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“Miss Winter, relax. Come walk with me—”
There was no other choice as his voice felt like the sweetest wine. She wrapped a hand around his wrist, then brought his nails down to her arm. Pain filled her at the slash before she backed away, stumbling at the force. Nilo was gaping at her as if she was crazy, but the heady temptation was fading as she finally glimpsed the hunger on his face. Then it registered that he was looking at the blood dripping from her, and she knew she couldn’t stay any longer.
“I will let this slide,” she warned, injecting confidence that she didn’t feel into her tone. “I will not mention your name, and we will forget about this.”
“You can’t possibly—”
Winter ripped a piece of flower from her dress, thumb hovering over the middle. “This amazing device was made by the pirates. Try a move on me, and I will press this and alert Nathaniel of danger. Don’t forget who has a pull and who is a direct line of the royal family.”
Stupefaction filled his features, and it was the leeway she needed to march away while her lie still held ground. She tore more pieces from her dress along the way and wiped the blood from her arm, looking back from time to time in anticipation of a shadowy figure jumping on her. None came, but the warning that she was going in the wrong direction was persistent, and if she didn’t correct herself—
Her body slammed into something hard, throwing everything she was holding in the air as she slipped to the ground. Panic blazed as she scrambled up, ready to punch whatever was about to attack her. Someone cleared their throat.
“What are you doing dressed like that, and why are you here?”
The voice was elegant, infused with frost. But the aura read curiosity and wariness, both of which felt better than the eager hunger she had read as friendliness. Winter tried to put a name to the face in the lingering daze before the gray eyes snagged her attention, and it clicked. Then she was bowing repeatedly and trying to pick up all the bloodied cloth pieces at the same time.
“Your majesty, I apologize for bumping into you and causing you harm. I apologize for interrupting your night. I’m sure you have somewhere to be. I’m sure—”
“You haven’t answered my question.”
Winter straightened abruptly, torn between backing away and moving closer. “I was attending the seasonal party. I was…” She gulped, the lie stuck in her throat. “Bored. I found something interesting to follow, but it brought me to your son’s cousin, Nilo.”
The frosty look transformed as the woman—the Queen of Ostrov Krov—peered at her more closely, but with the air of someone looking at her subject. In a white dress and barely any artifice, Helena Hendricks was perfection in ethereal form—and Winter had the feeling that whatever she had escaped from Nilo, she wouldn’t escape her. Excuses bubbled up in her chest.
“He tried to take me to his house. I’m starting to figure out that wasn’t your house, too, and he might have been related by extension, so it was stupid of me to just assume it was the same house. Normally I wouldn’t be tearing my clothes off unless it’s necessary, but it is necessary because I didn’t want to distract the other vampires with my blood and cause a commotion—”
“Stay still.”
Winter blinked, then froze when the woman was inches from her and tapping fingers on her bleeding arm. She trembled deep within at the nail that grazed, eliciting a pleasure-pain that tipped over to the latter. The woman pressed her palm next.
“It will heal.”
Helena stepped back. Winter gaped at her, then glanced at her arm and made a sound when she found the wound already turning faint.
“Your highness…”
“Clean yourself up. And stay away from House Armand. Lino is my relative and is not as powerful as the rest of us. I’m afraid it makes him very petty and volatile.”
It registered that she was calming down, too, and that the panic had been an aftereffect of Nilo’s compulsion. Winter continued looking at Helena, whose aura was gentle and flaring just a bit with pity.Great.
The queen of Ostrov Krov is a powerful figure that balances out the formidable king. Don’t cross her. She can be as cruel as he is when her loved ones are on the line.
“That is noted. Thank you for the warning.” Then Winter didn’t know what to say anymore. “And thank you for healing me.”
“There was no healing involved. His wound is for play. I’m sure he would have tortured you, though, and dangled you in front of my son if you had ever reached his room. It’s a personality trait derived from all that travel he does.”
The idea alone sickened her, but she gulped it in and nodded. “I will try not to cross his path again. Thank you, kind queen.”
The woman softened again, but her look remained neutral. With a last bow, Winter watched as the woman floated away, the dress billowing at her feet until Helena looked breathtaking. Winter hesitated, then mirrored the woman’s taken path. But the queen was gone, and she was lost, both from Nilo’s steering and her running further away. Surely, her bad streak of luck ended there, right? There couldn’t possibly be any more trouble waiting for her.
Even so, the sinister sensation that she was being followed prickled at her skin and tightened her gut. Winter’s eyes flew everywhere, trying to find its source as she continued walking.
What she didn’t account for was finding it on top of her in the form of a vampire swinging from the ceiling, brown eyes pinning her when she found him.
“Hello, Winter. You still owe us.”
There was a hard jolt to her head before darkness came—but not before she understood which was the only house that could claim that she still owed them something.
