Bettina gazed at Trehan, as if to gather strength for her last pronouncement.
He stared back, taking her face into memory-
"The . . . phoenix."
The stone demon roared, "No, you can't!"
With a shrug, Morgana waved her hand once more. His muscles bulged, hardening like stone, but the sorceress's power was too great. Another demon down.
Trehan just kept himself from sagging against the sword in relief. He, Caspion, and Gourlav would survive the night.
"And now for the winner! Which gift do you like best?"
Wagon of gold, concert tickets-or a seemingly impossible revenge?
Yet again, he and Caspion would be in competition. Now that Trehan hadn't been decapitated, his confidence over his offering rose. She'll choose mine. Anyone could give her tickets or riches. But not vengeance.
"I like . . . the tickets best."
"Caspion the Tracker advances to the final round!" Morgana called with fanfare, but no real excitement.
Well-played, demon. The crowd roared, feet stomping the stands. Raum whistled shrilly, whaling his massive hands in applause.
Had Trehan actually thought Bettina would prefer any gift over Caspion's? Two f**king passes to some kind of mortal entertainment.
And now I face Gourlav tomorrow.
"Which gift is your runner-up, Princess?" Morgana asked.
Bettina sounded sick as she said, "The . . . heads."
Face Gourlav, have Bettina take me on a tour?
Any night of the week.
Trehan might die in the ring. He'd be damned if his Bride didn't send him off with a smile on his face.
Bettina's gaze kept straying to the Vrekener heads. Just looking at them provoked so many emotions inside her-fear, revulsion, yet there was also relief.
She'd reasoned, I would pay Gourlav's wagon of gold for those heads. Which means Daciano should earn the runner-up spot.
Points deducted for presentation, though. Their glassy eyes seemed to be staring at her accusingly.
She shuddered, her stomach churning even worse. Need to get off this stage. Before she humiliated herself in front of everyone. . . .
"Excellent!" Morgana called. "Gourlav the Father of Terrors will meet the Prince of Shadow in the semifinals. The winner will face Caspion the Tracker of Abaddon on the night of the full moon. This eve's festivities have ended. You may leave. Now."
At that, spectators scrambled away.
When Morgana's floating swords disappeared, the three surviving competitors stood.
Cas traced to her, laying his hand on her shoulder. She quaked beneath his grip.
Too much to process. Aside from the shocking development of the Vrekeners' deaths, Bettina was rocked by the outcome of this round. Because of her choices, three entrants were dead, the fates of three others altered irretrievably.
Some part of her truly must have thought she could take out Gourlav with her lady's choice. He remained, and he was seemingly unbeatable in the ring. Which meant . . .
The vampire will die tomorrow.
Cas will die the next night.
I will wed a monster.
Too much-
"What is this runner-up tour, Morgana?" Raum demanded, hurtling toward battle-ax mode.
Matching his tone, she said, "It's a done thing, demon. Challenge me not."
"Sending m'girl off with that strange leech. I won't have it!"
Daciano traced to the grandstand at that moment. The vampire stood silently, gazing at Bettina with concern, a question in his eyes.
All sweetness and light, Morgana said, "Ah, the gentleman vampire comes calling. Why don't you meet her in an hour or so, Prince? Give her time to decompress. In the meantime," she casually continued, "we must go sort out a petty family squabble. Never fear, I have every hope that at least two of us will survive it."
To let her go now? Trehan had to clench his fists to keep from reaching for her. Standing this close to his Bride after remaining away so long was punishing.
He wanted to hold her, to demand to know her thoughts.
As if Morgana could read his own, she cast him a foreboding look. "One hour, Prince."
Trehan decided he'd heed Morgana's warning, but only because he had work to do in the interim. Tonight he intended to show Bettina other benefits of a blood connection-namely that he could provide anything that she needed or desired, without her even having to ask.
Again Trehan's plan had transitioned. Capitalize on her passion; eliminate her fear.
"Back to my quarters, Caspion"-Raum reached for Bettina, then an indignant Morgana-"we're away."
"Get your paws off me, you oaf-"
The sorceress's words were left hanging as Raum traced them. Caspion scowled at Trehan, then followed them. He was considered part of the family?
