A Court of Bones & Sorrow (Lunaria Realms #2)

Chapter 27

Chapter Twenty-Seven

Samara

I looked at the cabin one last time before setting off to find Vail. It was a little surprising he had wandered so far away . . . and that Rynn wasn’t here yet. Maybe it had just taken her longer than she’d anticipated to slip away without being noticed. I shook my head as I tried to focus my thoughts. They were still reeling from what had happened between me, Draven, and Vail in the cabin, but I needed to pay attention to the task at hand, and that meant bottling up my jumbled mess of emotions and tucking them away to be dealt with later. There were too many people counting on me.

I would not fail them.

Draven didn’t believe I could save him. That was fine. I’d just have to prove him wrong. This wouldn’t take longer than a few hours, and then I’d be able to return to him. I’d told him to stay inside to avoid running into any Velesians, who may not be too happy about the Moroi Prince coming unannounced into their realm. Hopefully none of them tried to use the cabin today. He’d assured me they wouldn’t be able to pick up his scent from outside, which had only led to questions on my end, but I hadn’t bothered voicing them .

He was still hiding things from me, and whatever strange magic he had was definitely one of them. Logically, I knew I shouldn’t trust him, but my heart said otherwise.

Just as I started to step over a fallen log, my instincts screamed at me that I was no longer alone.

A broad hand covered my mouth and another clamped around my waist, pulling me against a hard body. Panic seized me, and I struggled for several seconds before recognizing Vail’s scent.

“Quiet,” he whispered faintly in my ear. “The Velesians are here.”

Slowly, he dropped his hands and beckoned me forward, further into the forest and away from the cabin where Draven hid.

“Velesians . ” As in more than one. Rynn was supposed to have come alone.

Something had gone very wrong.

Vail and I quietly made our way through the woods. I was a little disoriented, but I was pretty sure we were headed back the way we’d come, which meant we were going away from Lake Malov. Not ideal, but what mattered more was staying undetected.

Maybe we could backtrack and then make our way around them to the lake? I also needed to find out what had happened to Rynn. Given her status with the Alpha Pack, I knew she wouldn’t have been hurt, but maybe they had detained her somewhere.

Fuck, this was already turning into a political nightmare, and we didn’t even know if it was worth it yet.

A low, rumbling growl caused us to stop dead in our tracks before a familiar, sleek, black form dropped from the branches above us, blocking our path ahead. The panther surveyed us with its cunning, green eyes.

Hello, Bastian .

Also. Fuck. Me.

All the Velesians were deadly in their own way. The ailuranthropes—usually just called ailurans or panthers—weren’t the biggest. Both ursanthropes—bear shifters—and lycanthropes—wolf shifters—were larger than them, but the ailurans were the fastest, and their feline bodies allowed more flexibility in a fight.

I’d never actually seen Bastian fight, but I had no doubt he would be vicious. And he was no doubt very pissed off at us right now.

Vail shoved me behind him but didn’t draw the sword strapped across his back. Instead, his hand hovered near the large dagger on his hip. He understood the situation just as well as I did. We were on Velesian land without permission. If we killed one of them . . . the fragile alliance between our people would shatter.

And it would be all our fault.

“I can explain.” I stepped around Vail with my hands held out to my sides and dodged his hand when he tried to make a grab for me. The panther’s ears flattened back against his head before releasing a high-pitched snarl, and Vail pulled his dagger free. “Let’s just calm down,” I said frantically. “This is all just a misunders?—”

Bastian let out a startled cry as a large, white wolf plowed into his side. The ailuran went flying, his body slamming into a thick tree trunk with a resounding crack . Several green vines immediately shot forward, clearly thinking they had just found their next meal. They wrapped around the unconscious beast as the bark down the center of the trunk started to split apart, revealing a dark, cavernous mouth.

“Damn it, Rynn!” I hissed and lunged forward to cut the panther free. Vail joined me a second later, and between the two of us, we managed to free and drag Bastian a safe distance away from the apparently carnivorous tree. I eyed the other trees suspiciously but couldn’t tell if they shared the same food tastes.

Fucking Velesian forests.

Bastian wouldn’t be unconscious for long. Velesians healed the slowest out of all the Moon Blessed, but they could still heal from just about anything, and unlike the Moroi, they didn’t need spells or blood to do it. We needed to figure out a plan to fix this mess. Fast.

