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“I was actually coming to get you.” I gave them a wry smile.

“Oh.” Some of the fire banked in their eyes. “Let’s go then.”

Roth started to walk past me before turning back around to face their family. “Uhh . . . thank you for keeping me alive.”

Severen rubbed his face, clearly at a loss for patience when dealing with his youngest child, but a faint smile of amusement teased Celestina’s lips. Meanwhile, Roth’s brothers both smiled like they’d just been paid the highest of compliments.

That was clearly too much emotion for Roth because they practically fled past me, and I quickly followed after them, not wanting to be left behind to deal with the strange family dynamic that was House Devereux.

We walked across the clearing to where Samara was wiping some of the blood off Cali’s face while offering soothing words.

I cut a glance to Kieran and found him standing a few feet away from Nyx, who was rooted to the same spot, tension rolling off them, but at least they weren’t actively hunting anyone nor had they bolted into the woods, so I’d take that as a win.

Samara’s dark gaze cut to us as Roth and I approached, then she dropped her hand to her side and moved her fingers in a way that had to be some type of signal.

A ranger signal maybe? Kieran spent a lot of time sparring with the rangers, so he probably would have known what it meant, but I had no idea.

I opened my mouth to ask when Roth’s fingers briefly closed around my forearm, drawing me to a stop.

Wait and hold , they mouthed.

Surprise flickered through me. It was well-known that every member of House Devereux went through ranger training, but I’d assumed Roth had been exempt from it because they were . . . well . . . they were Roth. If it wasn’t a book—or Samara—they didn’t give a shit.

Any musings I’d had about Roth and their upbringing evaporated as Samara tucked a strand of hair behind Cali’s ear and started asking her questions—ones I was really curious about the answers to.

“How did you know where to find us?” Samara asked her friend gently.

“Whispers.” Cali’s eyes were wide. “Don’t you hear them?”

Roth and I shared a look. Furies were prone to madness. Nobody knew why. The Moroi lost themselves to bloodlust, but the Furies . . . they lost themselves to rage. If our hunger for blood was its own entity, then so was that fury that burned within them.

Only the Velesians had no such hardships.

It was one of the many mysteries I and so many others had pondered over the years.

“I don’t hear anything.” Samara shook her head, keeping her voice calm and soothing. “These voices . . . they told you to come here?”

Cali’s head snapped towards the north. The sudden movement had me reaching for the dagger on my thigh, but I stilled my hand.

“He told me. I’ve never heard his voice so clearly before.” She turned back to face us—Sam, really. I didn’t think she was entirely registering our presence at the moment. Her mouth hardened into a flat line as her brows furrowed together. “The lake.”

“Lake Malov?” Samara prodded, reaching out to grip her friend’s hands.

The Furie looked down at where their bloody fingers were intertwined, then her eyes cleared a little more, the glow dimming. “You were missing,” she said slowly. “So was Rynn. The last place I knew you were was Lake Malov.”

I cursed under my breath, drawing Samara’s attention for a moment and letting me see the fear in her eyes. Fear for her friend, who had said that all Furies avoided the area around Lake Malov because it made them uneasy . . . but that it had always called to her.

Something had been trying to get Cali to go to Lake Malov for a long time—and it just got its wish.

“Can’t we just go one fucking day without more fucked-up bullshit raining down on us?” I half growled.

Someone grunted next to me, and I almost jumped out of my skin. Taivan’s eyes never strayed from Cali, but the corners of his mouth quirked up into a grin, clearly amused at having scared the shit out of me. I glowered at him. How did someone that large move so quietly?

“This is Lunaria.” Taivan gave me a sly look before returning their vigilant gaze to the Furie. “There’s never a time when it’s not fucked.”

I snorted. True enough.

“Do you still hear it—him?” Samara corrected herself, once again focused on her best friend.

Cali tilted her head as if she was listening for something, and we all waited for a few tension-filled seconds until her shoulders sagged in relief. She smiled weakly at Sam. “No. I think I burned myself out. The whispers will be back—he’ll be back—but for now, it’s quiet.”

Lightning flashed across the sky, and thunder rumbled in the distance a few seconds later. The downpour had lightened up, but the rain showed no sign of stopping anytime soon.

