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Stars, the idea was too awful to imagine. A part of me wished to disappear into the hidden palace right then, to find the human and ask, but at the late hour, she probably wasn’t there. Plus, there was more to the note.

One part of the trip I am looking forward to, though, is playing with the Scepter. Father says we can’t talk about it, but that when it’s the three of us in the sleigh, I can touch it. Imagine, Roar! What if I cause a snowstorm?

I sucked in a breath. A scepter that could cause a snowstorm. If Brogan Lisika wasn’t bragging about playing with the Ice Scepter, then I was a troll.

I continued on, but the rest of the letter proved fruitless, just brotherly teasing and musings about whether Brogan's potential wife would be more attractive than the scarred baby.

Once I reached the end of the page, I exhaled. This note, the one correspondence that Roar never found, toldtwo of House Lisika’s secrets. One: that I, a Falk princess, had likely been taken there at some point, and two: that many turns ago, the Lisikas possessed the Ice Scepter.

They’d lost me. Despite my value as an eventual bride to one of their sons and a bargaining chip, somehow I’d ended up a slave in the Vampire Kingdom.

That begged the question. Had they also lost the Ice Scepter?

Only one way to know.

Confronting Roar after I left Avaldenn had been high on my list of things I needed to do. Now? A trip to the west was inevitable because Warden Roar Lisika owed me, and the realm, answers.

Chapter 35

VALE

Iawoke to find Neve staring down at me.

“Good morning.” I breathed in her smoked vanilla scent, surprised that she was looking at me at all. I wasn’t sure what was going on with her, or between us, but as much as I wanted answers, I didn’t feel it was my place to pry.

Maybe we’d rushed into a physical relationship. Perhaps she still had things to work through from her past. Or she worried about us growing closer and her leaving.

“I have something to show you,” she said, her voice raspy. Dark smudges ringed her eyes.

“Are you ill?” I sat up.

“No”—she cleared her throat—“but I didn’t sleep. You’ll see why.” She held out a piece of paper. “Read it.”

I took the paper. It felt worn beneath my fingers and as I read, my eyebrows pinched together. “Who is this from? And to?”

“To Roar. You’ll see that near the end, from his olderbrother, Brogan.” Neve patted the book on the nightstand. “It was in the binding.”

“What?”

“Roar told me they often hid notes for the other to find. This was Brogan's favorite book, and he hid what appears to be his last note to Roar inside it.” She pulled her knees up to her chest. “Read the note, Vale.”

I wiped the sleep from my eyes and did as she asked, skimming over the childish taunting of male younglings. When we were younger, Rhistel and I had also teased one another about the females Mother had often tried to push on us. I was about to ask Neve why I was bothering with the letter, when my gaze trailed downward and caught on the word scepter.

I sucked in a breath, moved up the page, and read. When I was done, I looked at Neve. “You think the Lisikas have the Ice Scepter.”

“Or theyhadit.”

For a moment, I sensed she wanted to say more, but when she turned back to me, her violet eyes were serious.

“Vale, what’s Roar’s magic?”

“He’s a shapeshifter.”

Neve’s lips parted. “I’d not expected that. Into what animal?”

“Potentially any, though I’ve heard him say that he favors the animal of his house, the snow leopard. Most shapeshifters shift into only a few animal forms, so he might have mastered a few more by now.”

“Perhaps a snake,” Neve muttered.