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Petra’s shoulders rose in what I was pretty sure was the smallest shrug I’d ever seen.

“When I asked him about it, he said I was delirious and seeing things.” A faint smile stretched across her lips for a second.

“I was bleeding heavily from head trauma, and my right leg had been holding on by a few shredded tendons, so I wasn’t in any shape to argue, and I never mentioned it because I had no proof.

Plus, he saved my life that day, and it seemed in poor form to go spreading rumors about him. ”

“Fair.” Aniela nodded and turned her attention back to me. “So you also have Fae blood, and you think this protects you from the effects of the crown?”

“It is my father’s bloodline that protects me, yes,” I answered. It was the truth—in a sleight of hand kind of way. It wasn’t just that my father was Fae; it was that he belonged to the Seelie royal bloodline that was responsible for the creation of the crown in the first place.

At least according to the smart-ass Fae artifact. The wraith I’d spoken with seemed to back that up. Still . . . it’d be nice to get my hands on some unbiased information to shed light on all of this.

Aniela glanced at the door before her eyes flicked back to me. “How do we break the control Carmilla has over Dominique?”

“It’s hard to say,” Draven answered. “My mother only had one half of the crown. Typically, she had to renew her hold on someone at least once a month, sometimes sooner if they were particularly strong of will. With both halves of the crown united, I imagine it will last longer.”

“We could ask it . . . the crown, I mean,” I said in an even tone, like it wasn’t crazy to suggest talking to an inanimate object.

“Come again?” Aniela arched an eyebrow.

“Phrasing,” Kieran muttered under his breath, earning himself a glare from Alaric.

“The crown is sentient,” I explained. “It spoke in my mind while I was being held captive at the Sovereign House.”

“You’re saying the Fae created a crown capable of stealing someone’s will . . . and gave it a mind of its own?” Aniela stared at me wide-eyed. “Are you fucking shitting me right now? How is that even possible?”

“Like with most things that involve the Fae”—I rubbed my forehead—“I have no idea, but it definitely talked to me, and it has quite the personality.”

Again, Aniela looked towards the door. This time, I noticed the tension in her shoulders. Was she expecting someone else? Or was she worried about Cali getting here? If it was the latter . . . why?

“Something on your mind, Aniela?” I watched her carefully as she swallowed and met my gaze again.

“I don’t know who to trust, Samara,” she admitted. “I’ve always liked you, even when Dominique threw you in with Carmilla—who she was always suspicious of because of your aunt’s friendship with Queen Velika—but Ary trusts you.”

A hint of softness entered her eyes. There was something between Aniela and Ary—the Heir of House Tepes. He was definitely carrying a torch for her, and up until this moment, I hadn’t been sure she’d felt the same.

I didn’t say anything, and the others followed my lead. Aniela was hiding something, and whatever it was, she feared Cali learning about it.

The moment of vulnerability in Aniela’s expression left and was replaced by grim determination. Then she squared her shoulders as she sat straighter and raised her chin while holding my gaze.

“Rynn is locked up in our dungeon.”

Well, fuck.

“We haven’t harmed her,” Aniela rushed on before wincing.

“But she was quite injured when the rangers found her two days ago. She kept attacking us when we tried to see to her wounds, so we put her in a cell as much for our safety as hers. Hostilities seem to be rising against the Velesians. I thought it best to keep her out of sight.”

“Two days ago,” I murmured and then asked sharply, “Does Dominique know she’s here?”

If she did, it seemed likely that Carmilla knew as well, and my aunt would absolutely try to capture Rynn as a way to control me. There was nothing I wouldn’t do for Rynn and Cali.

“No,” Aniela said softly. “The rangers found her in the badlands. She didn’t arrive here until after I got that message from Mika. I haven’t sent a response back yet.”

“Okay.” I nodded and rose to my feet. “Aniela, come with me to fetch Rynn. Everyone else, stay here and keep Cali distracted when she arrives.”

“Absolutely not,” Petra and Alaric said at the same time before glowering at each other.

“Perhaps one of us should go with you,” Kieran suggested.

I shook my head. “Cali is . . . testy right now. It’ll make me feel better knowing you’re all here to help keep her calm. Besides, Aniela picked a fight with me once and lost—badly.”

