Page 124 of Loreblood

Her sharp smile faltered. For a moment, I could see the pain behind her eyes. She looked like the same scared young girl I knew, not this confident young woman.

It was only a flash, then it was gone.

“Turns out I can’t produce what a bloodstock’s good for, y’see? No matter how many nightly dickings I got, no whelps. Lord Aldion didn’t like that much. Had his deputies and aides try, too. Sometimes as many as six at once. Can’t complain, really. Still no baby. So he got rid o’ me.”

My eyes bulged in shock.Fuck, she’s moreopenthan ever, too. This is the same girl who came to me in tears after Aelin touched her? Now talking about gang sex like it’s just another day?“I’m so sorry, Jin.”

She scoffed and flapped a hand at me like it was nothing. I could tell it hurt her to know she was barren.

“That’s the incident?” I asked, wondering if she had gotten her words mixed up. Because it sounded like less of an “incident” and more of a prolonged situation that happened over many months.

“Well, not exactly, yeah? Tymon didn’t get rid o’ me. He tried killing me. Poison in a wine glass. Didn’t think I knew somethin’ was up seeing how heneverwined or dined me. So I flipped it on him. He got the poison, I got my freedom.”

“You killed him?” A flashback of Jinneth ramming her dagger up into Aelin’s chin, past her mouth and into her brain.Wouldn’t put it past her.

“Nah. Buver like that don’t die so easy. Put him to sleep long enough to run here though, yeah?”

“Right.” I chewed my lip, not sure what else to say.

“Now me and Keffa and the lot are helpin’ bloodsuckers like Skarry kill other bloodsuckers. Ironic, ain’t it?” She smiledwide and sat back. “There’s change coming to Olhav, sister. And Nuhav, if we’re lucky.”

“I want to be part of it.”

Her pointy chin thrust toward Skartovius. “Stick with that one and you will be. Heard from any of the other grimmers? Imis, Helget, Rirth, and such?”

I saw the hope in her eyes. “No. I haven’t been back to Nuhav or the Firehold since the last shadowgala.”

That’s a lie,I thought. I wondered what made the lie so easy, and why I would fib to Jinneth of all people.Because the last time I was there, it was to meet with the Diplomats and I was frozen by rage and fear.

It was shame I felt. I vowed to have answers for Jinneth next time I saw her.

Then my attention was stolen completely from her, and the breath from my lungs, as the stairs creaked with heavy weight behind her.

Vallan Stellos descended the stairs with his head lowered so he could clear the archway. He was shirtless, shocking my senses with the layers of sheer muscle that made up his torso. Dips and planes and sharp crevices of perfect pale flesh, with plenty of long scars and burn spots marring him, making his frame even more delectable.

I breathed out once he threw his tunic on while reaching the bottom step. He eyed me with a frown behind his beard—for some reason his distaste for me only made the draw I felt greater—and then marched past our table to speak with Keffa and Skartovius.

A few of the girls in the other table lowered their voices to whispers, snickers following shortly after.

“Many thanks for letting me sleep the day here, Iron Sister,” he grunted out. “Didn’t feel like making the trek back during the heat after all the logistics got figured.”

“My home is yours, Master Stellos,” Keffa said with a small bow. “Though Lyroan came to me quite teary-eyed, saddened you did not visit her. Hasn’t come out of her room all evening.”

Vallan looked embarrassed for the first time I’d ever seen, rubbing the back of his neck with his giant hand then running it over his scruffy, wild hair. He opened his mouth to sputter something—

“Sister Lyroan is unfortunately going to be disappointed more often in the future, isn’t she, brother?” Skartovius interjected, fixing him with a glare.

“I imagine so,” Vallan answered. “My urges have . . . abated some, Iron Sister.”

Keffa shrugged. “Can’t fault you for that. Any cure to a curse is a good thing, no? It keeps the girls asleep and the Hall quiet, besides.”

Vallan made an awkward face and nodded.

Leave it to a young woman half his size to put him in his place,I mused. The innuendo Keffa painted was not lost on me, and the familiar thrum of jealousy I hated to feel rolled through my blood.Who is Lyroan? And these “urges” of Vallan’s, spoken like a curse?

It sounded like a curse I wanted to experience, as much as my mind was telling me to run away from these heathen, hedonistic vampires.

“You really are lost in it, yeah?” Jinneth said, snapping my eyes back to her sly face. “These Buvers got you in a puddle, all starry-eyed like a lost—”