We had spent the remainder of the night with her. She had never stopped crying, never stopped asking Adrian not to kill Isla.
If she is possessed, let me keep her. I will find a cure.
And he would answer, She may yet live, Ana.
We had left her to sleep and with no news about her lover.
Even now, my eyes burned with her hurt.
As I had watched her, I realized she was living my fear—losing the ones I loved most. Now, I considered how safe my father would be on his journey from Lara here to the Red Palace for my coronation. Adrian had dispatched more guards—but that meant the possibility of more infected vampires.
“Isolde?” Violeta called my name, and I looked at her.
“Hmm?”
“I asked if you were all right,” she said. “You look a little…sad.”
I cleared my throat and swallowed the tears that had built there. “I am well, thank you.”
She did not believe me, but it did not matter. There was nothing to be done about my fear.
“We should go,” she said. “We will be late.”
But as she rose to her feet, there was a knock at the door.
“Are you expecting a visitor?” Vesna asked.
I shook my head, but then the door opened, and Adrian filled the doorway, a dark shadow that cut through the firelight. Our contrasts were not lost on me. He embodied everything I’d imagined the Blood King to be—a looming darkness, both beautiful and dreadful. I stared at him, and my chest expanded, full of a type of anxiety I did not want to admit. It was the anticipation of his touch, of the words he would whisper in my ear later when we were alone.
“My king,” Violeta and Vesna said in unison.
“I wanted a moment with my queen,” he said.
“Of course,” Violeta said. “We were just leaving.”
She reached for Vesna’s arm, looping it through her own as they left, and I couldn’t help smiling at how comfortable the woman had grown in her time as my lady-in-waiting.
Adrian’s eyes darkened as the door closed.
“Sparrow,” he said, his voice warming the very bottom of my stomach. He took my hand in his and brushed his lips along my fingers. “You look beautiful.”
“You outdid yourself on the gowns,” I said. “I have never had such beautiful pieces.”
“I only wish to spoil you,” he said. “Though you look beautiful in any form—covered in blood or writhing beneath me.”
I hated blushing, and here, once again, I was. I swallowed thickly. “How is Ana?”
Adrian’s expression changed, growing serious. “Unwell,” he said. “But she will be in attendance tonight. She needs the distraction.”
My chest tightened.
“Violeta said we were running late. If we linger here too long, we will be very late.”
Adrian raised a brow. “Are you eager to be rid of me, my queen?”
“N-no. I mean…” I stumbled across my words, irritated by how flustered I felt. It was made worse by how Adrian smiled at me—kind and gentle. It made his eyes crinkle at the sides, and I felt like I’d been knocked in the chest. I cleared my throat. “You wanted a moment with me?”
“I want you for lifetimes,” he said, brushing his knuckles along my cheek. “But I shall be content with now.”
I held my breath until he dropped his hand and stepped away. “I want to show you something. Will you come?”
“Of course,” I said and followed him out of my room, into the corridor. He took my hand, lacing our fingers. It was different from how we usually walked, and part of me worried that if anyone from home saw this—if my father witnessed us—he would be so disappointed.
Adrian took me into the east wing. It was the tallest part of the castle and happened to also be where the library was located, but we passed those doors, heading down darkened hallways with gilded accents, up flights of stairs until we came to the roof.
Atop the castle, the wind gusted around me. We were up so high, I felt as though I could reach out and touch the clouds, which were rimmed in a red light, casting the whole of Revekka in a strange, crimson-tinged darkness that was both beautiful and haunting. From here, the horizon seemed to stretch for miles in all directions—beyond Cel Ceredi and the Starless Forest to the Golden Sea.
“To the edge,” he said, and I hesitated. I wasn’t completely sure why, perhaps because there was no rail to hold on to against the wind. Adrian looked down at me and frowned. “I won’t let you fall.”