Page 157 of Flames and Blood

“Still running,” Caleb says. “But not for long. We want it built slow and airtight. The clans are unforgiving, but there will be resistance to interfering with ancients if we don’t have our facts right.”

“Then we get them right,” I say. “I’ll see to it personally.”

Nobody argues with me. Gideon, beside me, doesn’t either. He goes very still, which is what he does instead of arguing, and I know he’s already decided something and will tell me when he’s ready.

“There’s a woman in that house called Mrs. Nell,” I tell the room. “Human. She’s the one who takes care of the women.”

“Then she’s the one who talks,” Odile says. “Good. That’s a name I can work with.”

“One thing’s still open,” Gideon says. He hasn’t spoken since we sat down. “Somebody walked out of the Ondrathe hall the night Sereth died. Nobody has seen them since.”

“The gate log’s been checked twice,” Caleb says. “Aldis did it himself.”

“They’re not in it.”

Odile sets her glass down. “Then they didn’t have to sign it.”

Nobody answers that. I think about the four hundred people who watched them bury me, and the one of them who is still sleeping under the same rock I do.

Serenity gets me out of that room before the food is finished, on the excuse of showing me the gallery, which is a lie we both accept.

“We haven’t had enough time together,” she says.

“There’s been a lot going on,” I say.

“I know! Who would have thought we’d go from whispering through a cell wall to finding our mates and becoming part of an international trafficking task force in a couple of months?”

“Sometimes things turn out the way they’re supposed to,” I say.

“You mean like Fate?”

“Yes, like Fate.” I smile at her, then realize my fingertips are tracing the faint puncture marks on my throat when her eyes linger there.

“You’ve been rubbing your thumb over your throat all evening,” she says once the door’s shut.

“That obvious, huh?”

“Don’t worry, I do it too, though mine are gone as soon as he makes them.”

“Really? It takes a day or two for mine to close, and even then, my dragon likes to keep the mark there.”

“Bastien can heal them. Something to do with being an ancient.”

“Gideon’s a Turned. He says the younger lines don’t have the same powers. He thinks of himself as a lesser line.”

“Does that bother you?” she asks.

“Are you kidding? I’ve spent my life fighting against the expectations of royalty. I love being with someone who just wants me as me…does that make sense?”

“Well, I can’t speak from experience, but I’ll admit that there’s something appealing about being with a man who’s addicted to you.” She grins. “Is it the same for you?”

I feel my ears burn. “A bit. My blood makes him go warm. Like he’s human again. He’d probably drain me dry if he wasn’t such a gentleman about it.”

“Wouldn’t bother me,” she laughs. “The rush when they feed is—”

I hold up a hand. “Stop right there!”

“Okay, okay, too much information!”