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“So this is where you’ve been hiding.” My aunt walked confidently towards me as the rangers lined the walls.

She’d traded her typical refined dress for black pants and a deep purple tunic that matched her eyes perfectly.

The soul crown rested on her head, making her look every inch the queen she was—or would be for a few more minutes anyway.

Doing okay, Talis? I asked.

I’ll be doing better once you get me off this psychopath’s head. Kind of worried that you’re related to her, if I’m being honest.

Soon, my friend , I promised. Soon.

Only half of the rangers here are bound, by the way. The others have enthusiastically followed her.

That’s unfortunate, but we’ll deal with that later. I’d made a promise to Vail about how the rangers that came today would be treated, and I wouldn’t be breaking that.

“I felt it had a certain amount of charm.” I waved a hand flippantly through the air. “Could do with a bit more color though. All this white stone feels a bit ostentatious.”

“How fortunate for you that you’ll be returning to your cell soon.” She smiled.

“No.” I shook my head and moved to the side so she could see the bowl behind me. “I don’t think I will.”

I saw the moment my aunt realized what I intended. “The Claiming?” she scoffed. “My dear, there hasn’t been a Claiming in over a century.”

“Not since the Tepes bloodline overtook House Stoker,” I agreed.

It was a bit of a throwback tradition. The Houses had been stable for some time now, but that hadn’t always been the case. Sometimes, a Moroi bloodline had emerged to challenge one of the existing Houses, and that was where the Claiming came in.

A fight to the death between two Moroi. No weapons. No submissions. You fought until one was dead.

Few attempted it, because if they failed, not only would they die but their entire line would be wiped out by the House they challenged. And once a Claiming was invoked, it had to be answered.

Of course, usually it was invoked in a public manner so that if the challenged House didn’t answer, they would look weak to the other Houses. One never wanted to be perceived as weak in Lunaria.

Carmilla studied the bowl for a long moment before shrugging. “Cute attempt, niece, but I have no interest in fighting you.”

“Scared?” I bared my fangs at her.

She laughed. “We both know hand-to-hand combat was never one of your strengths, and the Claiming is just that. Tooth and claw only.” A smile stretched across her lips, one that didn’t meet her eyes.

“I regularly trained with your mother when she was still alive . . . and bested her on more than one occasion, I might add. You cannot beat me, and I’d prefer to take you alive. ”

“You cannot reject the Claiming once it’s been extended,” Draven drawled.

Carmilla’s temper snapped. “I can do whatever I damn well please, and I think our first order of business when we return to the Sovereign House will be to hold a public execution for the bastard prince.” Then her dark gaze slid to Vail. “And for the traitor.”

“How fortunate for us,” I echoed her previous words, “that you won’t be leaving this temple alive.”

Her eyes flicked back to me before she waved a hand towards us. “Bind them, then search the rest of this place for anyone else.” My aunt stared at me for a long moment. “If the wolf is here, kill it. My niece could use a reminder on obedience.”

As one, the rangers stepped forward from the walls, splitting into groups, with some angling towards me and others towards Vail and Draven.

“Last chance,” I warned, even as I started to summon my earth magic. “Honor the Claiming, Carmilla Harker.”

At the temple entrance, the two large, flat stones on either side of it started to silently move inward.

“It’s an outdated ritual,” my aunt hissed.

I pushed, and the stone pieces clicked together, cutting off the only way in or out of the temple—and the sunlight that had been beaming in.

Darkness fell, only for the Fae lanterns to flicker to life, their soft blue flames casting an eerie light across the room.

“On that, we agree.” Erendriel strolled past Vail and Draven to stand at my side. “A fight to the death without weapons or magic?” He shook his head in disgust. “Honestly, I don’t know how you all have survived this long.”

Carmilla stared at the Seelie King in horror before glaring at me. “What have you done?”

“What I had to,” I said calmly.

Before my aunt could open her mouth again, wraiths streamed into the room, and the rangers immediately backed up.

True to Erendriel’s word, the wraiths didn’t attack.

Instead of taking a specific shape, they all joined together until a ring of writhing shadows wrapped around the space with the rangers on the outside and the five of us on the inside.

