Page 94 of Spar of Hearts

Roderick Bryson

“No salt, no seasonings, but still the best meal I’ve ever had.” Anya stretched her arms and threw the roasting stick into the fire. She settled onto the ground, leaning back against the log with a satisfied smile. Her toes wiggled in front of the crackling fire, so close Roderick nearly feared she would roast them just like the hare.

“Glad to hear it. You can thank your hunting prowess for that. Fresh game is truly a delicacy.” He finished adding a few fir boughs to their shelter, then surveyed it with a critical eye. It would have to do. He could only pray Anya wasn’t a restless sleeper. One strong kick could send the whole thing tumbling down.

“I—” Anya yawned, “wish I could hunt more often.”

“Why don’t you? Valeria is calm again. Who knows how many others like you there could be?”

He had often wondered the same thing. Where were all the Vampires? Had mating with humans truly wrought their extinction? Granddad often spoke of how stalwart the Vampires were said to be. Mere rumor, all of it, of course, but still impossibly intriguing to Roderick, even as a boy. Unlike the Werewolves and Elves, the Vampires had refused to leave Valeria when the humans arrived, choosing instead to embrace the newcomers with open arms and hearts.

Only for their descendants to be forced into exile.

But Valeria was different now. He didn’t expect Vampires to pop out of the shadows the second the Divine Church’s head had been toppled, but part of him assumed that something would happen. Perhaps that something laid ahead of them here, in Aquillas.

“My parents are convinced that I’m a ‘reckless, wandering wolf.’ I have to prove them wrong. I can’t let Cyrus be King.”

Roderick settled in beside her.

“I don’t know if this will frustrate you, or help you. But I have had nothing but good experiences with Count Scorer. He was instrumental in helping me get donations for the children’s home. I would’ve had to leave Petorus a lot more if he hadn’t handled nearly a dozen dinners with Eteross nobles on my behalf. The building we were in back in Balcott? Eighty percent of the remodel was paid for by the donations of Eteross nobles. Nobles he schmoozed for me.”

“I’m sure he only did it for the connections.”

Roderick’s brows shot up. “What kind of connections does the nephew of the King and Queen not have already? How does he benefit from gaining the favor of a Centarian earl?”

Anya gaped. “I’m not sure. But there must be a reason.”

He could tell her conviction was wavering—and his curiosity was just getting started.

“What did he do to garner your hate? So I can avoid it, of course.” He chuckled.

Anya started picking her teeth with a claw, then stopped as soon as she met his eye.

“He’s always been a conniving cur. He’d take advantage of my absences every full moon.”

“How so?”

Anya’s face fell. She stared at her claws in her lap. She didn’t answer for a long moment. “He’d try to replace me. I’d hear him talking with my parents in the hall. Laughing with them like the son I’m sure they always wanted. And I couldn’t do a thing about it.”

The memory of her fearful words on the beach came to mind.

It’s there—the cage, it’s still there—

“Anya,” he scooped her hands up in his and held her gaze, “is this about the cage?”

Her fingers trembled beneath his as she nodded wordlessly. He squeezed them tighter, willing his strength into her. Wherever this conversation was going, she needed it.

“They caged me,” she said, her voice cracking. “They caged me every full moon.”

Righteous anger burned in his chest. “Count Scorer?” How could he have been so wrong about a person?

Anya shook her head. “My parents. When I was young, I couldn’t control my shift during the full moon. It felt so good, Roderick. Like I was right up there in the stars with the moon.” She cast her eyes up at the stars peeking through the canopy of trees. “But I got trampled when I snuck out one day. I woke up in a cage. They wouldn’t let me out, no matter how much I cried. Not until I turned back.”

“That’s abuse,” Roderick growled. “Who could ever think of locking up their own child?”

“They would disagree. To them, I was one full moon away from someone discovering my secret and telling the Church, or being killed by my wandering paws.”

While he understood the King and Queen’s trepidation about the Priest Supreme and his successor, that didn’t justify locking Anya away like…