Page 55 of Crimson Oath (The Firebird and the Wolf #2)

Kezia was still trying to talk, but someone shouted from the back of the crowd, and then others joined in. It took Tatyana a few moments to understand what they were saying.

Dishana . They were calling for the goblets.

This entire ceremony seemed wildly chaotic, and Tatyana just wanted to leave. The breeze had died down, and the humidity in the air was bordering on oppressive. But she couldn’t leave; that would be horribly rude.

“Have you seen them before?” René asked softly. “The sacred goblets of the Poshani, each carved from a single jewel?”

Tatyana shook her head. “I haven’t. Have you?”

He looked amused. “I may have caught a quick glimpse once.”

The crowd continued to chant. “Dishana, dishana, dishana!”

Tatyana’s eyes locked on Kezia, who appeared frozen.

Something was wrong. Something was very wrong.

Tatyana leaned forward. “What is happening?”

“Here we go,” René whispered. “Pay attention, my little lamb.”

Why did men seem obsessed with giving her animal nicknames?

Tatyana muttered, “I’m wide awake, my arrogant fox.”

All René did was laugh as the crowd stood and continued chanting .

Dishana, dishana, dishana.

The vampires in the stands were all reacting to the mass of humans growing more and more excited.

She could feel the elemental energy buzzing, and it was everything she could do to remain calm herself.

Blood was flowing. She could smell the sweetness of it wafting from the assembled humans, and her fangs elongated in her mouth.

The Hazar took to the air, circling the camp in wide swoops.

What was going on?

Tatyana’s eyes locked on the three terrin on stage. Vano was looking at Radu. Radu was staring straight ahead with his jaw locked. Kezia seemed to falter.

When Kezia spoke again, Tatyana could barely hear her. “Sadly, the trust of the kamvasa has been breached.”

Madina hissed from her seat behind Oleg, and all the vampires around her froze. Nothing moved. No one spoke.

Oh God. Was it Oleg? Had they found out? Were they going to try to… What? Confront a millennia-old fire vampire publicly? Kezia couldn’t be that foolish.

“Someone has used our hospitality against us.” Kezia was looking directly at Oleg now. “The dishana, the goblets gifted to our first terrin, have been stolen.”

Tatyana felt like she might vomit the blood she’d consumed at sunset. Oleg would never steal. Never. Tatyana turned to René. “You,” she muttered. “You are exactly the type to?—”

“No, my sister. Not stolen,” a woman shouted from the edge of the crowd, and in that moment, a massive whirlwind of flower petals rose in the air, and Tatyana saw two figures flying within it.

The air turned electric as the vampires in the stands rose, a few of them shouting, another taking to the air, and still others bolting immediately from the meadow.

What. Was. Happening?

Whispers and names were thrown around the crowd.

“Tenzin! ”

“It’s Zasha. It’s just like them to?—”

“No, I saw the Vecchio lad. He’s making a power grab.”

Tatyana turned to Oleg, who was watching her. He lifted his palm slightly and met her eyes. There was no surprise. No panic, and Tatyana didn’t even smell a hint of smoke.

Oleg was calm, so she tried to relax.

“Be safe, be smart, and be quiet.”

She sat and watched as the blizzard of flowers went on and on. It whirled and tossed in the air like a wild storm, and the flower crown flew from her head, sucked into the vortex of flower petals that filled the sky over the meadow.

René sighed beside her. “They are such attention hogs.”

“Who?”

The wind died down, and two vampires landed on the stage, flower petals falling around them like confetti.

If Vecchio and his mate wanted to make an entrance, they’d made a dramatic one.

The tall young vampire walked over and lifted a winking emerald-green goblet over his head. “They were not stolen, my friend. Protected.”

Tatyana could barely see the goblet from a distance. It was small, only a little larger than his palm.

As if it were one of the scripted plays, Radu stepped forward and took the green cup from Vecchio’s hand.

Then Vecchio turned to the grandstand and pointed at René. “Monsieur DuPont? If you would.”

“My turn, chérie.” René winked at her, then sauntered down the stairs and walked through the parting crowds to the stage. He strolled toward Kezia, kissed her knuckles, and when he stood, a bright yellow-gold crystal was in her hand.

Now Tenzin was the last one in the center of the stage, and in a blink, Tatyana saw a blood-red goblet held to her chest.

Tenzin was looking at Vano with a cold stare, and Tatyana realized there was someone who hated Vano way more than she did .

And that tiny, terrifying vampire looked like she was seconds away from murder.

When Tenzin spoke, her voice carried across the meadow. “Shall I tell them, Vano, how I came to have this goblet in my possession?”

Vano erupted. “Because you are a thief.” He pointed at Tenzin. “Hazar!”

