Page 76

Samara

“We’re not talking about it.” Rynn gave my hair a vicious tug and I yelped, then she glared at me through the mirror resting on the wall in front of me. Four months had passed, and we were back at House Devereux for the wedding and mating bond ceremony.

I hadn’t anticipated the amount of jitters that would flutter through me all morning.

I mean, Roth and I were already mated, and I was eager to form the bond with Kieran.

It had been incredibly challenging to hold back from doing it the past few months, but he had been adamant about wanting the whole ceremony thing.

Plus, Roth’s parents had been ecstatic over the idea.

Apparently, the only thing that excited them more than wholesale slaughter was a wedding.

Or in this case, a wedding followed by a mating bond ceremony.

We’d all arrived yesterday and collapsed into the large bed of the guest suite that had been set up for us.

It wasn’t easy to step away from our responsibilities, but we’d been working around the clock until the moment we’d left.

Surprisingly, I’d all slept until late morning. Although when I woke, Roth and Kieran were already gone, so I had a late breakfast with Vail, Draven, and Alaric. After that, I’d been ushered into this small room.

I’d cackled when I’d walked in to see the weapons on one side and the dress hanging on the other.

Clearly, this was just an extra weapons storage space that they had temporarily converted into my dressing room.

It was close to where the main event was being held—which, in true Devereux fashion, was the sparring ring.

In their defense, it was the biggest open space within the walls, and many buildings overlooked it.

I’d expected some of the Devereux staff to come help me get ready, but to my surprise, it had been Rynn, Cali, and Nyx who’d walked in.

My eyes had misted a little at the latter.

Nyx was no longer confined to a dungeon cell, but they still kept their distance from most of the Moroi and really only interacted with me and my mates.

Except Vail. They no longer attacked him on sight, but Nyx had made it clear they had no interest in seeing him. It hurt Vail, but none of us knew how to mend that bridge other than to allow Nyx their space.

We’d set up a small cottage just outside the Sovereign House for them. The ward around it made it safe, but it still worried me that they were out there on their own most of the time.

Several rangers had volunteered to keep an eye on Nyx’s new home, not because they were wary of them but because, like me, they were concerned for them. Many of the rangers liked Nyx and wanted to keep them safe. Knowing that helped my stress quite a bit.

I’d invited Nyx to come today, but they’d given me a noncommittal response, so I’d assumed they weren’t coming. And while I’d hoped Rynn and Cali would make it, communication with them had been sparse since we’d all parted ways, and they hadn’t been able to fully commit either.

“Don’t make her cry again,” Cali snapped. “Her face will get wrecked.” She waved at my eye makeup from where she was perched on several boxes containing crossbows next to me.

Like Rynn, she also refused to talk about her situation. They’d both declared that today was all about me and only happy thoughts were allowed.

Any time I deviated from that, I got my hair pulled or my arm pinched.

I sank into the chair and scowled.

Smack !

“What the fuck, Rynn?” I rubbed the back of my head.

“No frowning!” she barked before staring at the messy braid situation. I’d say it was her fault for smacking me, but honestly, I think that might have improved it. “We might need to find someone to help.”

“Or you could just let me do it.” I started unraveling some of the braids, which were more knots than anything at this point. Fancy hairstyles were beyond me, but simple and elegant, I could do.

Nyx sighed before pushing off the wall where they’d been leaning since arriving. They hadn’t spoken much, but their posture had been relaxed, so I figured they were okay.

“Move,” they rasped and hip-checked Rynn out of the way before detangling my hair and sectioning parts of it off.

Rynn happily went to sit by Cali, and the two of them started to idly chat about the events today.

Mostly placing bets on how long it would take before some of the guests got caught fucking.

Or a fight broke out. Or a fight that led to fucking started.

It was . . . nice.

Everything had been mostly nonstop for the past few months.

I’d spent most of my time at the Sovereign House, although I had made a quick trip to House Harker just to make sure everything had been in order there.

To my delight, our advisors had stepped up and kept everything going without a hitch.

They’d quietly admitted to me that they had been uncomfortable with the path Carmilla had chosen.

