Reign Shadowfell's Arc

Chapter 5 of 29

Reign kept his back to the sealed wall. The imp pressed against his boot, ears flat, watching the girl. The older man and the older woman had not spoken since dropping their hoods. Reign fixed on the girl because she had smiled at him while his bones changed shape. "Your name," he said. His voice came out lower than it had that morning. She tipped her head. "Vixen." "Are you here to hurt me?" "Quite the opposite." She stepped closer. The imp bared its teeth. She stopped and lifted her palms. "I'm here because I'm promised to you. You are the heir to Shadowfell. I'm the heir to Silvercoat. Your blood is the strongest vampire line in the realm. Mine is the strongest Lycan line. Our house was arranged before either of us could walk." She let that sit. "We marry. We breed. What comes out of us has never existed. Nothing standing will stand against it." Reign heard the pulse in her throat and made himself count it instead of hunger. He looked at the older pair. Neither denied her. The woman gave a small nod, as if confirming a ledger. He understood the shape of the room now. Not captors. Brokers. He had been raised in secret so this girl could be raised opposite him, and the door had sealed so he could meet her without bolting. He did not trust any of it. But he could stand in it without swinging. "I'm not agreeing to anything," Reign said. "Not to you. Not to a bed. Not to a war." "I didn't ask you to," Vixen said. "I asked you to know me. The rest waits." He looked down at the imp. It had stopped snarling. Its tail flicked once, alert, no longer defensive. Whatever had stalked him through the side passage, whatever older female had breathed against the stone at his back, was not in this chamber. He lifted his eyes to Vixen. "The woman in the tunnel. The one who followed us. Was that your mother." Vixen's smile thinned. "Yes." "Why did she hunt me instead of greet me." "Because she doesn't agree with the arrangement," Vixen said. "She wanted to see you dead before I saw you alive." Reign let his shoulders drop from the wall. The threat behind him had a name and a reason now. He could carry that. He held out his hand, palm up, not to take hers, only to show it empty. "Then tell me who my mother was. Start there." Vixen looked to the older woman. The older woman finally spoke. "Sit down, boy. It's a long telling, and we don't have the night." Reign sat.