Page 127 of Ravenous

Eyrun cried, “Great Freya, she did it. I never thought she’d do it!” She dug her paddle in and sent them speeding across the Shallows.

“Tch! If this is your best, I misjudged you both.” Chiyo snatched the plant off her soaked hair and flung it away.

Splash!A nearby sea serpent gobbled it down, thinking it food.

“We don’t do camouflage,” Ven said. “If anyone spots us spying on Bloodreach, so be it. Few warriors remain, and what would the nobles do? Perfumed-handkerchief us to death?”

Eyrun pointed out, “They could use harsh language to put us in our places.”

“I’m all a’tremble.” Spying here was easy enough to do. At night, the vampires left their curtains open, figuring the sea monsters would keep any observers from the waters.

Those creaturesshould, and the Shallows were home to an infinite number of them: massive krakens nearly as large as the castle…sea hydra with a thousand arms to match their appetite for flesh…serpents with their fins breaching, the warning before a strike…

But Valkyries considered themselves the alpha monsters in any situation.

As they neared the castle, its tower rose like a torchlit city. Nobles occupied the middle floors in a haze of incense, their laughter echoing through open archways. Silken limbs intertwined on couches while jeweled goblets spilled blood across marble floors.

Ven’s gaze drifted upward, past the revelers, to the tier of royal apartments where princes and princesses toyed with lovers or fed from trembling donors.

Above them all, on the highest floor, a guard ushered Prince Co?tin into King Neculain’s study, a vaulted chamber heavy with old-world opulence. Dark wood shone beneath the light of chandeliers.

Aside from blood-thieving, this kingdom was also known for weaving, and tapestries lined one wall. Red dominated, the thread dyed in blood.

A large balcony perched over the Shallows. Stained-glass windows flanked its doors, which had been left open to the misty air.

The king awaited Co?tin inside, his face lined with anger and pallor, his woven robes fluttering like a pennant. Chained at his feet, a half-naked Berserker female gazed at nothing with vacant eyes. Crimson tracks descendedfrom pierce points all over her bared breasts.

Why the hells hasn’t Queen Yrsa rescued her own?

Once the guard left, Neculain appeared to lay into his son, fangs bared, his hands flying like confused birds. The tapestries closest to him riffled as if afraid. His irises were the color of freshly spilled blood, and insanity bled off him.

Co?tin stood with his head unbowed, a defiant smile threatening.

Though the rain dwindled, Ven couldn’t pick up the conversation over the activity of nearby sea monsters, who fought and copulated all around them. An energetic mating ball coiled not twenty feet away.

She heard only fragments from Neculain:Emilia…failure…ashes…no son.

And Co?tin’s own:Underestimated…glory…secret…crypt.

“Look at those two.” Eyrun sounded fascinated. “Talk about crazy. Like two halves cut from the same wrecked tapestry. Is Neculain disinheriting him?”

Chiyo swiped wet hair from her cheek. “That would be my guess.”

With a dismissive gesture, Neculain turned to refill his goblet from a blood mead service. A sconce lit his face—ancient, terrible,done.

From behind him, Co?tin drew his golden sword.

And he struck.

Neculain’s head rolled from his shoulders and tumbled to the carpet. His body collapsed beside it.

Chiyo breathed something in Japanese. “He just…he just assassinated the king.”

“Great Freya,” Ven said. “What was he thinking?”

Co?tin calmly wiped his sword on his father’s robes, then sheathed the blade. He collected Neculain’s head and hurled it through the balcony doors. It sailed over the canoe and hit the water.

Splash!Neculain’s head bobbed, eyes blinking in shock, mouth still working—until a creature closed its gaping jaws around it.Gulp.