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Stepping forward, I tried the door that should lead to my sitting room. It was unlocked and opened easily.
“Fuck me,” Kas breathed as we stepped inside. The room was shadowy, but there was enough light from the windows to make out dozens of shelves and tables that hadn’t been there before.
The stench hit us both at the same time, and I sprang forward with a knife in each hand.
“It’s dead,” I breathed, checking the gobbelin on the table in the center of the room.
“Probably the one Vento brought that first night,” Kas suggested, and I grimaced, noting the decay on the body. He had to be right.
“Fucking Girard. What were you doing in here?” I murmured, moving slowly through the room. Kas pushed the curtains open wider. There were dozens of containers of blood, labeled and lined up in neat rows. Lines of surgical tools gleamed in the dim light, and books were stacked in even piles on several tables.
“It’s not giving mad scientist,” I said reluctantly. I’d hoped to find signs of madness and chaos. Something to indicate my father wasn’t himself while he was here, that he’d been driven insane by Merden’s bleeding heart dosing and blood magic.
But everything pointed to the opposite.
Cold. Clinical. Uncaring about who he hurt to get what he wanted. How could he be the genetic link between my Grand-mère and me? What was so different about him, and would I be susceptible to it?
Kas seemed to sense the shift in my mood, and he came up behind me, wrapping me in his arms. “Hey. This is a lot. Do you need a break?”
Drawing in a deep breath, I nodded. Taking his hand, I pulled him toward the back of the room, where the door to my bedroom should be.
It was darker in here, but I opened a drawer and found candles and matches right where they’d always been. As the golden light shone around the space, I was relieved to find it untouched by the horror of the other room.
“So this is the room of a princess?” Kas asked, keeping his voice light as he took in the cavernous space.
“Someone’s been cleaning it,” I observed, running my fingers over the books on a shelf. There was no layer of dust, and the room smelled fresh, as though it had been aired out fairly recently.
“I’m sure he still cared about you, in his own... way,” Kas said, but even he didn’t sound completely convinced.
“What if I’m like him?” I whispered suddenly, sinking down onto the freshly made bed. “His blood is in me, even if Merden’s isn’t. What am I willing to do, to get what we both want?”
“You’re also not being force fed poison,” Kas reminded me, pointing out how Merden had been drugging my father with bleeding heart. “You won’t be like anyone but yourself - your actions are all your choice.”
I flopped back on the plush mattress, willing my mind to accept his words.
I was glad I’d solved the mystery of where Girard’s lab was, but seeing it had all been a little too much. Especially contrastedwith the disconcerting familiarity of my bedroom, and the puzzle of why Girard had kept it so pristine.
I needed a distraction.
“You know, I never once sneaked a boy into my room,” I said softly, waiting for Kas to pick up on what I wanted.
He scooted farther onto the bed. “Oh, yeah? I’m the first?”
“Wanna be?” I asked, my fingers drifting across my breasts. I was craving normalcy more than anything - moments of peace and playfulness that had been stolen from me.
So much had been stolen from me.
“Fuck yes,” Kas breathed, swinging a leg across my hips and bracing himself on his elbows as he stared down at me, black eyes flashing.
“Kiss away the weird, thief.”
“I’ll do a lot more than that, princess,” he promised, lowering his mouth to mine and pulling every stray thought in to focus on the stroke of his tongue against mine and the nip of his fangs on my skin. His body pressed down into mine, grounding me in the moment as I arched up into him.
CHAPTER SIX
KANA
I needed the closeness more than the orgasm, and I wrapped myself around Kas as he moved slowly down my body, peeling off my clothes and kissing as he went.