“Change back.” I glared at the white wolf, whose back was higher than my waistline. Granted, I wasn’t that tall, but Rynn’s wolf form was massive. She exhaled sharply before turning away from me, a clear dismissal, and I fought the urge to strangle her.

I’d had everything under control before she’d decided to come barreling in. Mostly under control. Well, I’d possibly had things under control.

It wasn’t like we could just leave. Bastian would wake up any minute now, and he would absolutely track us. It was hard enough to avoid the Velesians when they didn’t know about our presence. We had zero chance of outrunning Bastian in these woods. Not to mention he would report this to Cade, and then we’d have the might of the Alpha Pack falling down on us.

Rynn’s involvement only further complicated things.

“Fuck, I wish Kieran were here,” I muttered and rubbed my face. Kier had a real talent for smoothing things over.

“It’s good he’s not,” a deep voice drawled. Vail and I whirled around, Rynn somehow already between us and the enormous man who had managed to sneak up on us.

“We like Kieran,” another voice rasped from behind us, forcing us to turn so we could keep both Velesians in our sights. “It’d be a shame to have to kill him along with you.”

Rynn had been eying the first man warily, but she full-on growled at the second, aggression radiating off her. He cocked his head in a very wolflike gesture, a bright sheen rolling over his crystal blue eyes.

“Ryker,” I said evenly to the man Rynn was snarling at in a way I’d never seen her do to anyone before. Then my gaze slid to the larger man. “Cade.”

I didn’t know Ryker all that well, but Cade I’d met fairly regularly, since he spoke for all the Velesians. He was quite possibly the only person I’d ever met who towered over Vail. He had to be at least six and a half feet tall, and it wouldn’t have surprised me if he had to twist his ridiculously broad frame just to fit through doorways. Usually, his light brown eyes were calm, sometimes even welcoming if he was in a particularly good mood.

Today, they were cold and predatory.

“You shouldn’t have come here, Samara,” Cade said in a chillingly calm voice. “And you definitely shouldn’t have attacked Bastian after that shit you pulled at the human settlement.”

Guess that answered the question of whether Bastian had tattled on us to Cade. I never doubted he would, just hoped that maybe he hadn’t had time to do it yet.

“We had our reasons.” I glanced at the panther and then back at Cade. “You know me, and you know Vail. Trust that we wouldn’t do anything to jeopardize our relationship with the Velesians, and definitely not with the Alpha Pack.”

“If you wanted our trust, you shouldn’t have kicked Bastian out of your lands.” He shrugged. “And definitely shouldn’t have snuck into ours. Your pretty face and words aren’t going to get you out of this one.”

“Think carefully about what you say next.” Vail slid the long, curved dagger free from his hip.

Cade smiled. “Looks like we might get that fight we’ve been spoiling for all these years after all.” He took a step forward, a blade similar to Vail’s appearing in his right hand before a raspy growl sounded from Ryker as tension bled through the air.

“STOP!” Rynn barked, her chest still heaving from shifting to her human form. “They’re here at my invitation.” She raised her chin high, exuding authority despite standing there naked while surrounded by males who towered over her. “As a member of the Alpha Pack, it is within my right to invite others into our territory. Bastian was interfering, and I was merely putting him in his place.”

“Funny.” Cade gave Rynn a flat look. “Only a couple of hours ago, you were telling me to take my pack and shove it up my ass.”

“You must have misheard on account of your thick skull.”

What in the actual fuck had gotten into my mild-tempered friend?

Ryker’s growling gained an even more vicious edge, but Rynn paid him no mind, despite her back being to him. The insult was clear, and I raised my brows at the brazenness of my friend. She had definitely been leaving out a lot of information on how things were going with her and the Alpha Pack. We’d be having words about this later once we were alone.

Her mismatched eyes, one golden brown and the other a deep, vivid blue, slid to mine, and she pressed her lips into a hard line. Yeah, she knew I’d be grilling her about this later.

The growling abruptly cut off, and I looked away from Rynn to see Cade staring at Ryker, some unspoken communication passing between them. Ryker’s lip curled in distaste before he tugged off his shirt and threw it at Rynn. She snarled, but he was already turning away and shucking off the rest of his clothing. Velesians rarely wore boots, as they preferred to stay in contact with the earth. A second after his clothes hit the ground, an enormous wolf with a grey coat flecked with white burst free from the cage of human skin.

