Chapter A Soul of Ash and Blood: TOO BRIEF MOMENTS

I walked through the thickly forested Wisher’s Grove at a fast clip, wanting to get this meeting over with. Only the thinnest sliver of moonlight made its way through the sweeping pine branches. The woods were unsettling enough during the day, eerily silent except for a bird’s distant, shrill call or the quiet rustle of some small woodland creature. At night? Even I was uneasy here. But due to the fact that very few entered this part of the Grove during the day, something I only knew occurred because of the pathways I’d spotted worn into the soil, it was one of the few places in the entirety of Masadonia where words could be spoken freely without the threat of being overheard.

And from Wisher’s Grove, it would take me only mere minutes, if that, to return to the Red Pearl.

To .

“You know,” Kieran began, “I wouldn’t have interrupted you if it weren’t for this.”

I nodded. These weren’t exactly what one would typically think of.

“It’s been far too long since you’ve fed,” Kieran added.

His words were like a siren’s call, reawakening a slumbering giant. My upper jaw throbbed as an ache blossomed in my gut.

“And since you don’t like to use those who are only part Atlantian—”

“I know my preferences, Kieran,” I interrupted. A cold breeze stirred the branches overhead, sending a few needles to the ground. And he knew why I didn’t like using them. Half-Atlantians weren’t accustomed to feeding. They were also a hell of a lot easier to injure—or worse—and because of the Blood Crown, I…I’d taken enough lives that way to last me a lifetime. I preferred not to repeat that. “You know, the older you get, the more of a mother hen you become.”

Kieran snorted behind me. “Someone has to make sure you don’t descend into madness.” He paused. “More so than normal, that is.”

If he knew who I’d been with minutes ago, he would think I’d reached all new heights of madness.

And he’d be right.

That was exactly what the time spent with the Maiden had felt like. Madness.

The all-too-fresh memory of the Maiden’s soft body under mine told me it would be one hell of a way to go, though, and I planned on doing just that after I was done here. I would go a little mad when I returned to the chamber. That was if the Maiden honored her promise to wait for my return.

She had to.

I cleared my throat. “Who came?”

“Emil,” Kieran answered.

My brows shot up. “Didn’t expect that.”

“Yeah, me neither, especially since he’s not that familiar with Solis. But Naill couldn’t make the trip.”

I nodded, not liking any of them to be this far into Solis, but all of them were loyal to me. Too loyal.

“You going to tell me what that was all about?” Kieran asked after a moment.

“Not sure what you’re speaking of.” I kept my gaze trained ahead, a little surprised it had taken him so long to ask.

“Sure.” He drew out the word, walking ahead of me.

I said nothing.

“In case you’ve forgotten,” Kieran said, lifting a low-hanging branch to dip under it, “I can smell another on you.”

Hell, could still smell the Maiden. I was drenched in her sweet scent—

Cursing, I caught the branch Kieran let go of before it smacked me in the face. “Asshole.”

“You weren’t alone,” he said, glancing over his shoulder. “And I don’t recognize that scent.”

“Do you know the scent of everyone in Masadonia?” I brushed past him.

“I know the scents of those who frequent the Red Pearl.” Fallen needles and twigs crunched under our steps. “And I know the scents of who you typically spend your evenings with.”

“Fucking wolven noses,” I muttered. Even I could decipher differences between those I usually spent my nights with. Considering that, I should’ve known it wasn’t Britta the moment the Maiden walked into that chamber.

But never in a thousand years would I have guessed it would be her. Nor would I have thought she had such a biting tongue on her. And that intrigued me.

As did her sympathy for me when I spoke of loss. She didn’t know me, nor did she know anything about what I’d lost, but her compassion had been genuine. “Cas.”

I halted, the nape of my neck tightening. Not once since we’d been in the Kingdom of Solis had Kieran used that name. Not even in these woods or at the Red Pearl.

“The fact that you’re being all cagey about who you were with has me worried.”

