Page 63

Chapter Twenty-Seven

Vail

“Rynn, calm down,” I tried again.

“You calm down!” the lycan screamed from where she stood on top of the table.

“Little help?” I growled at Draven, who was leaning against a table on the opposite side of the room with a curious look on his face as he stared at Samara—who was very much still out of it—and the three-foot badlands viper coiled up in her lap.

The serpent had a thick body and a triangular head. Its scales were a mix of white and a light tawny brown that allowed it to blend in well with the badlands’ arid surface.

It was also highly venomous. Not enough to kill us, but enough to make us hate our lives for a few hours.

I hadn’t attempted to tear the thing out of her lap because it seemed very calm, and I was worried about startling it.

“It doesn’t mean her any harm.” Draven waved a hand towards Samara and her new scaly friend. “This isn’t normal behavior for a viper; they’re ambush predators. It was probably coiled up somewhere in the temple and the magic of whatever spell she’s working drew it towards her.”

“I don’t care!” A low, panicked whine underpinned Rynn’s words.

“Nowhere in that fucking book did it mention anything about fucking snakes crawling out of the fucking walls!” The viper raised its head from where it had been resting on Samara’s knee and flicked a tongue in Rynn’s direction.

“Fuck!” she shrieked and backed up farther on the table.

“Rynn, if you scream one more time, I’m going to strangle you.

” Roth stomped into the room, their deep red hair looking a little messy, like they’d been running their hands through it.

“I can hear you all the way downstairs. What are you going on about—oh.” They looked at the badlands viper.

“Huh. I guess Sam has an affinity with serpents. Or maybe it’s all reptiles.

The strikers really like her, and they’re more reptile than bird anyway. ”

“Affinity?” Draven glanced at Roth.

They pointed at the stack of discarded books on a nearby table, the ones that didn’t contain information useful for our current problems. “One of those books talks about it. I think it’s a Seelie thing, which makes sense, I guess, since their magic is earth-based.

Normally, they are drawn to one type of animal, and those animals are also drawn to them.

Maybe the more in touch Samara gets with her Fae magic, the more weird shit like this will happen. ”

“You use Fae magic.” I looked at Draven. “This ever happen to you?”

He frowned and started to shake his head, but then his eyes widened. “Weasels. The bold little things often come up to me when I’m camping in the woods. I thought maybe they just smelled my food and wanted to steal it. They’ve never shown an ounce of fear.”

The Moroi Prince was friends with quite possibly the only animals that could be considered adorable in Lunaria.

“If somebody doesn’t—” Rynn growled, only to be cut off when Samara let out a long exhale and said, “Well, that was fucking weird.”

Her beautiful purple eyes glanced down at her lap, and a perplexed expression spread across her face. “Okay. Not what I was expecting. Umm . . . shoo?”

“How are you so calm about a snake in your lap!” Rynn glared at her best friend.

Samara grinned at Draven. “Too bad Kieran isn’t here. He’d have so many jokes.”

“Is that a snake in your dress, or are you just happy to see me?” Draven asked with a completely straight face.

“My snake’s bigger than yours.” Samara impersonated Kieran’s smooth voice.

“Sam!” Rynn barked.

“Oh, fine.” Samara rolled her eyes and gently lifted the viper off her lap like it couldn’t knock her ass out with one bite and wrack her body with seizures for hours until it burned off the venom.

“I was just in the mind of a snake—southern tree boa, I think—so my tolerance for strange shit has gone up a bit.”

“Really?” Roth perked up. “What was that like? Did you completely take over its body? Or was it more of a shared consciousness thing?”

“The latter. It was kind of grumpy about the whole affair to be honest.” Samara held the viper up with one hand, letting its body curl around her forearm.

“You’re not grumpy though, are you?” she cooed, and then to Rynn’s horror—and mine too, if I was being honest—Samara booped the thing on the nose with her finger.

“I can feel how content you are right now. Who’s the cutest little viper there ever was? You are!”

Another boop.

“Samara,” Rynn whined pitifully.

“Alright, alright.” She smoothly rolled to her feet. “Just let me go set this pretty girl outside. I think she’s digesting a meal or something. She just wants to find somewhere warm to curl up and rest.”

“Sure. Fine. Whatever.” Rynn pointed to the exit. “Just get it out of here!”

Samara practically flounced out of the room, and only when her footsteps faded did Rynn hop down from the table, grumbling something about smothering Samara in her sleep.