Nobody was rejoicing in her death; it was more of a bitter acceptance that I’d done what had been necessary and that they were grateful for it. Long-term, I still didn’t know what would become of House Harker, but it wasn’t something I had to solve right this second.

Which was good because we had a long list of other problems.

Both the Head and Heir of House Laurent were dead, and no suitable candidates had risen to take over yet.

With no other choice, Alaric had reluctantly volunteered to step in as a temporary leader—something he absolutely loathed because he had to talk to people on a regular basis.

It also meant he had to spend time away from me, but things at House Laurent were improving, and he was confident he’d be able to leave things in the hands of the advisors soon—those we’d borrowed from House Harker and House Salvatore, because I knew all of the Laurent advisors and didn’t trust a single one of them.

Something Talis backed me up on. They weren’t outright evil, so I wanted to give them a chance, but I wouldn’t be heartbroken if Vail or Draven made good on their threats involving the advisors having an accident while traveling between Houses.

If the advisors were too stupid to realize insulting me in front of my protective mates wasn’t good for their long-term health prospects, then they probably weren’t cut out for being a House advisor in the first place.

As much as I wanted all the Houses to play nice with each other, there was no magic fix for that. We were going through a lot of growing pains, but I was hopeful.

Roth had been coordinating with the scholars at Drudonia in cataloging and documenting all the information contained in the secret rooms beneath the temple. We’d discovered that, much like the room beneath Lake Malov, nothing there could be removed, so the scholars had to travel to the temple.

It wasn’t that far of a journey, but the problem was we still had a very pissed off Seelie King and almost a hundred wraiths trapped in the temple.

Rangers were always posted there, all carrying the weapons we’d discovered that worked against wraiths.

We’d also set up more barrier wards to create more safe zones within the temple.

I knew it was only a matter of time before Erendriel and his wraiths got free; the wards we’d put in place were merely to ensure our rangers weren’t killed when it happened.

I had contingency plans for my contingency plans. The only time I’d stopped working was when my menstrual cycle had come last month.

All of my mates had dropped what they’d been doing to make sure I’d been as comfortable as I could have been. We’d all done the same for Roth weeks prior when they’d had their cycle.

I’d allowed Roth to keep working in bed, but they’d flat out refused to let me so much as read correspondence. I found it extremely unfair, but everyone had sided with Roth and outvoted me.

My anger had lasted all the way until my heat had kicked in. Then I hadn’t left my bed for five days . . . but for much more fun reasons.

I’d cut back on my work a little bit after that. Nothing terrible had happened during those eight days, so it was clear I could give myself a little more time off. I had five mates to enjoy, after all.

My brows furrowed. Had I sent that letter to Tamsen replying to some of her ideas for improving travel between the outposts? She’d raised some really good points, and I wanted to implement some of them soon. We co?—

“Stop thinking about work, Sam,” Nyx growled before stepping back and returning to their spot on the wall.

“Damn,” I admired myself in the mirror. “You do good work, Nyx.”

Out of the corner of my eye, I saw them shrug. “I used to always do Tamsen’s when we were growing up. She’s even worse at doing hair than Rynn.”

“Hey!” Rynn crossed her arms. “I’m not that bad.”

“Yes, you are,” Cali and I said at the same time.

Nyx had braided the top half of my hair into multiple braids that twisted into a bun with several loops draping down. The rest of my hair was pinned back away from my face before it fell in a dark wave down my back.

“Thank you.” I turned in my chair to beam at them. “It’s perfect.”

Their expression softened for a moment. “You’re welcome, Sam.”

“We better get going.” Cali hopped off the box. “Celestina was very specific about where we had to stand and when.” She grinned at me. “Your future mother-in-law is terrifying in the best kind of way.”

“I know,” I gave her a dreamy smile.

Rynn laughed, jumping to her feet and walking out the door.

Cali followed her, only to pause and glance at Nyx.

They caught her look and shook their head.

“It’s probably best I stay here.” The blue lines running through their black eyes flashed in and out of existence.

“The hunger . . . it becomes more difficult to control around a lot of people.”

“It’s fine, Nyx,” I told them softly. “I appreciate you coming at all.”