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Nameless,I call it. I’ll take it to Lukiria. A nameless blade that’s held steadfast in battle, and most recently, felled the undead that returned from their icy graves on the mountain.
They sent my own dead soldiers to attack me. As I cleaved through rotting flesh and brittle bone, I recognized many of them.
Is this also your doing, Goddess? Or is it an abomination; an affront to your very existence?
Someone in the empire is using magic to raise the dead.
A necromancer.
How dare they desecrate my loyal, faithful soldiers, who died for the sake of the empire?
Who would be so desperate that they would resort to necromancy to attack me? And who would have the means to invoke forbidden magic in the Rahavan Empire itself?
My thoughts turn to my brother, Ansar. Son of Leticia, the first daughter of the Talavarra family. My father married her not long after my mother died—for strategic reasons, of course.
I was seven years old at the time.
The Talavarras control the rich, fertile lands of the south. And unlike my mother’s family, who have never set foot in the capital, the Talavarras are well and truly ensconced in the machinations of the Rahavan Court.
Duke Rhaegar Talavarra is one of the most powerful men in the empire, perhaps second only to my father, the emperor. It would actually make perfect sense for Ansar to succeed the throne and not I. And indeed, when I turned vampire, I had no objections to my half-brother inheriting the crown.
But Ansar’s always resented me; a sentiment that’s perhaps been fueled by Rhaegar and Leticia.
He’s seen how I’ve changed, even if he doesn’t truly understand what I am.
Suspicion snakes through my mind, threaded with anger.
Could the Talavarras be responsible for this?
And what role does my father, the master schemer, have to play in all of this?
I’ve had enough. I don’t like the feeling of being manipulated; of being made a pawn in someone else’s machinations. That’s why the very first thing I do when I arrive in the palace will be to pay the old bastard a visit.
And he will understand that up until now, I’ve beenveryrestrained.
45
FINLEY
Iwake slowly, in a haze of disbelief and wonder, the memory of Corvan’s touch lingering on my bare skin.
And the sheets are so soft and silken and warm, and I’m naked. I’m encased in pure luxury and it feels unnatural, because I’m not used to it.
Was all that has passed just a dream?
It’s so unreal, it easily could be, but as I trace my fingers along my neck, I feel the faintest of indentations in my skin.
It’s where he bit me, again and again.
There’s no pain. Just a warm, tingling sensation as I remember the feeling of his lips on me; of his hands caressing me, of…
Heat rises into my cheeks. I twist and squirm, consumed by the thought of him.
He left to do something or other. If only he were in this bed right now. I would demand his kisses. His touch. His tender bite and his hard, impressive cock.
Oh, my…
I can’t believe how easily I’ve become consumed by carnal thoughts of this man. Especially when I’m supposed to be trying to understand how to contain my newfound powers.
