Page 143 of A Trial By Blood

His eyes narrowed. “Yes.”

“Then I appoint you.”

“No.” He shook his head. “It needs to be you.”

“Your people don’t know me, Daire. I’d have to be extremely arrogant to insert myself in their colony and presume to order them about. That’s not me. They’ll hate me, and I’d hate myself. You know them, they know you. You helped liberate them from Kefir—”

“It should be a female,” he said low. “They’ve already had one arrogant asshole leading them.”

“Are you saying you’re an arrogant asshole?”

He shrugged his wide shoulders. “I can be.”

Rose moved to him and patted his arm. “Well, you’ll probably need to do something about that.”

“Rose,” Daire gritted out.

“You’ve got this, cousin. If you’re that uncomfortable about it, tell them you’re their interim leader and appoint one of the females as an advisor. Keep the colony safe until a new queen is created. And when she is, she’ll have you both to help her navigate her new role.”

Daire scowled. “You have it all figured out. Is this an order, my queen?”

Rose grinned up at him, far more relaxed than when her cousin had walked in here. “Yes, my one and only order as your liege.” She lifted her hands to her head, removed an invisible crown, and placed it on her cousin’s head. “It suits you.”

He scowled harder and shook his head, but the male knew when he was beaten.

* * *

Three days later

“We better not be late, Else has been cooking all day,” Rose said as we headed for the warehouse door.

“She does realize we don’t need to eat, yes?”

“That won’t stop her,” Rose said with a laugh.

She’d moved into the warehouse with me the day before. I loved seeing her things scattered around the place. I loved having her here with me, in our home, and I loved lying down with her at night and waking up with her in the morning.

Rose froze, looking down at something.

Someone had slid an envelope under the door.

“What is it?”

She picked it up and carefully opened it. “My trial. A date’s been chosen.” She scanned it quickly, then looked up at me. “It’s in two days.”

“That soon? You’re still healing.” I took the letter from her and read it as well.

Fuck.

CHAPTER 42

Rose

Blood Hill Grove had been used for our magical combat trials for as far back as the covens’ written histories went.

I stood outside the massive clearing, light snow softly falling around us, and felt the vibration of power. This place was concealed by the mother’s magic and only visible when there was a trial. I felt her here with us now.

This entire area was protected during the trial. The only place a witch could use her magic at Blood Hill Grove was inside the clearing, which meant right now, my coven, and all the others gathered around it, were powerless.