I slowly faced the wolven I’d known since birth. He had a right to be worried. We were bonded, but our connection ran deeper than that. Always had. I kept nothing from Kieran. He shared everything with me, but I found myself in a strange position of being unwilling to tell him what had occurred in that room in the Red Pearl and with whom. I didn’t know why. I trusted no one more than him, but this was…

This was the fucking Maiden.

Another ripple of lingering shock went through me. If I weren’t still able to taste her sweetness on my lips, I would’ve believed I’d hallucinated her unexpected arrival.

I looked away, my shoulders stiffening. If I didn’t tell him, he wouldn’t let it go. This meeting with those who’d just arrived would take longer than necessary, and knowing Kieran, he’d follow my ass back to the Red Pearl. “I was with the Maiden.”

Silence.

Absolute, dead silence.

And Kieran always had a response, no matter what came out of my mouth.

My gaze flicked back to him. He stared at me as if I’d spoken garbled ancient Atlantian while drunk off my ass. I arched a brow. “You okay? Or did I just fry your brain?”

Kieran blinked. “What. In. The. Actual. Fuck?”

A low laugh left me. “Yeah. Pretty much my thoughts.”

“You’re not bullshitting me, are you?” Kieran’s head tilted. “You were with the actual Maiden—” He stopped, inhaling deeply. His eyes narrowed. “You were close with the actual Maiden?”

“I wouldn’t go so far as to say I was close,” I lied, and fuck if I knew why. “But, yeah, it was her.”

Kieran opened his mouth, then closed it. He started to turn away but then faced me. “You know I have questions about this, right?”

I sighed. “I do.”

“I’m going out on a limb and assuming she was unguarded.”

I shot him a droll look. “You’d assume correctly.”

Once more, he appeared as if he didn’t know what to say. “How? Why? What in the—?”

“I’m guessing she snuck out,” I cut him off. “And based on how far she got, I imagine this wasn’t her first time.”

“What in the hell was she doing at the Red Pearl?” Kieran asked.

Surprise flickered through me as a bird shrieked from somewhere above us. “

the question you’re going to ask? Not why we’re standing here without her?”

“Oh, I’m getting to that question next, but I’m just trying to wrap my head around why the Maiden was in a chamber at the Red Pearl, a known gambling den and .”

She’d come to that chamber to learn what pleasure felt like.

She’d gone there tonight to .

I still found that courageous and boldly innocent. And it was also private. Intimate enough that I couldn’t share it with anyone. Not even Kieran.

“That, I cannot answer,” I said, and Kieran’s eyes narrowed. “She just walked right into the chamber. I don’t know if she knew I was there.”

Kieran was quiet for a moment. “Is it possible she was expecting someone else to be there or went into the wrong room?”

Based on her inexperience—the innocent and hesitant but very eager responses—I didn’t think she was there to meet anyone in particular. I could be wrong, though. After all, I’d obviously been wrong about a few things regarding the Maiden.

“I don’t know.” I scratched my fingers through my hair. “Wasn’t like my presence there was known to many.”

Kieran appeared to think that over. “Well, there are only a couple of reasons why she would be there, and I doubt she would be willing to risk coming face-to-face with a guard. It had to be coincidental.”

I observed him, watching the corners of his lips turn down. “Except you don’t believe in coincidences.”

“Do you?”

“There’s always a first time.”

He shook his head. Another moment passed. “Why didn’t you take her, even with the risks involved?”

A muscle flexed at my jaw. “Because if I did, I would have had to quiet her. Used compulsion. And that wouldn’t have lasted long enough to get her out of the city.”

Kieran eyed me. “You sound entirely too reasonable.”

I did.

And yet, I didn’t.

Because that wasn’t my only reason.

It was also the fact that if I had taken her, she likely would have seen it as some sort of punishment for breaking the rules of the society the Ascended fostered and for stepping out of the cage I was no longer sure she willingly submitted to.

And for some reason, allowing her to have those all-too-brief moments wasn’t something I was willing to taint.

At least, for now.