Then he darted into the forest without another glance at any of us as Rynn stared after him with a predatory focus before pulling his shirt on with jerky movements.

“ Rynn .” Cade sank so much dominance into that one word that Rynn’s head snapped towards him, almost of its own accord, and he smiled at the venom in her gaze. “Ryker’s going to make sure we’re not disturbed, and you are going to explain what the fuck is going on here.”

“Is that an order?” she asked cooly, not looking away from the alpha stare she was on the receiving end of.

“Does it need to be?” Cade crossed his arms, making his biceps bulge.

Rynn’s upper lip trembled in a snarl as she glared at Cade.

“Okaaay.” I drew out the word and grabbed Rynn’s arm, tugging her away. “We’re gonna need a minute.”

“I didn’t say you could leave,” Cade said in a low, threatening tone.

“And I don’t give a shit,” I snapped. “I need to speak with my friend. Once I’ve done that, we’ll talk and get this all figured out.” Bastian started to stir on the ground, and I glanced at Vail. “Why don’t you help Cade check on the overeager pussycat.”

“Both of you really try my patience,” Cade grumbled and moved towards the ailuran, who had managed to shake his head and was blinking blearily at the world. Vail nodded at me. He’d keep them away from me and Rynn while we talked. Velesian hearing was very sharp, but if we kept our voices low, it’d be fine.

Neither of us said anything as I pulled Rynn through the woods. When I was confident we were a good enough distance away to not be overheard, I stopped. She immediately pulled her arm free and fixed her features into the stubborn look I knew so well. It was the one that said she knew what she was doing, she was absolutely in the right, and the rest of us were idiots for not realizing it .

So I did what I’d done every time she’d gotten into this mood while we’d been at Drudonia. I reached out and flicked her on the nose. Hard.

“Fuck off, Sam!” She rubbed her nose and glared at me.

“What in all the moonsdamned fuck is going on?” I mimicked Cade’s stance from earlier and crossed my arms. Unfortunately, my biceps were nowhere near as intimidating as his. “Last I checked, you were worried the Alpha Pack didn’t want you anymore because you hadn’t been able to go to them right away.” Rynn’s mother had passed away last year. They’d had a strained relationship, but Rynn had still felt obligated to help her elderly mother in her final days. So she’d delayed leaving her pack to join the Alphas, but she’d wanted to go, and now she was looking at them like she wanted to rip their throats out.

Rynn’s lips trembled, but it wasn’t in a snarl this time. Tears welled in her eyes. “I’m being banished from the Order of Narchis.”

“What?” My eyes widened.

She looked away as she tried to collect herself, tugging at Ryker’s shirt. He was smaller than the rest of the Alphas, but it still drowned her lean frame, falling to mid-thigh. Tears rolled down her cheeks and dripped onto the shirt before she wiped the rest of them away.

“Remember last month when I went searching in Fervis territory?”

“You mean when I told you not to go there because if you got caught it would cause all kinds of problems?” Rynn raised her chin, still defiant despite the tears falling. “Let me guess.” I sighed. “You got caught?”

She nodded miserably. “Aetanthrope scout spotted me. I should have known better, but there aren’t many eagle shifters in the Order of Fervis. ”

I squeezed my eyes shut. Rynn was really good at sneaking around, but she got too cocky sometimes.

“What did they do?”

“Refused to release me back to the Narchis. They said I’d been promised to them before my pack changed its mind and made the deal with the Alphas. Claimed they were owed compensation. Cade sent Bastian and Ryker to fetch me.” Her eyes sparked. “Bastian promised them I would be punished.”

I was suddenly quite sure she hadn’t slammed him into that tree hard enough. “The banishment is your punishment I take it?”

Rynn blinked away her tears as she fought to compose herself. It was strange seeing her cry. I wanted to hug her, but I knew she would have hated that. So instead, I pretended I couldn’t see the wet streaks running down her cheeks or the way her eyes had reddened. Within a few minutes, she was back to her normal, cool and steady expression.

“They announced it this morning to everyone gathered.” She looked back towards the trees we’d walked through, to where Cade and the others waited. “I’m to leave with them as soon as the meet is over. The agreement is that I’m forbidden from traveling through Narchis territory unless I’m in the company of one of them.”

I took that to mean Cade, Bastian, or Ryker.

