LOGINAllissa
Midnight found the ballroom at its warmest.
The formal part of the night had melted away hours ago, and what remained was simply family, hundreds strong, loud, ridiculous, scattered across the great floor in the loose orbits of people who had stopped performing for each other. Finn had taught the harvest reel to some horrified vampire nobles and was now conducting them t
AllissaMidnight found the ballroom at its warmest.The formal part of the night had melted away hours ago, and what remained was simply family, hundreds strong, loud, ridiculous, scattered across the great floor in the loose orbits of people who had stopped performing for each other. Finn had taught the harvest reel to some horrified vampire nobles and was now conducting them through it with a stolen serving spoon. Ivan had a duchess on each arm and a third one directing him. Asta and Toga argued happily about nothing. My husband stood behind me with his arms wrapped around my waist and his chin resting on my head, swaying us both to music neither of us was properly listening to.Our children were down for the count, every last one.Mira who had surrendered in my mother’s
AllissaMy favorite hour of the night had no ceremony in it at all.The formal dances opened and dissolved into real ones. Evette and James took the floor like the world was young, until Finn cut in and my mother, to the eternal delight of every witness, taught the Vampire King the steps to a Lume Pack harvest reel he performed with offensive, immediate competence. Ivan danced with three duchesses at once because subdividing him was impossible. Squall spun Eira until her unsettled quiet finally broke into laughter, Dayanara taught Ciera a sorcerer’s charm, and the twins slept through all of it in the family alcove, Soren sprawled on his grandfather’s chest while James swayed him absently and argued trade routes over his head. Mira surrendered at last in Hessa’s arms with one fist still closed around a ribbon she had won in fair combat. Somewhere near
AllissaThe room had nearly finished finding its rhythm when the herald’s staff struck the floor again, and the name he announced stopped every conversation in the hall.“King Milo and Queen Winifred.”Lyle was with them. He’d slipped out of the ballroom sometime earlier, without a word to anyone, and gone to walk his mother in himself. She stood at the top of the stairs on my brother-in-law’s arm in a gown of soft dove gray, her silvered hair dressed simply, her chin lifted by visible effort, a woman walking back into a world that she has largely been absent from. Milo stood at her other side. Lyle held the arm she leaned on, and even from across the ballroom I could see what that arm was costing him, and that he would have died before withdrawing it.
AllissaWe dressed for war more calmly than we dressed for parties.By sunset, our chambers had become a staging ground. My gown, silver over deep blue, the colors of both my bloodlines, waited on its form while two attendants fought a losing campaign against my hair. Darren stood at the mirror in his formal black suit, crown set, the moon cufflinks his daughter had selected catching the light, looking every inch the king and muttering about receiving lines like a man being sent to the gallows. Across the hall, a battle of another kind raged: Mira had rejected three gowns, accepted the fourth because it had become available to chew, while Soren submitted to his tiny formal coat with the long-suffering air of a soldier.And in the middle of everything, supervising all of it, marched Lyra in her party dress, Smoke tucked into her sash like a sword.“Absolutely not,” I said.“He’s coming.”“He’s a rock, baby.”“He’s a dragon,” she corrected, mortally offended, “and it’s his party too.”I
DarrenHeath met me in the war room an hour before dinner with the rosters, the maps, and the patient face of a captain who had answered the same questions from his king four times that week and would answer them a fifth.“Wards,” I said.“Renewed last night. Dayanara walked the full circuit herself, every stone, every threshold. She layered the nursery wing twice and complained about your stonework the entire time. Her exact words were: the castle is sound, the king is paranoid, and I want that in writing.”“Vetting.”“Every soul hired in the past two years re-screened. Every credential checked under merrow ink. Three forgeries in the serving applications, all caught at the gate, all of them
DarrenMy kitchens fell without a single blow being struck.Evette arrived before the party with one trunk, three crates of preserves, and the unstoppable momentum of a mother-in-law on a mission. By the time I came down from the morning councils, my head cook had surrendered her ladle the way a general surrenders a sword, my entire kitchen staff had defected to the invader, and the woman who once outran a royal kill order was elbow-deep in my pantry, reorganizing it by a system she declined to explain to anyone.“Darren.” She pointed a wooden spoon at me the moment I crossed the threshold. “Who ordered the eastern flour?”“I have no idea. I’m the king.”“Then the king can carry these t
We popped out not far from the others, but we were in a strange tunnel that dripped with water. Darren’s hand rested on my hip as he guided me through.“Where is your mom?” Squall asked anxiously as we came around the tunnel bend. Dayanara was beside him, obviously controlling him from going after E
“Mom …” What could I say? I didn’t need to state the obvious, that I was pregnant, but this was the first time she had met Darren. She had left me with Alfred, thinking I would be taken care of there. I walked up to her, and Darren kept his arm around me as he accompanied me. After the trauma he had
Dayanara moved closer to me, and Lyle came with her, still keeping a steady hand on her. Dayanara was on high alert as she held her hand in a defensive position.Look at those eyes. There is no fear. Nothing. They know what we are and look how they stand there confidently. Dayanara’s voice entered
“You seem almost like a different person than the one we met in the cave.” I couldn’t help but notice the strength that was pouring out of Eira now. It was more than just finding her mate, right?“This is the real me. I was trained to act submissive and like a servant in front of others. Toril said