As if reading my thoughts, Samara looked up to the sky and then surveyed all of us, her eyes lingering for a moment on the fallen forms of Adrienne and Emil. A hint of grief broke through her calm and determined mask before she hid it.

For years, I thought Samara was self-serving because she’d always seemed so above everyone.

Always breezing into a room with a confident swagger that had immediately put me into a foul mood, but now I realized what that had cost her.

Samara never allowed anyone—in our House or any other—to see her as anything but unbreakable.

So many times, I’d said something cruel to her just to try to get a reaction.

I almost never got one. Instead, she’d say something back that would have me seeing red and usually storming out of the room, but I suspected my words had always cut far deeper than I’d imagined.

She was just better at hiding her wounds than I.

Fuck. I’d been such an asshole. To make it worse, Kieran had always seen the truth of Samara, and he had hinted at it over the years. I’d just chosen to not believe him because of the often conflicting feelings I’d had towards the House Heir.

That was all in the past though. I could make up for it now—starting with not making Samara bear all of this alone.

“We need to regroup. Preferably somewhere indoors and behind wards. We can’t be that far from House Salvatore.

” Cautiously, I closed the distance between myself and Samara, keeping part of my attention on Cali.

She seemed calmer now, more like her usual self, but I didn’t want to risk upsetting her.

The Furie just gave me a tired, wan smile and extended her wings up, curving them forward slightly to provide a little bit of shelter from the rain.

“We don’t know where House Salvatore stands with Carmilla’s rise to power.

” Samara chewed on her bottom lip, her eyes distant as she thought it through.

“Draven and Vail are south of us. We could rendezvous with them and then continue to Salvatore. Hopefully Carmilla hasn’t sunk her claws into them. ”

Or used the crown’s magic. Although we still didn’t know if the crown could be wielded against a House bloodline as it could any other Moroi. Nyx might be one of our rangers, but they were technically of the House Corvinus bloodline.

I didn’t know if Carmilla had intentionally turned them into a Strigoi or if, even with both halves united, that was still the only way it could work on a House bloodline.

She’d definitely been able to control them.

I thought about the way Nyx had been fighting towards the end. One rebellious step at a time.

Something about the crown’s magic hadn’t entirely worked on Nyx.

A howl rose in the night, sounding a few miles away from us.

“No matter what, I think we want to head south.” I reached out and brushed back the hair that was plastered to Samara’s face.

“We’re lucky we haven’t drawn the attention of wraiths or any other nasty creatures.

” I glanced around before looking back at Samara and suggesting a plan of action.

“Find Draven and Vail. Evaluate House Salvatore when we get there. If anything appears suspicious, we don’t set foot inside their walls and we continue on to House Devereux. ”

“Okay.” Samara nodded and then glanced at Taivan, who hadn’t tried to crowd in under Cali’s wings and was just standing in the rain, not looking the least bit bothered by it. “Does that plan work for you?”

“Yes.” The Heir of House Devereux nodded. “We’ve had scouts keeping an extra close eye on House Salvatore since Roth arrived home. Best we can tell, they’ve had no communication with Carmilla.”

“Good enough for me.” Samara looked around at the corpses littering the clearing—Cali’s work. Again, I saw that hint of sadness in her eyes before she tucked it away. Some of them might have willingly served Carmilla, but not all. “We can’t take them with us,” Samara said softly.

There were far too many for us to carry, and we needed to move swiftly. It was a miracle that the Lunarian beasts hadn’t already come to investigate the tang of blood in the air. The storm might be making us all miserable and cold, but at least it was keeping scents down.

“I’ll send my people to come and collect the dead as soon as I can,” Taivan offered.

It was nice of him, but we all knew there wouldn’t be much left. The beasts that prowled the forests were not ones to waste such a meal.

Suddenly, Nyx snapped out of their almost comatose stance, causing everyone to stiffen.

Taivan had a blade in his hand in an instant, but Nyx ignored him along with the rest of us as they walked over to where Adrienne lay and carefully lifted her, cradling the ranger to their chest, as if they could protect her in death.

Not a flicker of emotion appeared on Nyx’s face as they looked to where Emil rested. Wordlessly, Cali tucked her wings back and strode over to the other ranger, easily picking him up. Together, Nyx and Cali began walking south.

The rest of us followed, leaving the dead behind.