She's my f**king Bride. Decreed by fate! I am her family, with a tie greater than any of those three. This would be the slowest sixty minutes of eternity.
An hour of wondering what they were telling Bettina. Probably browbeating her as he'd seen in dreams.
An hour of wondering how she felt about his gift.
She didn't like his offering best. But she hadn't liked it least either. Not a success, nor a failure. Gods, that female confused him!
Confusion? Another feeling he was unaccustomed to.
Coupled with that, he still battled rage over his dream of her attack. Backsliding.
Focus, Trehan. You've so little time.
He'd scarcely thought of his own fate tomorrow night. He was scheduled to fight an adversary stronger and faster than any he'd ever faced. One he dared not injure.
And if he lost, he'd have to depend on his cousins to get Bettina away from the primordial.
Best not lose.
Trehan traced to his tent, collecting another item he'd taken from Skye Hall today, the plain black staff. He needed assistance with it. Luckily, Trehan knew of a blind mystic of great power.
Without delay, he traced from Abaddon to a windy, lightning-lit realm, appearing in the mystic's modest shop.
Trusting another with this piece would be a risk. With no other choice, Trehan held out the staff for the mystic to feel.
The male glided his fingertips over the wood, raising his brows in shock.
"I need this to do what it's meant to, Honorius," Trehan told him. "Multiplied by a thousand. And I need it before sunset tomorrow."
Gentleman caller?" Raum shouted to Morgana as soon as the three of them had landed in his receiving room. Historically, Bettina had visited this place only to discuss the most serious of matters.
-Bettina, your father . . . he's fallen on the battlefield.
-This is your summoning medallion, Tina. We only need a bit of your blood.
-You must be wed, m'girl. Without a protector, you risk another attack. What if something happens to me this Accession? Who will protect you?
"Curse you, Raum!" Morgana yanked her arm away. "Never trace me again, or your horns will decorate the grille of my new mortal car!" She flounced over to one of the rustic divans, draping herself over it with a great flourish.
Bettina perched on the divan opposite Morgana, gazing around warily. Raum's spire was like an extension of him-a mix of violence and unexpected thoughtfulness.
Crossed battle-axes hung above a rough-hewn hearth. Centuries' worth of armor lined the walls. Above them were the mounted heads of monsters he'd hunted: vicious Gotohs, ghouls, and Wendigos.
But he also possessed a collection of rare scales from myriad basilisk nests. Demons held those dragons sacred. In the room's firelight, the scales gave off a mesmerizing shimmer, waves of iridescent pearl, jade, and crimson.
Caspion traced into the room, heading straight to the sideboard.
"I don't like this," Raum snapped. "Don't like the way that vampire looks at Bettina, as if he's wedded and bedded her already. As if he knows her."
Bettina peered at her bitten nails, watching them begin to grow back.
"And as glad as I am about the Vrekeners, I demand to know how he found them!" Raum's eyes widened, and he pointed a claw at Morgana. "You must have helped the leech! Predicted where Skye Hall would be!" Raum joined Cas at the sideboard. "When you wouldn't assist us?" He sloshed demon brew from a pitcher into a mug, then thought better of it and palmed the pitcher in his big hand.
"How? I'm no soothsayer, as evidenced by my sanity." Morgana spread her arms over the back of the divan with an insouciant grace. "And you know I tried to read Bettina's mind to give you a description of the four. But she couldn't even bring herself to picture them."
Daciano had probably been able to see deeper into her subconscious than Bettina herself could.
"Your hand is in this, sorceress!" Raum insisted, adjourning with the pitcher to his oversize desk.
"One more time, Raum-the Hall is impervious to Sorceri. We can't find it, reach it, attack it-"
"And I'm to take your word on that?" Raum all but yelled, "I don't trust you as far as I can throw you!"
Morgana snapped, "The feeling is mutual, I assure you!"
Cas slid Bettina a glance that said: "This is so messed up." She flashed one back: "I know, right!"
She felt as if they were two siblings watching their dam and sire fight.
Wait. Siblings? Were her feelings turning . . . sisterly toward him?
Morgana said, "Ah, Raum, you're just angry that the vampire did something supposedly impossible! When you couldn't." With a pointed look at Caspion, Morgana added, "When even the vaunted 'tracker' couldn't track them."