“And I can only go through Fervis territory if I get permission first—which they won’t give.” She looked back at me. “That leaves going through the neutral area of Drudonia my only option for getting to the Moroi realm, and Cade could easily tell the rangers who are posted in that area to not let me pass.”

“He wouldn’t do that,” I said but couldn’t hide the hesitation in my voice.

“I won’t be able to see you, Sam.” Panic flared in her eyes. “ I’ll be trapped in the fucking Alpha House, cut off from everyone I care about.”

A low whine punctuated her words. All her life, all Rynn wanted was to belong to a pack that respected and loved her. The one she’d been born into had cared for her, but only as a political pawn to be traded. The Valatieris were one of the strongest Velesian bloodlines, and her uncle ruled the largest of the Narchis packs. Rynn was basically a shifter princess.

“Hey.” I ran a hand through her shoulder-length, chestnut brown hair. “Do you really think they could keep me away from you?” I snorted. “Better question, do you really think they could keep Cali away?”

She huffed out a laugh. “No, but I wouldn’t let either of you get into trouble for me.”

“Oh, my sweet, sweet wolf.” I shook my head at her. “You don’t let us do anything. If the Alphas are going to treat you this way, then they don’t deserve you. We’ll get you away from them and give you the chance to find a pack of your own choosing.”

“Sam, you ca?—”

I flicked her on the nose again, and she let out a low growl.

“Trust me. Now”—I rubbed my hands together—“any ideas on how we get out of this current predicament? We need to get to Lake Malov and search for the crown.”

She sighed. “As pissed off as I am at Cade and the other Alphas, I think we should tell them. We kind of have to at this point anyway if we want to search that area, and we might need their help down the road. They are a lot of things, but I don’t think there is any chance of them being involved in this. Ryker’s family was killed by wraiths, and he was taken in afterwards by Cade and Bastian. They would never ally with someone who was working with the wraiths.”

“Let’s hope you’re right.” I smiled brightly at Rynn. “On the plus side, if you’re wrong and they are working with Erendriel and Velika, then we can just kill them and solve your little problem.”

Rynn shot me a wolfish grin. “Always looking on the bright side.”

“This is exactly why everyone hates the Moroi,” Bastian said after I’d explained our situation. Most of it anyway—I’d left out anything involving Draven. “The rest of us are just trying to survive in this fucked-up land, and you bastards somehow find the time to discover cursed Fae artifacts and use them to enslave others.”

The ailuran had been his human form when Rynn and I had returned, wearing a pair of loose-fitting pants and nothing else. It was too bad the Alphas were such assholes and I had a high probability of killing them in the future, because every single one of them was hot. Even with the feline disgust stamped all over his face, Bastian was gorgeous.

Standing next to Cade, who was more of a ruggedly handsome type, Bastian looked almost pretty. I thought it might be his eyes. Even in this form, his bright, emerald green eyes had vertically slit pupils, and something about that with the chiseled cheekbones and full lips made him captivatingly stunning.

“No need to drool, Samara.” He finally noticed me outright staring at him and gave me a sinful grin. “I don’t usually fuck Moroi, but I’ll slum it in your case.”

Vail growled, but I just batted my eyelashes at Bastian. “Actually, I was just thinking Rynn should maybe have a go with you before I slit your throat and feed you to that tree that tried to eat you earlier.”

His grin got a little sharper.

“Not helping, Sam.” Rynn sighed.

“Sorry, I got bored listening to him prattle on about how the Moroi are so awful and the Velesians are so perfect.” I shrugged and then looked at Cade. He was the only one I needed to convince. “My mother believed the other half of the crown might be hidden near Lake Malov. We need to search that area.”

“And if we find it?” Cade’s fingers brushed the scar that ran from his ear down his jawline, the roughly healed, pale tissue standing out against his light brown skin. “If you think I’m letting you walk out of here with it, you’re even more insane than I thought.”

“Careful,” Vail rumbled.

Cade glanced at Vail curiously, but it was Bastian who spoke. “For someone who got drunk with us on more than one occasion and talked about how you dreamed about killing the Harker Heir, it seems a little strange to find you defending her.” His nostrils flared as he inhaled and tilted his head slightly. “Not to mention that we can still smell you all over each other. Pussy was that good, huh?”

