Page 31

“Your mother was no prize.” I shrugged and tapped the flat blade of a dagger against my chin before pointing it at Demetri.

“Still surprised you had the backbone to do it yourself. Or did you get one of your dogs to do it?” I glanced at the howlers that still hadn’t moved.

“And to be clear, I mean the rangers who swore an oath to their House and betrayed it.”

“Fucking cunt,” one of the rangers swore and took a step forward, his sword hand raising, but halted when Demetri held his arms out to the side.

“Hey, Fletch.” I winked at the ranger, who was still glaring at me. “Look at you using naughty words. Did your balls finally drop?” I twirled my daggers in an obnoxiously showy move before pointing one at him. “I can fix that for you.”

“Careful, Samara,” Demetri warned. “One way or another, you will be my wife again. You can live out the rest of your life in luxury . . . or in a dungeon.”

Out of the corner of my eye, I caught more movement in the trees—someone timed their jump down right as thunder roared across the sky.

Demetri’s rangers shifted uncomfortably as they glanced around the forest. They were used to the forests along the coasts that, while still dangerous, were far less so than the ones farther inland like this one.

I was actually surprised Demetri had convinced them to come at all instead of waiting to track me down during the day. So much about this didn’t make sense . . .

“Give me an honest answer, and I’ll consider coming with you,” I lied. “Why do you want to marry me again? Why go to all this trouble?”

He tilted his head, and his hood slipped a little, letting me see more of his aristocratic face that I’d once found very handsome.

When we’d been together, he almost always wore a lazy but charming expression.

He’d spent all his time lazing about or entertaining courtiers—or fucking them, as I later learned—but there was a cunning glint to his eyes now that had been absent all those years.

Demetri had fooled everyone—myself included. It annoyed me that I’d missed it.

“My original deal with Carmilla was quite simple. She supports me as the new leader of House Laurent, and my House backs her as the new Sovereign.” His mouth twisted like he’d just bitten something sour.

“Then she changed it. Said that in addition to supporting her, I needed to father a child with you . . . for her to raise. She never did explain but made it quite clear it was nonnegotiable.”

A chill ran through me that had nothing to do with the cold rain. She knew. At some point, Carmilla had figured out I was part Fae . . . and wanted a child of my bloodline.

“Why you?” I asked numbly.

My ex-husband watched me closely, likely looking for a hint about what made me so special.

Just wait a few minutes, and I’ll show you.

“Like I said, she wasn’t keen on going into the details.

” He gave me a sly grin. “If I had to guess, it seemed like she wanted to compensate for something in your bloodline. Wanted to make sure that a strong Moroi House bloodline was mixed in. Not all the Houses have male children—only Tepes and Devereux. Neither of those Houses were likely to agree to such a thing, but me?” His smile sharpened.

“I’ve already had you before; I don’t mind having you again. ”

“Pass,” I said flatly.

“You don’t have a choice, Samara.” He snorted. “Technically, Carmilla only wants the child. The marriage was my condition.”

“Funny. You didn’t seem to care about the first one.” My grip tightened around the daggers. The others better have taken out any other enemy rangers lurking around us because my patience was waning.

“Do you have any idea how much shit I had to listen to after you left?” he sneered.

“At first, you were the butt of the jokes, considering how many courtiers I fucked right under your nose while you were too busy trying to be the perfect Heir, but then you had to go and start a relationship with Kieran. That got people’s attention, and I had to listen to the rumors swirl about what was so wrong with me that you ran straight into the arms of a lesser Moroi.

Let him stand beside you as if he were an equal. ”

I used to think, for all his flaws, that Demetri was different from his mother.

That he hadn’t inherited her bullshit beliefs about some Moroi being lesser than others simply because of the families they were born into, but the look of disgust and scorn on his face was an exact match to the one I’d seen on hers countless times.

Rage simmered inside me, knowing that Kieran had likely heard every word. I knew he worried that his station as a courtier made him not worthy of me. It was something I was more than happy to spend the rest of my life proving false to him.

In the meantime, I’d fucking kill anyone who made him doubt his self-worth.

