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Now part of me only wondered what would befall anything that got in his way.
Weapons at their sides, the others started off, the vampire and shadow wolffollowing.
Resisting the urge to shake my head, I trailed after them. I was kidding myself. This journey was changing each of the others, not just Roan, to say nothing of what love for Gwyneira had done to some of them. In the face of that, all I could do was make sure I held as true to myself as possible.
I was a monk. A scholar. I would live every day proving I had the strength, the character, and the will to hold to my oaths, no matter how much some in the Order had once claimed a dwarf was doomed to fail.
Yes, I was drawn to that beautiful woman. Yes, her power resonated with the very soul of my own. But I was no liar. No failure.
What I felt for Gwyneira would never take me from my calling.
7
MELISANDRE
Iwould never tire of standing in the sun. Of watching the world dance with color, more vibrant than the finest painting.
Of seeing my enemies run from me, every line and twitch of their fear on brilliant display.
I smiled as the Voidborn-possessed monsters tore into the outpost, their actions punctuated by screams that danced on the air like music. Yes, the fort and its inhabitants were technically Aneiran citizens, even though we were still a few miles from the border and the Warden Wall. They were comprised of a smattering of soldiers who had been assigned here with their families to monitor the road to the wall and to provide authorized visitors with passage past the barrier.
But though I was the queen of Aneira, that hardly meant I needed to keep all its people alive.
I strolled through the shattered gate, and even the fact I still trailed Alaric couldn’t dim my enjoyment at the scents of blood and fear on the air. The orcs had torn through the logs like they were paper, and the shifters had followed, while the tentacled creatures scaled the vertical extent of the crenelated walls with such ease, they may as well have been racing up a flight of stairs. The dragon circled overhead, roaring as if for the sheer enjoyment of watching people scream in terror. The scaled beast had already incinerated those who’d tried to flee the outpost.
It was truly beautiful.
A young man raced at us, screaming, his sword raised and his Aneiran armor gleaming in the daylight. Blood coated him like a glaze on roast meat, tempting me to bite down and taste all the delicious flavors inside.
Alaric caught him first, merely bending out of the way of the man’s wild sword strike and then catching his wrist and breaking it in a single motion. While the young man screamed, Alaric whipped him around and sank his metallic fangs into the fool’s neck.
A shiver rolled through me as I watched the fight drain from the young soldier along with his blood. I could practically taste it, that death. That delicious ending gushing out of him. My tongue licked my lips in spite of myself.
Alaric pulled back and grinned, his silver teeth coated in red. “Finish him off, pet.”
He shoved the young man at me. I caught the soldier as he stumbled, and my brow rose.
The Voidborn bastard was sharing now?
Alaric mirrored my expression, a sardonic glint in his eye.
“You seek to trap me?” I asked accusingly.
He scoffed. “I seek to feed you. The spell to protect you against sunlight was draining and it does us no good if you collapse uselessly.”
My eyes narrowed, noting the implication that my collapse could have use, if he thought the situation called for it.
But I was also hungry.
I bit down on the soldier’s neck, swallowing instinctively as blood flooded my mouth, and a renewed shudder passed through me. Energy poured into my body with his blood, making my heartbeat accelerate and my limbs feel looser and more powerful. Gods, I had been hungry. Famished, in point of fact.
The sheer overwhelm of walking in daylight had distracted me.
But this was exquisite, like a feast beyond any mortal I’d bitten before. Was drinking blood in daylight more fulfilling? Or had Alaric done something to me?
Surely not. I would feel it. This was likely only the pleasure in finishing off a delicious meal after so long without sustenance.
As the young man’s heart stopped, I let his body fall. When it hit the ground, his corpse began to crumble, turning to gray dust on the ground.