“You kicked me right in the cunt.” Aniela glared at me before rising from the settee.

I rolled my eyes. “You punched my tit. Twice.”

“What type of fight was this exactly?” Both of Kieran’s brows rose.

“A drunk one,” Aniela and I said at once.

“Why don’t I go get Rynn,” Alaric volunteered.

“No.” I made a halting motion when Alaric started to stand. “I haven’t spoken to Rynn since we separated at Lake Malov. I need to make sure she doesn’t lose her shit when she sees Vail—and more importantly, that she doesn’t tell Cali.”

“What exactly did Vail do?” Aniela arched a dark red brow at me.

“It doesn’t matter,” I said tightly, not wanting to go into detail about Vail’s betrayal and then have to explain why the fuck he wasn’t dead in a ditch somewhere, or at least locked up in a cell. I realized I was absently rubbing my chest just over my heart and dropped my hand.

“Funny,” Aniela drawled. “It sounds like it matters.”

I gave her an obscene gesture that had her barking out a laugh.

“I’ll be fine,” I promised, making eye contact with Kieran, Draven, and Roth before lingering on Alaric, who was clenching his jaw so hard, I was worried he’d crack a tooth.

I bent down and kissed him with the intention of it being a quick, reassuring type of thing, but when he wrapped his hand in my hair and pulled me close, I lost myself until someone cleared their throat.

“Cali’s gonna be here any minute.” Roth gave me an amused grin. “You can make out with grumpy-pants later.” Then they shoved Alaric’s face away so they could lean forward and kiss me. This time, it was a quick one because they pulled back and pointedly looked at the door.

“So you’ve got the wicked prince, the heartthrob courtier, the gorgeous advisor, and the cunning scholar . . .” Aniela asked as we walked to the door. “Bit greedy, aren’t you?”

I snorted. “Jealous?”

“Little bit, yeah.”

“Uh, how exactly are we supposed to keep Cali occupied, Sam?” Kieran asked just as Aniela and I started to leave.

“I’m sure you’ll think of something, Kier,” I said confidently. If anyone excelled at small talk, it was Kieran. “But feel free to tell her about Dominique. We won’t be long.” I glanced at Aniela. “Right?”

I didn’t know exactly where the dungeon was in House Salvatore, but if it was like House Harker and the Sovereign House, the entrance would be towards the center of the first floor, which we were on.

“Fifteen minutes at most.”

“When we’re back, we’ll plan our next move—with Rynn.”

On that final note, Aniela and I started at a quick pace down the hallway. I still couldn’t believe Rynn was here . She must have had some reason for leaving the Velesian realm. I sighed. Or not.

Most of the time, Rynn was the most levelheaded of the three of us. Cali and I both had tempers that sometimes got the better of us, but Rynn did have a habit of being reckless when she got frustrated—of not taking into account the bigger picture.

So would she have decided to run away from the Alpha Pack on a whim because of some comment they made that she took great offense to? Yes. Was Rynn capable of avoiding a realm’s worth of Velesians and sneaking into Moroi territory? Also yes.

My friend was a sneaky bitch, and usually I adored that about her, but it felt like we were on a collision course with all-out war between the Moroi and Velesians. So Rynn choosing this moment to hold up her middle finger to the Alpha Pack and seek sanctuary with us wasn’t ideal.

That said, if Rynn didn’t want to go back to the Alpha Pricks, then they could kiss my luscious ass. She’d been mine first.

The Alpha Pack was a secondary problem though, because if Cali learned that Aniela had locked an injured Rynn in the basement .

. . things would get bloody real fast. Cali was overprotective of both of us, but normally, she just glowered threateningly, and that was enough.

Something was clearly going on with her though.

I had little doubt that she would respond with violence at seeing Rynn imprisoned, and we couldn’t afford to have our potential allies killed.

Plus, I liked Aniela and looked forward to teasing her mercilessly about Ary when we weren’t dealing with a mad, egomaniac queen, conniving and murderous wraiths, and an impending war with the Velesians.

“I need to go on a holiday,” I muttered.

