The stone serpents slid against each other. Their heads rose above my father’s shoulders and they looked at me with crimson eyes. Here he was inside a swan palace, a marvel of delicate beauty, sitting upon a throne of massive stone snakes. My father knew he was a bastard. He was the venomous serpent in a bed of roses. Apparently, he didn’t just acknowledge that fact, he beat people over the head with it. All that was missing was a neon sign that read EVIL AND CONFLICTED ABOUT IT with a flashing arrow pointing at his head.

Hugh d’Ambray stood to the right of the throne and a couple of steps below it. His face looked like he had to be physically restrained from losing his shit and slaughtering everything he saw. His gaze snagged on something over my right shoulder. Landon. A muscle jerked in Hugh’s face. Oh noes, someone didn’t like being upstaged.

Our gazes met. I winked at him. Your turn to be in the cage. It has no bars, but it’s still a cage.

On the other side of the throne, on a small bench, Robert and Christopher sat in identical poses, their spines rigid, their knees together. They stared straight at me with glazed-over eyes. They probably couldn’t even see me.

“It’s stasis,” Landon whispered behind me. “It will wear off with distance and time.”

The vampires and Roland’s court stared at me.

“You can do this, baby,” Curran said quietly, his gaze fixed on Roland. “Go in, get them, kill anything that gets in the way. You are coming out alive. I promise you that.”

I raised my head. My voice rang through the room, too loud. “I’ve come for my people.”

Roland leaned forward slightly and the snakes slid, adjusting themselves to the change in his posture. His voice resonated through the room, deep and saturated with power. “If they are yours, come and claim them.”

Okay. That can be arranged.

I started down the walkway. Two vampires vaulted out of the trenches in front of me, fangs bared. Oh look, it’s a party and everybody is invited. Good. I liked parties.

I unsheathed Sarrat. The blade sang as it sliced through the air. It slid through vampire flesh like a knife through a crisp apple. The first vampiric head rolled off the stump of its neck. I buried my sword inside the second vampire’s heart, ripped it with my blade, and freed Sarrat.

Four vampires leaped onto the walkway. This was a test. He wanted a show of my power. I had no choice about it.

The vampires charged.

Four was too many.