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Upon arriving in Ljubljana, I spared the familiar snowy mountain peaks looming in the distance above the surrounding evergreen forest no glance as the sun fled the darkened sky.
The Vasilyev holdings were further north towards the Austrian border, a multiple-hour car journey. The drive passed in silence as Henry and I prepared ourselves for the battle of our lifetime, but my focus remained on Jade.
Was she unharmed? Rotting away in the dungeons? Being paraded around the castle like a war prize?
As my family’s castle came into view, I felt my steely mask of a ruthless vampire prince fall over me. I jumped from the car, not waiting for Henry, and stalked through the hallways until I reached my father’s office door.
I lifted my hands to knock when the frenzied heartbeat and whimpers from the other side gave me pause. Leather, pipe smoke, and my father’s favorite whiskey mingled with the scent of a warmblood—potent and sweet.Blood.
Tension coiled tightly within me as I slammed open the door, revealing the young mortal girl writhing in my father’s lap. He seemed completely unbothered by my judgmental appraisal; his hands wrapped tightly around the girl’s throat as he continued drinking.
When he was finished, the girl looked deathly pale and weakened. She dropped to the floor and crawled towards the hallway where a staff member would bring her back to her chambers to recover for her next feeding.
I wanted to lift the girl into my arms and bring her far away from this palace, but I knew it would be useless. My father would only take another in her place, the cycle continuing eternally.
“This is a surprise,” my father drawled in a gravelly voice thick with sated calm.
I forced my hands to unclench and my mouth to curl into a smile. It would do Jade no favors to run off the rails now.
“Have you forgotten you ordered me home?” I mused with a smirk. “After Henry and I heard about Trystan’s foolhardy attack on the Coven, we immediately fled the city, fearing retaliation. I’m assuming you have a plan in place to deal with Dubois’s fuckup.”
My father stared at me without expression, slowly clasping his hands together on the rich leather desktop. “I will deal with that matter after the Wild Hunt. But tell me, have you heard the latest news from Silas?”
I shrugged with feigned nonchalance. “I assume he’s around here somewhere with the spirit witch. The Salem High Priestess was very put out by her kidnapping.”
I forced myself to laugh, though it felt like a dagger stabbing through my unseating heart.
“Indeed.” My father’s lips quirked.
Mother pushed past the half-opened door, and all my false laughter drained as I took in her lavender eyes and face etched with weariness.
“Mati,” I breathed, embracing her fiercely.
She reached a soft hand to my cheek and patted me with affection, pulling away to look over me. “Alexei, words cannot describe how dearly I’ve longed for your presence these years. You look thirsty. Have you drunk since your arrival?”
“I came straight here,” I answered, my stomach revolting at the thought of the mortal girl I caught my father with moments before. Slouching into the stiff leatherback chair across from my father, I asked, “How has everyone been?”
Mirror frowns met my undisguised attempt at levity on my parents’ faces.
Alistair snarled, reaching across the desk to collar my neck in a chokehold. As I had thousands of times before, I relaxed in his grip, allowing my mind to drift off.
Whiskey would have been a godssend to distract me from the vitriolic hatred. As it was, all I had were mother’s feeble attempts at softening the blows as she paced the expensive rug with her sky-high heels, running interference.
“Are you even listening, Alexei?” Father raged, his frame boxing me into my chair.
“Yes, Father,” I sighed, fighting the urge to lash out. “It’s impossible not to listen when you’re shouting in my face.”
“Insolent, spoiled, waste of space. Losing the staff and making a mockery of yourself in Louisiana is one thing, but dallying with a spirit witch after I worked so hard to purge their existence from Gaia? Your idiocy and shortsightedness truly know no bounds.”
My hands itched to stab my dagger through his neck, but I forced them to flatten on my knees. “What can I say? She was a pretty little thing, and I enjoyed the challenge. She lost her charm after the first time she tried to kill me with her useless magick. I only kept her around to find the staff, but Trystan had to fuck everything up.”
I imbued as much detached disdain into my voice as possible as I spoke of Jade, hoping he wouldn’t see the true depths of my feelings towards her. If he didn’t know she was my mate already. With Silas in the castle, knowing just how obsessively I watched over her those months in New Orleans, I feared this charade was all for naught.
Alistair’s fangs lengthened with fury, but before he could launch into another tirade, mother stepped forward, placing a manicured hand on his forearm.
“Alistair, please.” She turned to me with trembling lips. “We’re concerned,moj sin, for the safety of our family. But now that we have the spirit witch, we must look ahead to the future rather than dwell in the past. Isn’t that right, Alistair?”
Steam practically spewed from father’s ears.
