Page 56 of Ravenous

A crisp breeze caught her hair, and she tucked it behind her ear. “It’s beautiful up here,” she murmured. “In Bloodreach, we didn’t have such viewpoints. This place”—she gestured at the blue horizon—“it feeds something in me.”

Arctos stared at her delicate profile, the play of light on her skin.Infiltrator, he reminded himself coldly. Only a fool would fall for her wiles. “I’ve never met a vampire who valued beauty for its own sake,” he said curtly.

“Then you’ve sadly met the wrong kind,” she replied, unruffled. She pointed toward a silver ribbon cutting the land below. “How long is that river?”

“Very. It runs across three territories before ending in Umber. Can you swim?”

“Not a stroke.”

He grunted. “Even child’s play is beyond you? Ravinelun floods every spring. You’ll learn or risk drowning.”

“Quick learner,” she said with a small, teasing tap to her temple. “I’m excellent under pressure, so I should be great underwater too.”

Raised brows. “Then why didn’t you learn in Bloodreach?”

“The Scarlet Shallows reek of rot and iron, and sea monsters slither about. Besides, I wasn’t allowed beyond the castle walls. Hard to practice swimming when you’re not permitted to approach anything larger than a bathtub.”

“So the castle was all you knew?”

She nodded. “I’d always dreamed of leaving and visiting the places I’d read about. Striking out on my own. But I do miss Nadje, my companion. Could you reach out to Inkletter, ask if she’s safe?”

He hesitated, then inclined his head once. “Where did you read about?”

Getting a dreamy look in her eyes, she said, “Everywhere from Rhun with its demon blood sports to the frozen lands of North Valhalland. I read about your mysterious ravines. Will you teach me to navigate them today?”

“You said loyalty is earned. So is trust.”

“But until I’m free, I can’t prove myself.”

“Correct.”

She sighed. “I’m not used to being distrusted. Everyone knows vampires can’t lie.”

“They can’t walk in daylight either. You could be lying about your ability to lie, about your nonexistent ability to trace, about your father’s plans and the number of warriors your kingdom possesses. You could still be a spy, sent to learn our weaknesses, poison our stores, destroy us from within.”

“That is a rational assumption. Had my father been sane, he might have hatched exactly that plan.”

Arctos blinked at her candor, uncertain whether it disarmed him or deepened suspicion.

“In any case, if I were that competent,” she said mildly, “we’d be having a very different conversation.”

He braced himself against her humor. “What other option does your kingdom have? Your father must have predicted that we would attack you eventually.”

“Why haven’t you?”

Good question. Yrsa had finally responded to Arctos’s intel about Bloodreach’s captives with a curt reply:Find out more from your wife and update me regularly.

Update? He hadn’t told Torben about these enraging developments but couldn’t keep them from his cousin forever.

“We favor steady heads,” Arctos said, a reminder to himself as well, “until it’s time to not be steady.”

“And then you rage. Thank you for refraining from that with me, though you had reason.” She studied him with surprising gentleness. “I want to apologize again for entangling you. I truly thought I could just find a cave here, work, be left alone.” She gave a laugh at her naivete. “It made perfect sense in my mind. Which, in retrospect, should have worried me. Maybe I’m just as crazy as the rest of my family.”

He saw no evidence of that. Yet. Though vampires still disgusted him—the bloodthieves had populated his nightmares for decades—Emilia’s determination and hints of humor kept him on edge.

Shewasdifferent from other vampires. Did that mean she was the perfect weapon against Berserkers?

She asked, “Do you come up here with anyone else? Family?”