learned to be very careful about how he occupied space in this specific room. "A month my Lord. Our witch's last assessment put the barrier at four to six weeks before full deterioration."Valdris lifted his head."A month," he said."Yes

The shadowed figure at the end of the narrow stone balcony didn't make a single sound.It was the complete, terrifying stillness that Zara noticed first. The stranger stood utterly motionless, like a statue carved directly out of the dark. Then, two glowing crimson orbs ignited in the pitch-black space.*Vampire.*The word exploded in Zara’s mind, sending a jolt of ice straight down her spine. The red glow wasn't a reflection of the candlelight drifting up from the grand hall below it was burning from within the woman's eyes.Zara froze, pressing her back against the cold, carved stone screen. Below her, the heavy coronation bells were still ringing, completely drowning out any sound she might make.Caius had personally shown her this hidden passageway, swearing it wasn't on any official map of the palace. That meant this monster had either tracked her down or followed her every step. The scent-masking bracelet on her wrist was supposed to hide her from tracking spells, but it couldn'