Cas glowered. "Because Raum ordered me off their trail! Eventually I would have found them somehow!" To Raum, he said, "I always did before. Yet you commanded me to stop searching. You as good as handed this revenge to the vampire!"
Raum slammed his fist against the desktop, rattling writing utensils and skull paperweights. "I gave that order because you were exhausted. You'd barely finished transitioning to immortal, hadn't even harvested a death yet! And I didn't want you to repeat what Mathar did!"
Everyone fell silent. "What? What did my father do?" Bettina finally asked.
Raum scowled, knowing he'd said too much.
Chapter 32
"Raum?"
At length, he muttered, "He hunted your mother's killers until it nearly drove him mad. He monitored Skye Hall's movements for years, trying to come up with a pattern, to predict where it would appear next. No use." Raum scrubbed his hand over his craggy face. "Mathar existed, like a ghost, as long as he could, holding out for you. Then he sought the front line of the bloodiest battle he could find, knowing it would end him."
He'd wanted to die? In a soft voice, Bettina said, "He couldn't live without her?"
Raum shook his head sadly. "Had no interest in that prospect."
Mathar's love for Eleara astounded Bettina. His love for me. He'd existed-in misery-for me.
No wonder he'd seemed distant. He'd been tormented. "So devoted," she murmured to herself.
Morgana sniffed. "Eleara was just as much so. Though I could never see it."
Bettina's gaze landed on Cas. Would she ever know such devotion from a male? And return it just as fiercely?
With the vampire. The thought arose without warning, startling her because it felt like . . . truth.
Cas met her eyes then, but again he didn't seem to see her. What if I've been horribly wrong about us?
"There's no finding the air territories," Raum continued. "I didn't want to doom Caspion to failure. I still don't know how the vampire located them."
Cas frowned at Bettina. "Did you tell the vampire about the Vrekeners?"
"No!"
"Outside of this room, no one knew about those four. So there's no way, unless . . ." Cas trailed off.
All eyes fell on her neck.
Raum sputtered. "You didn't . . . y-you wouldn't!"
Morgana grinned. "Did you gift the vampire with your blood?"
Bettina blurted the words: "It was an accident! He never bit me. We-we kissed and his fangs went sharp."
Cas, Morgana, and Raum groaned in disbelief.
"Oh, for gold's sake, you're really that naive, freakling? First R.H.P.S., and now this. Clearly, I'm derelict in my duties."
"This is why I still have her medallion!" Raum pointed out in a vindicated tone. "She's too naive."
Cas said, "Vampires like him don't have 'accidents.' "
"He tried to warn me!"
"But you were beyond caring?" Morgana said. "It's called seduction. And what it shows us is that your prince is a very cunning player indeed." Her blond brows drew together. "Strange, though-an immortal male will usually become an unthinking, primal brute when fighting for his female."
Daciano a brute? Bettina couldn't see it. "Morgana, it was only the tiniest drop."
"Then maybe he harvested only your most recent memories." Her godmother examined the end of a braid, the Sorceri equivalent of navel gazing. "Haven't I changed in front of you within the last few months?" With a shrug, she said, "If he sees that memory, I'll expect a call from him directly."
Raum's eyes went wide. "Then he knows our kingdom's defenses."
Cas's disappointed look sliced through her. "The secrets I've trusted you with, Tina."
"And now Morgana's arranged for them to be together for this-this tour?" Raum blustered. "What if the vampire bites Bettina? You know that could prove ruinous to her."
Daciano's kisses and caresses had proved so-Bettina could think of little else-so why had no one told her to be wary of those? Then she frowned. "Why is a bite ruinous?"
"Because they're excruciating," Raum said. "Right, Morgana?"
Excrutiating?
In a grudging tone, the sorceress said, "Bite play can go badly. If the vampire's exceedingly thirsty or inexperienced. And the prince did look peckish. Hmm, what say you, Caspion?"
Had Cas's cheeks flushed? "It's like nothing you've ever felt." He sounded almost as if he were speaking from firsthand knowledge. Hadn't he described a bite as altering? Had some Dacian female taken his blood?
Did it . . . hurt?
Daciano was inexperienced, had never bitten another. Would he tear her skin?