Chapter 22: A Dangerous Invitation

It had been sealed with black wax, and the royal crest — a snake wrapped around a blood-red rose — upon it.

I gazed at it, out of reach, a small knot of concern twisting in my stomach. There was nothing good that ever came in black.

The servant who had brought it bowed and departed from my rooms as though the parchment itself would devour him. I could hardly fault him. I would have incinerated it to ashes at that moment if I were anywhere to incinerate it.

I sent my fingers off instead, breaking the seal.

On it, writing was beautiful but cruel:

By order of the king, Prince Kael commands Scarlett Laurent to the upcoming Vampire Summit at Ravaryn Keep. No choice is given.

No note. No signature. Just icy royal demand.

I sat in a mug, the letter dropping to the floor.

A summit. Of vampires.

I folded my hands around them, covering the slight quiver that had fallen upon them. It wasn't that the prospect of being led about like an animal before aged, slaughtering beasts disturbed me — it was because, with a summit, there would be no secrets. No tall walls to hide me. No Kael, if he should choose to banish me.

And yet, he was.

Why?

The door creaked open without a knock — only one man ever came into my room without knocking.

Kael.

His broad shoulders blocked the doorway, wearing black, embroidered traveling attire rather than the proper velvet I was used to seeing him wear. His red eyes met mine the moment he entered, piercing and heavy.

"You accepted the invitation," he growled, advancing.

Invitation.

As if I'd had a choice.

I braced against the chair, smoothing the front of my black dress. "Why am I being taken?" I growled, trying to keep bitterness from my voice.

Kael's head canted by a degree, the glint of amusement on his face. "You're mine, aren't you?"

The words stung more than they ought to have. I fought not to shift, not to respond to his eyes.

"You're parading me around," I said to him in a voiceless tone.

Kael's lip twisted — a small, sour smile.

I glared. "I'm not something you show off to impress your friends, Kael."

"No," he said gently, advancing so I felt the chill of his presence penetrate my bones. "You're much more lethal than a trinket. And that's why you have to accompany me."

Lethal?

Was he teasing? Was there something more to the words?

I crossed my arms over my chest. "What don't you say?"

He extended his hand, and for a moment I was expecting him to stroke me. But he bent down to retrieve the crumpled letter on the ground, his fingers slithering over the parchment like a blade, not like a comforting call.

"Ravaryn Keep's a viper's den," he gasped. "The old houses, the ancient blood — they won't take you on."

I shuddered. "Then why did you?"

Kael's red eyes flared up into mine, burning with some unspoken and burning thing. "Because your reputation's already made the rounds. If you stay hidden, they'll think you are weak. And weakness is deadly."

Politics. Not love. Not protection.

I bit so hard into the flesh of my cheek that I could taste copper. "And what am I to do, then? Smirk and curtsy while they sharpen knives?"

A shadow fell across his cheek. "No. You'll stand with me. Quiet. Watching. Untouchable."

I laughed out loud. "Untouchable? You've seen me, Kael. I'm human. They'll be able to smell it on me the moment I step into the room."

His eyes blazed with killing fire, his face darkening. "They'll track me on you first."

My heart leaped crazily in my chest.

The bite.

The mark.

He'd marked me more than that — he'd, with his quiet manner, claimed me out there. And vampires honored claims. Up to a point.

I shivered, not from cold.

Kael reached me, hand finally going to caress my jaw in thrilling softness. His thumb tracing over the area his own had healed.

"You are mine," he growled, voice deadly and soft. "And they will remember it."

I should have backed off. Should have bitten him, cursed him for so boldly making me some kind of monster.

Instead, I stood there motionless, starved of a hunger that stayed out of reach.

"Pack what you need," Kael told me, releasing my hand at last.

"We leave at sundown."

And he was gone, from the room, the door closing softly behind him, and I was left with the crash-bang-boom of my own heart.

---

Travel to Ravaryn Keep was a blur of dark wood and white-bone fog.

We traveled in a black carriage crowded with two great shadow horses whose eyes burned hot red. I sat stiffly on the velvet seat, holding my pleats of cloak.

Kael sat facing me, still, stern.

The rage between us seethed like a hot wire. I had to prod him to make him let me ask him a thousand times — what would they do if somebody went all the way and challenged his rule? What if they just decided a human wasn't even worth it?

But I kept quiet, as he commanded.

Outside, it became night, and with that, the presence of beasts older and hungrier than I had ever been. Shadows stirred at the fringe of the forest. I glimpsed white faces, wicked smiles, and green eyes.

Not all vampires dwelled in the courts.

Some had sunk too far to be redeemed.

And they waited for us.

I could sense Kael stiffen alongside me. "Fear draws them to you," he breathed, his voice barely above a murmur over the creak of wheels. "Get over it."

Easy for him.

He wasn't human.

He wasn't prey.

I still compelled myself to breathe slowly, to loosen my death grip on the seat.

I would not be weak.

I would not give them that pleasure.

Not them.

And never Kael.

The carriage bounced as it rode over a stone bridge, and then, out of the fog, Ravaryn Keep materialized.

It was a somber sight — a black stone keep of black stone and wrought-iron gates, red fires burning within. The air was parched and ash-tasting with an overlaying, ancient-magic quality.

As squeaky doors groaned open to greet us in, I knew that I did know something with a wrenching heave in my gut.

This was no snug fit for a king.

This was a war zone.

And I was entering on velvet handcuffs and blood.

To be continued…