Vail took a step forward, but I yanked him back, forcing Rynn to step to the side before I raised a brow at Bastian. “My pussy is, in fact, that good. Dream of me.” Rynn laughed under her breath while I blew him a kiss before turning my attention to Cade. “It just so happens I agree about the crown. At this point, I don’t know which Moroi are working with the Sovereign House. While I can vouch for myself and those close to me, we’re also the ones most at risk of being captured.”

“What do you propose?” Cade asked, his expression curious. He always was the most reasonable of the Alphas as long as we didn’t push him too far.

“We destroy it,” I said. “Something like that shouldn’t exist to begin with.”

Cade studied me for a long moment, and I fixed my features into a pleasant but neutral expression. Something told me he didn’t buy it, but he glanced at Rynn, and something passed in his eyes that I couldn’t quite read. Once again, I wished Kieran were here. He was better than me at picking up subtle cues like this.

“Fine,” Cade agreed. “We destroy it. But I want to see it destroyed with my own eyes.”

“Wonderful.” I dipped my chin in agreement. “Can we head to the lake now?”

“Of course. Follow me.” He turned and set off through the woods. I looked over my shoulder in time to catch Bastian reaching out for Rynn’s arm but yanking his hand away when she snarled at him. Then he stalked off after Cade and we followed after him.

I kept glancing around the woods for Ryker but didn’t see him anywhere. Despite that, I was pretty sure the wolf was following us based on how Rynn’s gaze kept drifting deeper into the woods.

We walked in uneasy silence for almost an hour before the forest finally ended and revealed Lake Malov. Even before I saw it, I knew we were close because of how tense all the Velesians got. If they’d been in their animal forms, I had no doubt the hair along their backs would have been raised.

It was interesting to me that I didn’t feel anything. Vail didn’t seem to either, although I’d ask him later to confirm. Whatever was going on with the lake, only the Velesians could feel it. And the Furies according to Cali.

Even though I didn’t feel whatever Cali and the Velesians felt, I still found the lake disturbing. I was used to the turquoise waves that crashed against our beaches or the crystal clear waters of the lakes and rivers scattered throughout Lunaria.

Lake Malov was black. Impenetrable, inky darkness. Not even a ripple ran across the surface. It was like looking at glass.

I bumped my shoulder against Rynn’s. “No wonder you always want to come to the Moroi Realm. Our lakes are way more enticing for swimming. ”

Cade looked over his shoulder. “You enjoy swimming?”

“Yes,” Rynn said after a long moment.

“Hope you like swimming in frigid water,” Bastian quipped. “Because the closest lake to our home is frozen for most of the year.”

Rynn’s brows furrowed, but before she could answer, Ryker appeared and rammed his shoulder into her as he walked past, wearing only a pair of loose-fitting pants. “Princess wouldn’t lower herself to swimming in our lake.”

Vail managed to grab Rynn just as she lunged for the lycanthrope. She twisted in his grasp and snarled in his face, but he just gave her a flat look in response. He’d spent plenty of time around Velesians and was used to their bullshit.

“Where should we start?” I asked, trying to break up the tension. “We could split up?”

“No.” Cade shook his head. “We might run into some patrols, and it’ll be easier to explain your presence if I’m with you. We’ll start at the southern tip. Go up the west side and work our way around.”

I nodded, and we continued on.

“Stop,” I said softly after we’d been walking for less than five minutes. I could hardly believe it, but for once, luck was on our side. The feeling was so subtle, I’d almost walked right by it. “There’s a lookaway spell here.”

“What?” Rynn perked up, any resentment she felt towards the Alphas instantly forgotten as her academic mindset kicked in. “Where?”

Vail stepped up to my side as we both studied the edge of the lake. Several boulders rose up from the water, and there were several smaller ones on the shore, but none of them were the source. I walked forward a few feet and stopped, bending down to brush away the small greyish pebbles that made up the shoreline. A shiny, obsidian black stone greeted me, exactly like the ones we’d found at the human settlement. The kind that had been used centuries ago by the humans to turn us all into monsters.

“What does it say?” Rynn asked, crouching on the other side of Vail as we all studied the glyph that had been carved into the stone.

Based on how the ends of the symbol thinned out and twisted off sharply, it was an Unseelie glyph. My heart raced faster. My mother had been right. There was something here, and it had likely been hidden from everyone this whole time.

“Salvation.” I swallowed. “It means salvation.”