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“Lucian dies,” I half growled, causing Draven and most of the others to glance at me. My prince was the only one I focused on. “He hurt you. He fucking dies.”

Draven’s fingers wrapped around my hand before he raised it so he could kiss my knuckles without ever breaking eye contact.

“Agreed,” Kieran called out.

“I love it when you two get all murderous over me.” Draven sighed.

Alaric let out an annoyed huff on my other side, which I ignored. I’d wait until we were alone to figure out what had made him even grouchier than normal.

“The Demetri bit is odd though,” Kieran said.

“Why is she so interested in the two of you getting back together? If she knew this was endgame, she could have just encouraged you to go back to him. We both know you would have done it if she’d asked, but instead, she let your divorce go through—supported it, even. ”

He was right. I had been loyal to Carmilla—up to a point; if she’d asked me to betray Rynn or Cali in some way, I wouldn’t have done it.

I hadn’t been blindly loyal the way Vail had been, but if she’d asked me to sacrifice my happiness for the sake of the House?

I would have done it in a heartbeat. I had done it when I’d agreed to marry Demetri.

“I don’t know,” I lied. “She must have her reasons though.”

During my recap, I’d left out the part about my heritage. Draven and Vail knew I was part Fae, but they hadn’t offered up that information, and I hadn’t told anyone yet what the crown had told me. About who my father really was.

Everyone would have questions about it, and I had no answers—only more questions of my own.

I would tell the others about it. Just .

. . later. When we were alone and had more time to discuss the implications.

It wasn’t that I didn’t trust Roth’s family; at this point, I trusted them more than my own House or any of the others.

House Harker loyalties would likely be torn between me and Carmilla.

The rest of the Houses . . . I only trusted them to do what was best for themselves.

But I wanted to tell my mates first.

My heart skipped a beat. Mates. The word had just flowed through my thoughts like water, but it felt right. The Fae hadn’t used the term husband or wife—only mate. Growing up, I’d read so many poems of fated love. Of two Fae coming together despite all the odds against them.

I wondered if there were any Fae poems out there about multiple mates. My lips curled up in amusement. Maybe the crown would know.

The amusement died at that thought. You cannot abandon me.

For all its arrogance and sarcasm, there had been fear and loneliness in those words too.

I’m sorry , I pushed out even though I suspected I was too far away for it to hear me. I will return for you. You are not forgotten.

Even if I hadn’t felt this odd responsibility towards the crown, we had to get it away from Carmilla.

It was a weapon just waiting to be wielded against us.

The crown might not have worked on me or anyone who had recently drank my blood, but it’d worked against Kieran’s parents just fine.

Not only were they powerful, but I suspected they regularly drank from the vein of the Corvinus family.

They were close friends with the Heads of the House after all.

When Draven’s mother had attempted to use the crown against House bloodlines, it hadn’t worked well.

At best, she’d been able to drive them insane until they’d become Strigoi, but she’d only had half the crown—Carmilla had united both halves.

We didn’t know what it was capable of now, and I didn’t want to let her test its capabilities on the people I cared about.

There was also the fact that it could help us fill in the gaps of what we knew of Lunaria’s history.

Even with the crown’s spotty memory, it might be able to tell us something new.

Between that and the Harker journals I’d discover in the hidden cave, we might finally be able to piece together more of our history. Speaking of . . .

“Roth, where are the journals?” I didn’t specify which ones because I knew they’d understand.

“Waiting for us at House Devereux,” they tossed over their shoulder. “The ones you had anyway. The rest are where you left them.”

In the secret room of the cavern by the sea.

The Fae, it seemed, had been quite fond of secret rooms and passages.

My brows pinched together as I cast glances around the tunnel.

Come to think of it, all the secret rooms we’d discovered so far were underground, or at least covered by layers of rock like the cavern.

Why had they been so obsessed with keeping things beneath the surface?

“Good.” I let out a long breath, dismissing the eccentricities of the Fae for now.

“Have you heard anything from Cali or Rynn?” My right thumb rubbed the spot on my finger where the ring Cali had crafted for me usually rested.

