The Blood Spell (Ravenspire, #4)(86)

She didn’t argue. She was shaking, and the magic in her blood was still hurling itself toward the wraith.

What did that mean? Was it just a response to another creature with magic? Or had Grand-mère suspected something like this might happen all along when she warned them not to touch the gate?

“You scared me more than any stupid risk I’ve ever taken,” Kellan said as they left the Wilds and entered the marsh again.

“I scared myself.” Her hands were still trembling.

Abruptly Kellan stopped walking and dragged her into his arms. Burying his face against her hair he said, “Promise me you’ll stay away from here. Forever.”

“I promise,” she said as she wrapped her arms around him and held on until the shaking stopped, the bells went still, and the wraith eventually fell silent.





THIRTY-FIVE

KELLAN WAS STILL shaken when he returned to the castle after dropping Blue off at the farmhouse. Even the knowledge that she was safe, that the wraith couldn’t break out of its prison and come for her, didn’t make him feel any better.

Children had been regularly sacrificed to feed the appetite of a monster. To keep it strong.

And Blue had nearly touched the gate. Nearly reached through it to where the wraith was waiting on the other side, its miserable pits for eyes focused solely on her.

A chill raced down his spine as the truth hit home. The wraith hadn’t looked at him once. Hadn’t acknowledged the guards with their swords. It only had eyes for Blue, and Blue had somehow only had eyes for it.

There was a mystery there that needed to be unraveled, but he wasn’t sure where to start.

And one look at his mother’s face when he entered the family’s wing of the castle told him he wasn’t going to have time to think about it.

“Where have you been?” she demanded, giving him a look that usually prompted him to start making amends even before he’d figured out just how much of his crimes she knew.

“I had something important to take care of.”

“Oh, did you?” Her brows rose, and he stilled his hands before he could reach up to adjust the collar of his shirt, which suddenly felt too tight.

“Yes. And you’ll be glad I did.” It was always best to sell his misdeeds as something that would benefit her. It didn’t always stop the sword from falling, but it often softened the blow.

“I’ll tell you what I’d be glad of.” She rose from the settee where she’d been waiting for him. The window at her back let in the rays of the dying sun, painting her tall profile in orange and crimson, like a warrior of fire.

“Mother—”

“I’d be glad if my son kept to his schedule so that I didn’t have to reassure head families, reschedule the hairdresser, and make excuses to any number of people who showed up at the castle today for their appointments only to be told the prince wasn’t in residence.”

“I left a note for—”

“For your secretary. Yes, he showed me. Unfortunately, it was far too late to notify your morning appointments. And so three days before your betrothal ball—three days—you had members of various head families here to see you, to bring you their concerns or their suits, but you weren’t here. What do you think they assumed from that?”

He risked a look at her face and wisely decided not to reply. She was far from finished.

“Now you have the Roches thinking you’ve already chosen against them since you didn’t bother to meet with them. You have the Evrards thinking you aren’t committed to finding justice for Marisol. And—”

“Now, wait a minute—”

“And you have Dinah Chauveau here spreading the word that instead of being in the castle where you belong, you were on a picnic with Blue. A picnic.” She threw the last word at him like it was a weapon.

“Not just a picnic,” he said and waited to see if she was ready to listen.

She frowned but stayed silent.

“After our conversation yesterday on the docks, I decided I should check the Wilds. Make sure the wraith was still there. And yes, I took Blue with me. She was able to identify the spell used to burn people. If there was something wrong at the wraith’s prison, I thought she could be helpful.”

And he’d needed a day with her. Maybe he hadn’t kissed her like he’d dreamed of doing, but he’d had her by his side. No Dinah. No mother. No interruptions. It was the closest thing to getting what his heart wanted as he was ever going to have, and he refused to regret it.

“Kellan,” his mother said on a sigh, “didn’t you think that three days before your ball, with the head families pressing their suits and a murder investigation underway, wasn’t the best time to go?”

“Yes,” he said, and her brows lifted in surprise. “But when will there be a good time, Mother? After the ball when I’ll be busy placating the families who weren’t chosen while simultaneously taking over control of the throne? After I’m crowned king and all the responsibility lands on me? You heard Hansel and Gretel yesterday. We have to get control of this situation with the missing children and the rogue witch, and we have to do it fast.”

A tiny frown etched into her forehead. “You could’ve sent anyone to check on the wraith.”

“I don’t want to be the kind of king who uses others to do the most dangerous tasks.”