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‘Your—’

‘He made me a vampire,’ she clarified, interrupting me with unusual impatience.

‘Oh,’ I said sheepishly. The tone of her voice suggested that relationship was not a source of much joy –terribly upset, Naxi had whispered. Were the complications for the Alliance the reason, or was the involvement of His Majesty himself the major problem?

‘So he’s still alive?’ Agenor muttered, and Tared grumbled something that suspiciously resembled the wordunfortunately.

Nenya sent the both of them a glare. ‘He’s spent the last few centuries in Gar Temen. Most of the time, he doesn’t bother with worldly matters. I hadn't expected him to have opinions at all.’

‘What is he angry about, exactly?’ Cas asked cautiously.

‘No idea. They were painfully vague at Ubrit, just kept repeating that new information had reached them and that they had to reconsider their commitments with a higher authority. It could be that Bakaru is unhappy about the plans themselves. Could be he’s just annoyed I didn’t come to him first.’

‘Don’t blame yourself,’ Lyn said, rubbing her eyes. ‘If you’d gone to him first, he’d have thrown a fit about you wasting his time. There was no way to predict he’d be interested in the matter at all, after he ignored the entire previous war.’

I glanced at Agenor. On his shoulders, Oleander had raised her sleek black head, tongue flashing in and out as she followed the conversation with her beady eyes.

‘If he wasn’t involved with the war,’ I said, ‘how do you even know him at all?’

Agenor shrugged; the gesture earned him an annoyed hiss. ‘He was already sworn to Korok before I was born. Possibly quite long before I was born.’

Oh, gods help me. Life had been complicated enough without the existence of fickle godsworn vampire kings older than even the oldest fae male I knew – vampire kings disinclined to help us win a fight we desperately needed to win.

Next to me, Creon sat examining Nenya closely, and this time not even Naxi told him to keep his powers locked away.

‘So what do we do?’ Lyn said.

‘We need the vampires,’ Cas said, hunching up his bony shoulders with his usual awkward, apologetic expression. He had the kind of floppy red hair that made even an adult look boyish, and he’d never looked floppier than at this moment. ‘The phoenix elders are still being … how do I put this …’

‘Mind-numbingly unhelpful?’ Tared suggested, glancing at me for some reason.

Cas followed his gaze, sending me an uneasy grin. ‘I suppose that covers it, yes.’

Theyhadbeen talking about me, damn them. I fell back in my chair and snapped, ‘Does the unhelpfulness have anything to do with my person, or are you all just that eager to see my pretty face a little more often?’

‘Em …’ Lyn said, but even her grin was too restrained, some untold secret shimmering through.

‘Oh,’ Valeska said, mousy face brightening. ‘Good gods. She’s been spreading the same story with the phoenixes?’

Tared snapped around. ‘What? The nymphs too?’

‘Whatstory?’ It fell from my lips sounding too shrill. ‘Did I do anything I shouldn’t have done?’

‘No,’ Lyn said bleakly. ‘Or … well, nothing that could be prevented, I suppose. But apparently the Mother’s envoys have been going around telling people …’ Her eyes flashed to Creon, a look estimating a threat, and back to me. ‘Reminding people not to forget that you’re just a witless almost-human girl entirely under the Silent Death’s traitorous influence, and that as much as they may dislike the empire, do they truly think it will get better with her son ruling it?’

I stared at her.

Creon –rulinganything?

Oh, fuck. And the poor souls would believe that story, wouldn’t they? I would have accepted it without question a year ago, too. Of course the Silent Death was rotten enough to betray his own people over his unbridled lust for cruelty – who wouldn’t acknowledge that? And all they knew about me …

Silly little Emelin, fae whore. Imagine they’d accuse me ofthinking.

Cas sat hunched up in his chair as if he expected someone to shout at him. Nenya looked ready to nibble someone’s head off. Tared gave the impression that Lyn’s presence was his last reason not to draw a sword and challenge his old enemy to a duel over my honour on the spot. But when I turned aside, suddenly excruciatingly aware of their gazes on every look we exchanged, Creon hadn't even sat up straighter, observing the company with cold, dark eyes.

No attempts at defence. By the faint sneer of satisfaction around his lips, I might have thought they’d complimented him.

‘It’s gotten the nymph isles all in a flurry,’ Valeska said when he remained unmoving; she fidgeted with her sleeves as she stared at his hands. ‘They haven’t forgotten how you killed the queen of Tolya twenty years ago.’