The only break was in front of the pedestal, allowing a path to it. Now that this part of the plan had been enacted, the others joined us. Kieran, Roth, and Alaric walked up to stand behind the pedestal while Rynn, Ary, and Aniela stood behind them and a little off to the right.

A few rangers tried to step forward, only for the wraiths to turn solid for just long enough to shove them back.

One overzealous ranger tried to run through, only to be flung into the wall—hard.

A crack formed as he slid down, but he was still moving, and a fellow ranger was already drawing a healing glyph on him.

“So, now what? You’re just going to have the Seelie King do your bidding?” Carmilla sneered. “The Moroi will never follow you.”

“To be fair, they’re not exactly willingly following you either.

” My eyes flicked pointedly to the crown.

“The wraiths are only here to ensure you play fair.” I looked away from my aunt to address the rangers standing on the outskirts of the room.

“You will not be harmed. You are only here to bear witness to the Claiming.”

“We’ll never follow Fae trash,” a ranger called out. “You’re not even a true Moroi.”

“Technically, we all have Fae blood running in our veins.” I smiled in the direction of the ranger who’d spoken.

“Surprise. It’s true that I have a little more than most, but make no mistake, we’re all part Fae.

Also”—I pointed at my aunt—“she’s wearing a Fae crown, and you seem inclined to follow her.

Assuming you’re not one of the ones who had their will stripped away. ”

Several faces tightened at that before wincing in pain.

Roughly half of the rangers here were under the crown’s compulsion, but the others had voluntarily come. If I truly wanted to unite all the Moroi, I needed them to respect me.

If I couldn’t have their respect, I would take their fear. Despite what Erendriel thought of me, I wasn’t some naive upstart. My goal was to be a good leader for all of the Moroi, but that didn’t mean I’d allow people to walk over me.

The Claiming was my way of proving myself worthy .

. . and performing a little trickery. It was Carmilla who had constantly lectured me to work smarter, not harder.

That the best strategy was one which could accomplish multiple goals at once.

I needed a demonstration, and we needed to buy time for the transformation spell to work its literal magic.

My aunt hadn’t been lying about being my mother’s regular sparring partner. Carmilla might have spent most of her time behind a desk these days, but that didn’t change the fact that she was a lethal fighter. This was going to hurt.

“Your life has turned out to be a waste.” Carmilla shook her head.

“I suppose it’s only fitting that your death should be too.

” She walked over to the pedestal, giving everyone a cool look before lingering on Roth.

“You won’t be alive to see it, but know that I’m going to wipe your family and their House out of existence. ”

Roth held her stare, orange lines bleeding through their hazel eyes like living flames. “You won’t be alive to hear it, but know that my family will get a good laugh when I tell them about your ridiculous claim.”

My loves and I smiled at Roth’s declaration.

For the first time since striding into the temple, a flicker of doubt showed on Carmilla’s face before she squashed it. With a dismissive sniff, she turned away from Roth to focus on the three beings standing behind my mates and slightly off to the side.

“Surprised the Alpha Pack has let you off the chain for so long, Rynn,” she drawled. “You never did know your place.”

Rynn growled, and her hackles rose. Talis had claimed being in her animal form would protect Rynn from the crown’s magic; the last thing we needed was my aunt taking away Rynn’s free will and using the Velesian as a weapon.

Flanking her on either side were Ary and Aniela, both still looking a little pale, but thanks to taking a long drink from me earlier, they had a little more color in their cheeks, and more importantly, they were protected from the crown.

Them showing up hadn’t been part of my original plan, but we were lucky they had. It had taken a lot of blood to pull this off, and having two additional Moroi had helped considerably. It was probably the only reason my mates were standing and not unconscious downstairs.

Erendriel eyed the two Heirs from where he was still standing next to me, several feet in front of the pedestal.

They’d spent most of their time sequestered in the hidden levels below and hadn’t emerged once since I’d summoned Erendriel.

I could have come up with some reason for their presence, but it’d been simpler to just keep them out of his sight.

We hadn’t wanted to give him even the slightest hint of underhandedness, and the more lies one told, the harder it became to keep them all straight.

The only reason they were above ground now was because I wanted them to bear witness to the Claiming so they could attest to what happened here today.