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“How is she?” Risna asks, sandy fingers brushing dark strands away from Rory’s closed eyes. “Did you have enough time? Will she survive the Embrace?”

“She will,” I say sanguinely. It’s forced optimism, desperate optimism. She has to wake. I cannot lose her after I’ve just found her. I won’t. I step into the grave to gently lay her down. Her ivory gown is stained crimson, the flower crown in her hair crushed and wilted. Even in death, she’s still the most beautiful creature I’ve ever laid my eyes on. Smoothing my hand against her cheek, I press a kiss to her blood-stained lips. It takes more restraint than I care to admit to pry myself away from her. To leave her here. “Let’s bury her.”

Carver tosses the sack with Joal’s head to the wayside as he helps the three of us pour black sand over Rory. Eivor murmurs one of his god’s prayers with every handful of sand, and Risna… Risna watches me with worry etched into her furrowed brow and concern shimmering in her ink-dark eyes.

I ignore every prodding look.

When we’re finished and Rory is thoroughly buried beneath six feet of sand, we regard the grave.

“We have until dawn before she wakes. Carver, will you prepare a bedroom for her in my wing of the castle?” I snatch the sack of gore from the ground, noting the sand clinging to the exterior where blood has soaked through. “She’ll need⁠—”

“New clothes from the mainland,” Carver says, nodding. “I calculated her size before we buried her, so I’ll stock her wardrobe and gather some things that’ll make her feel at home here. Did you happen to discover any of her interests beyond your cock?”

Eivor snickers.

“Journaling.” I pinch the bridge of my nose and recall our night playing cards. “Other solitary hobbies like flower pressing, sewing, reading…”

Risna’s eyes light up as if they’re two twinkling stars. “Oh, I’m going to love her.”

A reluctant smile tugs at my lips.

“You should take Eivor with you two to Aeviternal,” Carver suggests, directing us back toward a serious matter. “I don’t trust Mihal.”

“Neither do I,” I admit. He was too quick to agree to Risna’s alternate plan, but if he is plotting something, I’d rather not take more of my kindred with me than absolutely necessary. “But Rory will need blood when she wakes, and if you’re off getting her some belongings, I’ll need Eivor to gather some blood.”

“Mortal or animal?” Eivor asks.

I look to Risna for guidance. “Which do you recommend?”

She hesitates, dark gaze searching mine. “It truly depends if she’s inherited the affliction.”

“Let’s assume she hasn’t,” I say hastily. “Did you feed Eivor mortal blood first? Does it matter which I choose?”

“I don’t think it matters much.” Her focus drifts over to Eivor. “Blood is blood. I did feed Eivor mortal blood when he woke, though. I raided a prison, stole a child murderer from his cell, and bled him as soon as Eivor crawled from his grave. Then I weaned him onto animal blood.”

Eivor groans. “You speak like I was an infant suckling from a teat.”

She pats his cheek. “You are my childe, after all. And Rory is yours, Quill. It’s your choice.”

Rory’s words from the first night we met surface. My body stopped being my own the night I was born.

She has lived a life where every choice has been stripped from her beyond the ones she’s made in secret. In her rebirth, I will not force her into a life riddled with the same impertinence.

“It’s her body,” I say. “She will choose which type of blood she consumes. Eivor, just fetch as much mortal and animal blood as you can carry and bring it back to the castle.”

He nods.

My hand tightens around the sack as I glance at Risna. “Will I know when she wakes?”

“Indeed.” The breeze ruffles her short hair. “You will feel it in the deepest parts of your soul as her sire, and I suspect, as her mate. We should act fast, Quill. Dawn is near, and there’s no telling how long Mihal will keep us. Yours is the first face Rory should see when she wakes.”

Chapter 16

QUILL

The air is thick with woodsmoke as Risna and I stroll through the castle gates with Joal’s head in tow. Drac and Hercule wait outside, donning their usual sneers. Only, Hercule’s seems to slip as he notices Risna beside me.

“Risna!” He stands up straighter. “Supreme Mihal mentioned Quill would have a guest with him, but he didn’t say it was you.”