“Where’s the book that has the exact spell?” Roth asked, looking at the glyph on the floor where Samara had been sitting.

Rynn grabbed it off the table and tossed it to them.

“Careful.” Roth snatched the book out of the air and turned to glare at Rynn, eyes flashing orange in warning. “You damage any of these books, and you’ll be the one getting smothered in your sleep.”

The mirror rippled in the corner, and a second later, Alaric and Kieran stepped into the room before freezing.

“Why do I smell Samara’s blood?” Alaric gave me an accusing glare.

“Because Samara decided to use a Fae spell nobody has ever heard of that resulted in her sharing a mind with a snake and talking to a crown that apparently has a soul,” I deadpanned.

Roth snorted. “Succinct but accurate.”

“Bonus points for an excellent delivery,” Draven added.

“Right.” Alaric rubbed his forehead with one hand and held out some documents with the other. “Look this over, Rynn. I believe we have everything covered. Kieran and I have both reviewed it twice. All it needs is your signature.”

Rynn swallowed before striding towards Alaric and taking the contract from him. “Thanks. Be back in a bit.”

Without another word, she left the room.

A moment later, the sound of Samara coming down the stairs echoed through the hall outside, followed by soft murmurings between her and Rynn.

When Samara joined us again, any hint of amusement was gone from her face.

Cali was right behind her with an equally grim expression.

“What happened?” I looked between the two of them.

“I’ll get to that.” Samara sat on one of the tables, and everyone else took a seat. I remained standing against the wall with my arms crossed, feeling too anxious to sit.

Whatever had happened must have been bad because Cali didn’t sneer at me once.

“First, the crown has agreed to go along with the transformation spell. So that will make that portion of the plan easier.” Her dire expression softened for a moment. “Also . . . I gave them a name. Talis.”

The recognition hit me instantly. Samara’s parents had often taken her stargazing, and if my parents had been away—which they often had—they’d invite me to join them. The star named after hope had been her dad’s favorite.

“It’s a good name,” I said softly. “He would approve.”

Samara looked at me and saw the understanding in my eyes. “I think so too.” She smiled back before swallowing and growing serious once more. “Tell them, Cali.”

“A striker just delivered a message from a courtier at House Corvinus.” The Furie’s gaze flicked to Kieran. “Your friend, actually—Riah.”

Kieran blinked in surprise. “Is she okay? What did she say?”

“Tamsen defected from House Corvinus. She left in the middle of the night with Riah and a handful of others; they took shelter at a small outpost close to the Velesian border.” Cali’s fisted hand shook before she tossed the crumbled-up message onto the table.

“Carmilla sent three squads of rangers after them. The people in the outpost refused to grant them entry. They said Carmilla was a false queen.”

Samara sat perfectly still, but her eyes had turned a solid black.

“What happened?” I asked when silence reigned.

“The rangers . . .” Cali trailed off, clenching her jaw hard enough that I could see the muscles feathering along her jawline.

“They burned the outpost down,” Samara cut in. “With the people inside. Tamsen, Riah, and less than a dozen people made it out alive.”

Rangers swore an oath to serve not only their House but all of the Moroi. Either those rangers had disregarded that oath of their own volition . . . or Carmilla had stripped them of their free will and forced them to carry out a heinous act that would likely haunt them forever.

A mixture of disgust and rage rolled through me, and I could feel the same sentiments echoed by everyone in the room.

“We have to stop her,” I rasped, drawing Samara’s dark gaze. “Whatever it takes.”

“We will,” she swore.

“Where is Tamsen now?” Draven asked.

“The group split up after escaping,” Cali said.

“According to Riah, the Corvinus Heir refused to risk any more lives protecting hers. Tamsen traveled with them to another outpost but then ordered Riah and the others to keep their heads down and deny any involvement with her before leaving. She told Riah she was heading towards House Devereux.”

“Shit,” Roth swore. “I can’t express how bad of an idea that is.

They won’t trust her—not a Corvinus. My family made an exception for Nyx because they turned their back on their House and have proven themself over the years, but Tamsen is the bloody Heir.

There’s a solid chance they’ll kill her on sight with how high their paranoia probably is right now. ”

“This all happened several days ago—probably at the same time we were leaving House Salvatore. Riah lucked out and found an outpost where another of Kieran’s friends was—one who just happened to have a striker that could track Kieran’s scent,” Cali continued.