King of Battle and Blood (Adrian X Isolde #1)(69)

I did not have long to inspect every inch of this room, as my attention fell to the noblesse present. I only recognized a few—Tanaka, Gesalac, Dracul, and Anatoly. I noted that Ciro was absent from the mix, which was just as well. He had done his people a disservice and needed to rectify it. There were five other men I did not know, but none of them looked at me with as much mistrust as Gesalac, whose gaze made my stomach sour. I wondered if he was thinking about earlier when he’d found me in the grotto.

My gaze shifted to Adrian, who seemed on edge, his eyes burning with an infernal light. I wondered if he could hear my thoughts at this moment. If he was trying to guess what happened at the grotto.

“How unfortunate,” I said, “that no women advise you.”

“You advise me, my queen,” Adrian said.

“One woman and nine men—how revolutionary of you.”

I held Adrian’s gaze as I moved to his side. He stared down at me, and a little of his coldness had melted away.

“Your concerns are noted, my queen,” he said.

Tanaka cleared his throat, and Adrian shifted his attention to the older vampire. “Do you have something you wish to share, Viceroy?”

Tanaka hesitated, mouth working. Clearly, his interruption did not have the intended effect.

“Uh, no, Your Majesty.”

There was a strange silence, and my eyes shifted to a map that was spread upon the table, and I noted three small, red pins—one in Vaida, one in Sadovea, and one in a place called Cel Cioran.

“Was there another attack?” I asked, my chest tightening at the thought.

“Yes, but it was not recent,” he said. “Like Vaida, it was discovered late.”

I wondered if it was another one of Ciro’s territories but did not ask as Adrian jumped into an explanation of what we’d discovered on our way to the Red Palace. I felt more and more dread as he spoke of the state of the bodies, of the horror of hearing the man’s screams as he ran from the gates of Sadovea, and the child who had attacked me.

“A child?” one of the noblesse asked, looking just as devastated as I had felt. His name was Iosif. He was a tall man with blond hair that came to his shoulders and a smattering of facial hair.

“She was possessed by whatever magic was unleashed,” Adrian said. “And it turned her into a monster. We brought her here for an autopsy, which Ana performed.”

My eyes wide, I looked to Ana, who’d been hovering along the edge of the room. I had no idea the task would fall to her.

“During my analysis, the only thing I found of note was that her blood seemed to be crystalized,” she said. “Which, after a lot of research, leads me to believe that a spell was cast, specifically one for something called the crimson mist.”

A mist.

It made sense, considering how everyone had seemed to perish, like something had covered the entire town, crawled beneath doors, and seeped through windows. Still, I wondered how she was so certain it was a spell. Could a vampire also not possess this power? They could spread plague, so how was this different?

“Whoever is casting, however, is either not a witch or not gifted in blood magic,” she continued. “If the spell was successful, every villager would have been possessed by the crimson mist just like the girl.”

“I thought all witches were dead,” I said.

There was a strained silence, and Adrian answered, “It is likely a few survived. And even more were born after the Burning. Witches are not created, they are born. It is in their blood.”

I did not know what to make of this information. I’d grown up believing witches were a part of our past, that no more would walk this earth. Suddenly, Adrian was telling me that wasn’t so, which meant…where were they? Was the mist their attempt at retribution?

“Could this be Ravena?” Tanaka asked, and beside me, Adrian stiffened.

“Who is Ravena?” I asked, looking up at him. He stared for a long moment, and I wasn’t certain he wanted to tell me, but finally he relented.

“She was Dragos’s witch,” he said. “After his death, she escaped and has never been found.”

This was new information to me. I never knew that Dragos had employed a witch. Was that not contrary to his mission? That was a question for another time. Right now, I wondered why someone from Adrian’s past, someone who had been in hiding, was suddenly making herself so obviously known.

“If she is your enemy, why attack Vaida then?” I asked.

“We do not know that it was Ravena who conjured the spell,” said Adrian.

“Whoever it was likely did not intend for the mist to strike Vaida,” Ana said. “I believe they lost control of the magic, which is also why the spell has only managed to work on one person and killed the rest.”

“So the spell is intended to create monsters?” I asked, shivering as I recalled how dangerous something like this could be if it worked. The girl in Sadovea had looked so innocent, and she’d lured me in with no issue.

“I think it is intended to create an army.”

There was a stretch of silence.

“Can the mist affect us?” The question came from a noblesse named Julian.

“As long as the mist can attack the blood in our veins, I imagine so,” Ana replied.

More dread.

If the mist could successfully possess vampires, there would be no stopping the terror they might inflict. The worst part about this was that no one really seemed to know who was responsible.