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Fuck.
“It’s okay,” I said, holding her tighter as an icy shiver curled down my spine. She didn’t need to finish the word. Her reaction said everything. He was dead.
She slumped over and I held her up, pressing a kiss against her forehead as her pain mixed with my emotions, blurring them. I enveloped her with my wings, wanting to shield her from the rest of the castle. Hell, the rest of the world. She’d had so much loss, and I was terrified she wouldn’t be able to come back from this one.
Whoever killed Draven was going to pay. Even if it meant I had to tear out the heart of every fucking vampire here until I found the bastard who shattered my girl's heart. I placed her on the bed, then tucked my wings behind my back. She snuggled into the blanket, and I re-wrapped my arms around her. “We’re going to make whoever did this pay.”
She sobbed out‘Kalon’before losing herself again, holding onto me. My heart softened, and I stroked her hair. I wanted to take it all away, to keep her pain as my own, and that was the worst part about loving someone—seeing them broken and not being able to do a thing about it.
An hour passed before she fell asleep. I nuzzled into her, my tear-soaked sticking against my chest. I would make Kalon pay for every tear she shed for Draven.
***
The morning fell into afternoon, and we hadn’t moved. I pulled her closer as she turned on her side, eyes still closed. She looked so peaceful that I didn’t want to wake her. I jolted as someone tapped lightly against the door. The muscles in my back and arms tensed as I held Olivia tighter.
Everyone needed to leave her alone. I swore to the gods if Sargon was outside that door, requiring her to fulfill her duties as he’d done last night—when she wasgrieving—I was going to kill him. King or not. He made her sit in the same room as her best friend’s murderer.
Tap tap tap.
Grinding my teeth, I sat upright, sliding Olivia onto a pillow, which she hugged in her sleep. I crept over to the door, creaking it open a slither.
“Erianna, Zach.” I sighed in relief, opening the door wide. Pressing a finger over my lips. ‘Outside,’ I mouthed. I clicked the door behind us and walked with them into an empty room farther down the corridor, passing two stoic guards on the way.
Erianna took a seat on a four-legged blue sofa underneath a gigantic painting of Sargon with a frame worth more than my entire house back in the city. Zach sat on a chair in the corner, sitting Anna on his lap. I evaluated Anna. Her hair was a couple of inches longer, her smile a little wider than normal.
“You look well, love.”
“Thanks, Seb.” Her cheeks reddened. “I’m so glad Zach’s back and not hurt.” She glanced at Erianna, her forehead wrinkling, a bead of sweat gathering between her brows. “I wish I could say the same for both of you.”
I shot her a look. “Both of us?”
“You were forced to become a prince and get married. Now you have no chance of mortality. I know how much it meant to you.”
“Oh.” My stomach dipped. Since Olivia died, then awoke immortal, I’d forgotten all about my desires for mortality. “You know, the bonds of marriage aren’t as suffocating as I thought they’d be.”
Zach smirked. “Ah, finally admitting how you feel, then?”
Erianna cursed under her breath, and I took the seat next to her. She white-knuckled the arm of the sofa, glaring ahead at the empty table over the other side of the room. “I’m sure you’ve heard, Draven’s dead.”
“Shit, I’m a terrible friend. I’m sorry. I know you two were getting close.”
She shrugged. “Maybe a little.” But the gloss of her eyes told a different story. “Sargon wants me reprimanded.” She tapped the dagger sheathed on her thigh. “I may have stabbed Kalon with it.”
Zach pursed his lips, and Anna let out a pitiful sigh. I couldn’t bear this anymore. Kalon deserved everything he got, and I was going to make him hurt for this. Kill him, even. Fuck Sargon and his punishments.
“Erianna.” I took her hand in mine. “I will not let them do anything to you.”
“You may not have a choice,” she said. “It’s fine.”
I squeezed her fingers gently. “It’s not. Kalon has gotten away with far too much, for far too long. He needs to be stopped. Before he kills one of you next—or Olivia.” My heart shattered at the thought of them dead, and that’s when I knew, the reality of it would kill me. I wouldn’t lose anyone else—not to them or any vampire—again. “I’m going to bring him down.”
I waited for the lecture from Erianna, as expected, where she’d tell me not to be hasty, and I’d get myself killed or something along those lines.
She squeezed my hand back. “Then we will kill him.”
Anna gasped. “No, you’ll get yourselves killed. Like you almost did last time.” She wrapped an arm around Zach, stroking his silver hair with her delicate fingers. “I won’t allow it.”
I gave her a soft smile, my heart opening inch by inch. “I love your protectiveness over us, but we need to do this. Zach does not need to partake.”
