“Maybe. But you do have a fucking exquisite mouth, and an even better tongue.”
Goddess. Now he was definitely teasing me.
“Oh, fuck you,” I muttered.
“And there she is,” he chuckled.
I let out a breath, trying to shake away the lingering sensation of Raihn’s taste and his overwhelming proximity. I felt like his scent now covered me, like condensation clinging to glass.
I stood up, grateful to put some space between us.
“You said there was something we needed to talk about,” I said. “Why are we here?”
His face twisted into a scowl. “Ugh. You want to talk work.”
I sat on the little dining table across the room while Raihn talked. He leaned casually against the bedframe—somehow the thing supported his weight—and managed to look completely nonplussed by our entire interaction, which I couldn’t tell if I found admirable or annoying.
“So,” he said. “The wedding.”
“So you’re going to tell me what that’s actually about?”
He gave me a half smile. “That obvious, huh?”
I shrugged. “Call it intuition.”
“We have problems, as you know. The Bloodborn.”
“No matter my commands, they haven’t been letting up on their viciousness,” he said. “Some areas have been totally devastated by their actions.”
“Hiaj areas.”
“They’re all my kingdom.” He cocked his head. “So you’ve been keeping track of things.”
I shrugged again. It was my kingdom, too. It was my job to pay attention.
“And we’re no closer to finding this… god blood.”
I thought of the pendant, safely wrapped and hidden in my locked bedchamber. Mysterious as it was, it hadn’t actually given us any information, no matter how many books we read or spells Mische and I threw at the thing. We had, embarrassingly, no clue what it even was.
Raihn winced. “No. It doesn’t seem like it. On top of that, I had to rush back to Sivrinaj because of rebellion from a few of the Rishan nobles. As you know.”
He tried to hide his annoyance—deeper than annoyance—and failed. I watched him with a wrinkle between my brows.
“They really hate you.”
He scoffed. “Of course they do. Many of these people were friends of Neculai’s, and they saw me…”
Did he know that he always bit off his words whenever he talked about those days? His eyes slipped away, staring at the floor.
“They were never going to accept me as king,” he said. “It’s just some of the smaller ones, for now. But the one I’m really concerned about has been too quiet. Simon Vasarus.”
I recognized that name. “You killed his brother, that first meeting.”
“The very same.” Raihn’s gaze flicked away. The look on his face—it was too familiar. He didn’t need to outright tell me who this man was to him. I understood.
“He’s coming to the wedding,” Raihn went on, and that tone, too, told me everything I needed to know. He didn’t just hate this man—he was afraid of him.
“Why?”
“Because he has a bigger army than I do, and I need to make nice with him until I have a better solution.” His lip curled, the disgust palpable in his voice.
A better solution. Me. Of course.
“The god blood,” I said.
He let out a long breath, pacing to the desk. He pressed his palms to the wood and leaned over it for a long moment, as if deep in thought.
“I’ve invited the House of Shadow to this party,” he said.
My brows leapt. I’d seen Shadowborn royalty a few times. It was rare to invite them to Nightborn events, but not unheard of. Raihn was a new king. It would make sense that he would be extending these kinds of diplomatic ties—and that the Shadowborn would be interested in indulging their curiosity.
“The Shadowborn King hates the House of Blood as much as we do,” he said. “He doesn’t want the Bloodborn taking over the House of Night and creeping closer to his borders. The Shadowborn might be the quietest of the Houses, but they’re formidable warriors, too. And their mind magic…” He shrugged, as if to say, What else is there? “They’re powerful. I’ve made the connection to the Shadowborn King personally. He’s sending one of his sons. If I’m able to pull the right strings, present the right image, I could gain their alliance.”
It was a stretch. True alliances between the Houses were rare. Vampires were independent and self-serving creatures. But then again, if anything could motivate an alliance between the Houses of Shadow and Night, it would be aggression from the House of Blood.