Tenzin and Vecchio rose into the air, and while the Hazar gathered at a distance, no one approached to challenge them.

Vecchio held a sword in his right hand, and the way the formerly friendly American was watching the circling vampires, Tatyana had zero doubt that he would murder all of them if they touched his mate.

She heard the seat next to her creak, and when she looked, Mika was sitting next to her, his eyes fixed on the drama in front of the crowd.

“I swear,” Mika said, “there is nothing that woman likes more than a hostile takeover.”

“She’s taking over?” Tatyana didn’t like that. Who was Tenzin to the Poshani? They spoke about her like her old partner, the assassin. She was a ghost. A legend. She would be a horrible terrin.

Tenzin let her mate stare down the Hazar surrounding them as she addressed the audience. “Long have I honored the Poshani and admired their hospitality. But four days ago, the trailer where I was promised shelter was abandoned, left behind when the kamvasa moved on.”

“What?” Tatyana frowned. “They left her?”

“I was not expecting that,” Mika said.

Kezia rose to her feet, her goblet in her hand. “Vano told us you had asked to remain. He showed us a letter signed by you and Benjamin.”

Tatyana couldn’t look away. She watched Vano. The snake. He was already starting to slink away.

What have you done, you fool?

For the Poshani, the kamvasa was sacred, and a promise was never to be broken. Everything in their culture centered on intricate laws of hospitality.

“It was not written by us,” Vecchio said. “Your brother lied to you.”

The Poshani crowd—who had been watching in utter silence—all started to speak at once.

“Let Vano speak!”

“He should explain himself.”

“They are lying thieves!” an old man at the back of the crowd shouted. “They stole the dishana and are trying?—”

“Let Vano explain himself!”

“Vano, tell us the truth!”

“Vano, speak!”

Tatyana caught the look on his face, and even though she knew he was an evil, manipulative asshole, she was still shocked by his expression. “He did it,” she murmured. “He left her.”

Tenzin turned away from Vano and spoke to the vampires in the grandstand. “Then, while I was in my day rest, Vano’s allies burned my shelter with me inside.”

Oh fuck.

The surge of amnis around her felt like a battle call.

Oleg rose to his feet. Madina rose. Every vampire in the stands rose, their eyes sweeping over the crowd that was quickly turning to chaos in front of them.

Fangs were bared, and more than one immortal seemed to reach for a weapon even though all of them had been surrendered to the Hazar before the ceremony.

But one vampire didn’t need a weapon.

One vampire in the stands overlooking the crowd was a weapon.

Every eye on the platform turned to Oleg Sokolov.

The Hazar rose into the sky, circling the crowd and drawing their swords.

“No.” Tatyana’s heart began to beat and she rose. “Oh no. ”

“Tenzin is going to start a riot going on like this.” Mika whispered, “Oleg, I have her.”

Tatyana smelled the scent of burning cedar a second after Mika spoke. She saw Oleg glaring at Vano as if he would murder the vampire as entertainment for the crowd.

“He’s going to kill Vano,” she whispered.

“Who, Oleg?” Mika nodded. “Possibly. He would annihilate an entire clan if they threatened his mate.”

“I’m not—” Tatyana’s protests were cut off as the Poshani crowd erupted in angry shouts and pointed fingers. Some were fighting among each other, and many were fleeing from the meadow with children in tow, anticipating violence when the vampires turned against them.

Radu finally walked to the front of the stage and raised his hands. “Brothers and sisters!” He looked at the vampire guests. “There must be an explanation for this. Patience.”

Oleg did not sit down, but the other vampires did.

“There is an explanation.” Mika folded his hands in his lap and stared at the stage. “Vano is a snake.”

Tatyana slowly took her seat, and she felt her entire body heat as Oleg’s amnis stirred in her. She felt… pleased. She’d wanted Vano to be the terrin that retired, and it looked like that decision might be made for him.

She’d wanted him to pay for threatening her friends, for threatening her.

He’d betrayed his people, schemed with Oleg’s brother, and killed innocent humans and vampires.

It looked like payment was coming, and that payment was going to be very, very public.

Radu turned to Vano. “Brother, tell me our former guest is mistaken. That there has been a misunderstanding.”

If Tatyana hadn’t already known Vano was guilty, she would have discerned it from the furious expression on his face.

She glanced at Oleg, but her lover was watching everything with a slight smirk and his arms crossed over his chest, clearly trying not to laugh.

“There is no mistake,” Tenzin shouted. “The ashes left behind prove my tale. Vano attempted to kill a guest of the kamvasa and lied to the Hazar and the darigan about it.”

No one said anything until a group of Poshani men shoved a man forward.