I hated not knowing where they were, and I knew they likely weren’t handling my sudden absence well.

Silence fell.

Kieran and Roth exchanged a look I couldn’t decipher since I could only see their profiles. I glanced at Alaric and the muscle along his jaw flexed. “Reports indicate that Rynn is with the Alpha Pack in the north, but we haven’t been able to confirm that with absolute certainty.”

I nodded, having suspected as much. The last time I’d seen Rynn and the Alphas, they hadn’t been getting along.

In fact, Rynn had been adamant that she wouldn’t be going with them despite the fact that she’d been promised to join their Pack for over a decade.

She’d been delaying it for years, and I felt guilty that I hadn’t read more into that.

I’d been so preoccupied dealing with my failing marriage and trying to sort out my own life that I hadn’t realized how desperate Rynn had been to avoid her fate.

Fuck, I was a shitty friend.

I’d make it up to her by busting her out of the Alpha Pack’s stronghold—after we got the crown back and stopped Carmilla. For now, Rynn was in the safest place she could be.

“And Cali?” I asked quietly, dreading the answer.

“Nobody knows.” Alaric sighed. “There have been no sightings of her anywhere.”

He hesitated, and I could tell there was more.

“Spit it out, Alaric,” I demanded, earning me a pissed-off look from him.

You can be pissy all you want, but you’re going to fucking tell me. I held his gaze and raised my chin, and that muscle beneath his eye twitched.

“Two Furies stopped by House Harker before we left for Roth’s House. They?—”

“House Harker is Roth’s House,” I cut him off before giving Taivan a challenging look when he glanced over his shoulder at me.

Severen and Celestina might be Roth’s parents, but Taivan was their eldest sibling—and the House Devereux Heir.

He was the one here who could lay claim to Roth. “ Mine ,” I growled.

Eyes identical to Roth’s sparked at the challenge, and he stopped. I and everyone else stopped with him.

“Taivan . . .” Roth warned and started towards me, only to be stopped by Desmond.

The Devereux Heir closed the distance between us. When Alaric and Draven moved to intercept, I slammed a hand against each of their chests and shoved them back. This was between me and Taivan. I didn’t need them to fight this battle for me.

“Shouldn’t you be a little more appreciative?” Taivan raised a dark brow. “If not for us, your pretty ass would still be sitting in that cell.”

“I would have gotten out eventually—you just moved up the timeline.”

He gave me a patronizing smile. “Sure.”

“You threw Roth away.” I bared my teeth at him. “Finders keepers. You try to take them from me, and I’ll carve out your fucking heart.”

Several breaths passed between us, and the tension of those gathered shot up.

Then Taivan broke it when his smile widened and became something real. “Okay, I definitely approve of this.” He patted me on the head before looking past me to his parents. “Looks like you finally get to plan that wedding, Pa!”

“Yes!” Desmond pumped a fist in the air. “That means we’re off the hook for at least a decade.”

Roth sighed, and I caught their eye. What the fuck? I mouthed. They just gave me a pitying look and turned to move down the tunnel in the direction we’d been headed.

We all started walking again, and Draven grumbled something under his breath when he had to step aside to make room next to me for Severen. A second later, Alaric did the same when Celestina took his spot.

“How do you feel about a summer wedding?” Severen asked.

Before I could answer, Celestina cut in. “You’re good with a little pain, right? Our wedding vows are . . . intense.”

“Don’t worry,” Severen said, again cutting me off from responding. “We have a little more time before we get to a safe place to rest. Plenty of time to hash out a plan to take care of this crown nonsense, kill your aunt, and coordinate a wedding.”

“Maybe we should worry about the first two things before getting to the wedding bit,” I suggested lightly.

Both of them slowed their pace.

“Are you trying to get out of marrying our youngest?” Celestina’s voice was lethally quiet.

“No!” I cast helpless looks at both Draven and Alaric, who looked like they were trying to hold back their laughter.

“Excellent!” Severen slapped me on the back, causing me to stumble forward. “Which do you prefer, wildflowers or . . .”