The Emerald Lily (Vampire Blood) by Juliette Cross

Author:Juliette Cross
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Entangled, Amara, paranormal, paranormal romance, pnr, romance, historical, fantasy, vampire, vampires, Sleeping Beauty, army, revolution, uprising, Evil Queen, dragon, shape-shifters, royalty, princess, adventure, shifter, shifters
Publisher: Entangled Publishing, LLC (Amara)
Published: 2017-12-09T05:00:00+00:00

Chapter Seventeen

The black oak grove stood quiet but for the faint whisper of wind. Sable-silver leaves tumbled over the snow-dusted ground. A pile had delicately fallen on the six-by-two-foot dirt mound where Nate’s father lay since they’d buried him yesterday. The silvery leaves blanketed his grave, as if the forest longed to keep the man warm. But he was no longer here.

Mina stepped silently, not wanting to disturb Brenna and Nate. Brenna stood beside the boy, a slender arm draped around his shoulders. The cut of death dug deep for everyone, including the villagers of Hiddleston. But nothing hurt more to a young boy than the loss of his father.

Brenna spoke gentle words to the boy at her side.

“They’re walking together, Ivan and your father,” she was saying, just like she was telling a bedtime story. “Remember how Ivan would admire your father’s forge work. No one could craft a sword or dagger as strong or as beautiful as your father.”

“Papa loved these woods.” Nate’s voice was rusty but proud.

“I know.” She squeezed him closer. “That’s why the hart wolves thought it best he be laid to rest here. I think he’d be proud of that. Don’t you?”

“Aye. ’e would.” He wiped his sleeve across his nose and heaved out a big breath. “Best get back to camp. Still cleaning what weapons we still got.”

“Yes. You’d better get busy.”

Nate tore away, running toward the Harrison farm—what was left of it. Brenna didn’t look surprised to find Mina behind her. She would’ve heard her regardless, or smelled her, being a vampire herself.

“Is Friedrich asking for me?” Her eyes were rimmed red, though no tears stood out on her cheeks. She must’ve wept all that she possibly could by now. For the dead, for her injured children, for Izzy now gone.

Brenna met her on the trail, and they fell in line together.

“Actually, we’ve been invited to the burial rite of the Bloodguard men. Everyone is there already.”

Brenna paused mid-step and met her gaze. A sad smile quirked her lips. “That is an honor, as I know they are such a private lot. I still don’t even know where any of them came from. Where they were born, if they have parents, siblings, anyone we should write.”

Mina linked her arm with Brenna and led her deeper into the forest where she knew the ceremony was taking place. The exact place where the forty guardsmen pledged their fealty to her, now only thirty-four.

“Aleksei has a mother and a sister,” Mina mused, a pang striking her at the core for how painful this loss would be for them. “Irena is a lovely mirror of her brother. I fear they will take this very hard.”

Brenna lifted her chin. “I must pay them a visit and thank them personally for his service.”

“I feel that I should be the one. After all, Aleksei was killed while—”

The rest stuck in her throat. Mina couldn’t admit the guilt she felt because men had died to protect her.

Brenna squeezed closer as they walked along, hooked arm in arm.

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