“I’d offer to make you a list of all the ways you fail to measure up to Kieran, but it’s too lengthy, and you’re not going to live long enough to read it.”

Demetri gave me a patronizing look. “I brought forty rangers with me.” He gestured at the trees surrounding us.

“Right now, the rest of them are killing whoever helped you break out—I’m guessing your pretty courtier and that surly advisor.

I’ve only tolerated your pathetic attempt at stalling because I was hoping they would drag the broken bodies of your lovers out in front of you, but it seems they’ve abandoned you.

No matter. My rangers still have orders to kill them. ”

Two bloodred ropes slowly slid from the trees above the heads of the rangers standing on either side of Demetri. Thanks to the thick foliage, nobody seemed to notice but me. A feral smile spilt across my lips.

“You want me?” I bared my teeth. “Come and get me.”

Demetri narrowed his eyes, but like the coward he was, he didn’t take a step forward. “Get her. Make sure she’s tied up good for the journey back to House Laurent. I don’t want to hear another fucking word out of that mouth.”

Four rangers stepped forward with their weapons bared and a swirl of two different colors in their eyes as their bloodlust rose. These ones were clearly excited about the idea of hurting me, a cruelty that had been allowed to fester at House Laurent.

That would fucking end now.

The ropes that had been slithering their way through the branches shot forward and wrapped around the necks of two of the rangers moving to apprehend me before yanking them up into the trees.

The other two rangers barely had a second to cry out in alarm before they dropped to their knees, screaming, courtesy of my daggers now protruding from their right eye sockets.

Demetri and the other rangers stood frozen in shock.

That was another difference between them and the House Harker rangers; Vail’s people would have never hesitated.

I tugged on the magic connecting me to my daggers, and they ripped free of the rangers’ eyes and flew back into my hands. Both rangers let out twin shrieks of pain before scrambling back as two bodies thudded to the ground, their throats slit and bodies disemboweled.

The two rangers with eye wounds were cut down by Alaric and Kieran as they leapt down from above us.

Roth’s family melted out of the surrounding forest and cut through the remaining rangers like they were out on a morning stroll.

A few Laurent rangers tried to flee once they saw that the Devereux clan was here, but their retreat was thwarted by Nyx, Adrienne, and Emil, who took care of them with ease.

Demetri stood frozen in the center of the chaos as his rangers were slaughtered. The undead hounds didn’t react at all to the bloodbath around them either. They just stood perfectly still like statues. I got the sense that my earth magic didn’t like their presence.

Things that were dead should stay dead.

I stalked towards Demetri, and whatever he saw in my face seemed to snap him out of it because he held up his hands and started backing up. “Samara, wait! We can negotiate a dea?—”

Warm blood sprayed across my rain-soaked face as I slammed one dagger into his throat and the other into his groin. Demetri’s hands weakly clawed at one of my wrists, but dark red ropes appeared and brutally pulled them away as he gurgled and I ripped my blades away.

The broken scream he released was music to my ears as he fell to the forest floor. Moroi were tough to kill—it was a blessing and a curse.

I watched as my former husband tried to crawl away from me, a cold satisfaction filling me.

Kieran and Alaric appeared at my sides, the rain doing its best to wash the blood off their clothes.

I sheathed my daggers and held a hand out, then Kieran placed his sword in my hand, and the two of them kissed me on the cheek before stepping back.

Around me, Roth’s brothers were gleefully hacking off heads to ensure all the Laurent rangers wouldn’t heal and come after us.

Demetri’s fingers moved feebly as he drew a healing glyph on his neck, but he stopped when I closed the distance between us and slammed my foot into his ribs. He let out a strangled scream as he flipped onto his back. Blood soaked his shirt and pants, and his usually tan skin was pale.

“Deal,” he rasped. “Make . . . deal.”

“Oh Demetri,” I purred. “The only thing I want from you is to bleed out at my feet.” Then I swung the blade, and his scream abruptly ended as his head rolled off his shoulders. “And I can handle that just fine on my own, asshole.”