“What’s that?” Aniela gave me a side-eyed look as we turned a corner and headed down another hallway towards a door guarded by four guards.

“A holiday,” I repeated. “It’s something I came across in some Fae writings. Basically, it’s like a trip you take, but for fun.”

“Where in all the hells did they go in Lunaria for fun?” Aniela scoffed.

“The beautiful beaches with tentacled monsters hiding just beneath the surface? Or maybe the badlands with its oppressive heat and enormous spiders that hide beneath the ground to jump out and grab you? Oh! I know!” She waved a hand at the guards, and they obediently opened the door at our approach, giving me a curious look but nothing more as we walked past them.

“The lovely northern forests! Where moon devils fuck with your head and send you running into huge carnivorous flowers that will spend days sucking you dry before spitting out your dried corpse.”

“Actually, I think they went somewhere else.”

Aniela stopped on the narrow stairwell, and I did the same. We both stared at each other for a long moment before we burst out laughing.

“Everything is so fucked!” she sputtered between laughs. “Lunaria is the absolute worst!”

“It truly is.” I wiped the tears away from my eyes. “Maybe someday, we’ll find out what the Fae did to find themselves here.”

“Come on.” Aniela started down the stairs again. “She’s just one level down.”

I followed after her, still laughing under my breath. This place truly was fucked, and it only seemed to get worse as the years dragged on. Clearly, something in the spell our human ancestors had cast to turn themselves into monsters had also ingrained a dark sense of humor in all of us.

Good call on their part. We all would have gone insane ages ago if we couldn’t look at the dark, cruel world around us and laugh in its face.

Two more guards waited outside the door on the next floor. Aniela had put way more security on Rynn than Carmilla had on me, which made me wonder if my aunt had underestimated my ability to escape . . . or if she’d needed those rangers somewhere else.

“Aniela.” The tall, blond guard on the right nodded deeply towards the Heir he served before giving me a shallow nod. “Harker.”

Grief slammed into me hard and fast. His hair was the same golden blonde shade as Adrienne’s.

They weren’t related—Adrienne hadn’t had any surviving family—and he looked nothing like her in any other aspect, but my grief for her and Emil was still an open wound.

One that I’d hastily slapped a bandage on in the name of survival, but it’d just slipped, leaving my wound bloody and raw.

“Samara?” Aniela gave me a puzzled look, her hand braced on the door she’d just started to open.

I slammed the wrapping back on the wound made of grief and rage and gave her a tight smile. “Let’s grab Rynn and get back before Cali loses her shit.”

“Calypso Rayne is here?” The ginger-haired guard traded glances with the blond one. “Inside our walls?”

“You Moroi are such pussies,” a gravelly voice called out from behind the door. “Now let my friend through before she punches you both in the dick. It’s her favorite move.”

Both guards looked at me.

“She’s not wrong.” I shrugged.

To their credit, neither backed away, although they weren’t really blocking me anyway. More or less, they were crowding my space and forcing me to walk between them, which I did—before I tapped them both on the dick faster than they could block me.

Both flinched and cursed under their breath as I sauntered into the room where my lycanthrope bestie was confined.

“Well,” I drawled, “this is considerably better than where Carmilla had me locked up.” Half of the room was walled off with thick bars, but that portion had a rather soft-looking bed, a comfy chair, a bookcase, and I was guessing there was a small washroom behind the curtain.

I could smell Rynn’s blood, mostly old and dry, in the air. She must have been seriously wounded if she’d still been bleeding when she’d arrived here.

“About fucking time.” Rynn smoothly leapt to her feet from where she’d been lying on the bed. Her usually tanned skin was pale, and there were dark circles under her mismatched eyes, but otherwise, she appeared okay.

She strode out the cell door that Aniela had opened with a languid grace and stopped in front of me, hands braced on her hips. One eye was a bright golden brown and the other a deep vivid blue.

Earth and sky. That’s what they always reminded me of.

“You look like shit.” She arched a brow at me.

“Not all of us have been living that pampered life . . .” I remembered the nickname the Alpha Pack had given her that drove her insane. “ Princess .”

Her nostrils flared. “Sure you want to play that game?” A sly grin spilt across her lips. “Your Majesty ?”