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The eagerness in his question warmed my heart. That morning, he had said I didn’t need to teach him anything, and I’d worried I couldn’t.

It seemed we were both wrong.

“Tomorrow, we’ll make something that smells better.”

He grinned. “I can’t wait.”

Chapter 24

Tourmenté

YVES

Every second with her was torture. Every second away from her was worse. I’d taken my bloodstone off and whacked it against my desk a few times to see if the stone had forgotten to recognize Cora as my mate. But nothing.

I yearned to know what she was thinking, whether she felt the same way, but that wasn't a talent I possessed.

Now, she was coming into my room for our first feeding, and my stomach was in knots. Even though I swore something shifted between us in Adrien’s room, and then on the balcony, she had been avoiding me.

One question plagued my mind: if she wasn’t my mate reborn, then what was happening to me? Why couldn’t I stop thinking about her?

The sound of tapping stole my attention, and I found a bird with a scroll tied to its foot sitting on the sill. I didn’t have much time before Cora arrived, but only two people sent me correspondence by messenger bird, and I was desperate to hear from either of them.

I pulled the small scroll free and unrolled it, immediately recognizing the small print.

Yves,

Tell your son that the Crown’s astronomers confirmed his discovery, and that they are insufferable about having been beaten by a boy of eight. I have had it entered into the royal record: Maris’s star, rediscovered by Master Adrien Allard of Valemer. I have sent him a certificate he can hang on his wall by way of letter.

I chuckled. Good old Marius. Adrien will be thrilled to receive it. I continued, knowing that couldn’t be all Marius wished to say.

Everyone at court is asking me what my namesake’s star’s appearance portends, as though the goddess reports to me directly. I tell them it portends nothing, that stars are not sentimental.

I will tell you what I tell no one else, mon sang. I do not believe a word of my own reassurances.

You will think me mad, and you will be within your rights, because what I am about to write is impossible: I have begun to dream. Yes, dream.

We have not slept in five hundred years, and yet three times this month I have lost hours I cannot account for, and in those hours all I see is water. The tide coming up the steps of the throne room and flooding the entire palace. A woman’s voice, singing that song the dockworkers sing at your harbor. And beneath it all, a feeling… a feeling that something is coming for me.

I stilled, unable to fully process what he’d just declared.

Perhaps it is age. Perhaps it is the lost goddess. But I confess the mortal instruments concern me more than the divine ones. After Bastien’s behavior at his Sanguination Ball, and my allowance of it, questions have been raised in open court regarding my appropriateness to rule. A petition circulates urging me to step down.

Now I understood why Renaud felt it was time to make his move. There was already dissent at the capital. I wondered which brother had told him.

Two vampire princes resided at Château Corbin besides Marius, as was the custom for those of us with living mates. It couldn’t have been Claude, the Duke of Eveningtide. Marius had just made his son Tyson a viscount and named him Bastien’s heir. Besides, Renaud claimed he hadn’t spoken to him.

But it could’ve been Sylvain, the Duke of Lakeland. I could see Lakeland pledging a quiet vote for Rochfort should he make a play for the throne. Their lands bordered, and they were fond of one another.

I continued reading.

And now, whispers of war have reached the capital, fanning the flames.

You know the sea better than anyone, and it is why I am asking you: what do the dreams mean?

Your brother in blood,

M