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It hurt my heart, and I wasn’t ready to look closely at why.
“I don’t know the rest. That’s why we have to find Rush.”
“We?” Kas echoed, the look growing even harder as his eyes looked to the window. “I never signed up for that, princess.”
And there it was. Kassian Kingston was fucking pissed at the world, and it didn’t matter that Merden had had been the one to spill his best friend’s blood. My family had created this world he hated.
“I won’t go back on anything I promised you, but I need more answers, too,” he added, the look softening for just a moment before his own walls went back up. I couldn’t blame him. I’d grieved Nicolas for a decade, and I doubted it would ever stop.
He’d had barely three days.
So I coughed up the secret that had turned into an ugly suspicion. “After the competition the other day, I tasted Rush’s blood. Just a drop. He didn’t offer it. I just... did it. And he freaked out. He said I didn’t know what I’d done, and he bolted. I... I haven’t seen him since.”
Blaise huffed. “Rude. I don’t know much about energy fae, but I can’t see how tasting his blood should have mattered. Vampires share blood with every species. Even fae.”
I leaned my head back, resting it on the couch cushions. “I know. But it was the last time I saw him. It means something.”
Kas frowned. “Even if we’re going with the theory that it’s all related somehow, the timeline’s just too tight. You taste the fae. He flips out and disappears. The very next night, you and I are laid flat on our backs with pain. Blaise comes to tell us the blood slaves are freaking out. Then Vento shows up with a gobbelin, I pass out and see nothing, and you pass out and see a gobbelin army.”
“Fucking crazy,” Luca grumbled, and I sighed.
“We’re missing something, obviously. Did you get anything from Vento?” I asked my wolf.
“He disappeared the second I turned my back on him to look back at the palace, when the windows shattered. But he said thefaeraised the gobbelins, with Merden’s help, remember?”
I sat up and nodded, a chill running down my spine. I hadn’t forgotten that part - I’d just been hoping there was a mistake. “He said Merden gave them the relics and the Forbidden Magic. Maybe Rush isn’t part of this.”
Fuck, I really hoped he wasn’t part of this, but it felt like I was reaching for it simply because I cared for him.
“Maybe, but heisa fae. He definitely knew something,” Kas said, his voice low and dangerous.
“But that name Vento called you... Khione? It means something to me. I just can’t remember what,” Luca added.
“Maybe there’s a story about it somewhere,” Blaise said, frowning. “I’ll look into it. Val’s got nothing but time on her hands, too. She’d be thrilled to solve this puzzle before any of you.”
“Nobody else,” I warned, and Blaise nodded as she stood and headed toward the door. “Every single noble is suspect, now. And whatever happened to the gobbelin body?”
“Ah, your dad... rumors have it that he was seen dragging it away toward his rooms,” Blaise answered with a disgusted curl of her lip.
“Fucking Girard,” I grumbled under my breath. “What are you up to, old man?”
“What about your grandmother?” Kas asked, as though the mention of Girard had reminded him that the king was keeping his own mother captive in the dungeons. My family really was a goddamn mess.
“We can try to sneak down to see her, but Rush’s glamor was the trick last time. I’m not sure I need to be rage-killing a bunch of guards right now.” I flopped back onto the couch as the door closed behind Blaise. Luca locked it immediately, but my two men stayed silent.
“I’m sorry about all of this,” I began, but Luca strode toward me, wrapping me in his arms. The spicy sweet scent of his ice wolf blood spilled down my throat, reawakening the hunger Nic had stoked, and I bit down on a moan of need. This was kind of bad timing.
“None of this is your fault, kitten. Fuck, I’m sorry. I should have kept better tabs on Vento. Been more demanding of Rush. Something.” Guilt crinkled his forehead and turned down his lips in a frown of self-accusation.
“I wish I could have seen you for who you are, all those years ago,” I whispered, burying my face in his massive chest and allowing myself another deep breath.
I’d been too wrapped up in Nicolas and Acadian to realize the honesty in Luca’s feelings for me. Then the rage I’d felt when I thought they’d died... it had killed any possibility of trust with Luca.
I raised my eyes to look over at my thief. “And I know it’s going to be fucking hard, Kas, but I hope you can see me forme, and not who else shares my blood. I’m so incredibly sorry about Ren.”
Kas took in a sharp breath, his chest caving inward as he struggled to hold it all in, and I slipped free of Luca’s grasp to go to him. He wrapped his arms around me and buried his nose in my hair, breathing deeply like he could ground himself in my scent.
“I wish I’d known you outside of all this shit, too,” Kas said, his voice gravelly and his hands tight and desperate on my body. “But I’ll keep trying to separate it. I know you’re nother.”
