King of Battle and Blood, the first book in Scarlett St. Clair’s newest series, is one month away, and Winter is Coming has an exclusive first look at chapter 3. (You can also read the first and second chapters on our site.)
St. Clair is widely known for her Hades x Persephone series. Now she’s introducing Adrian x Isolde in King of Battle and Blood, coming November 30, 2021, from Bloom Books.
Isolde de Lara is a princess, but she’s far from a damsel in need of saving. In this story, she makes the difficult decision to agree to a marriage to protect her father and her people. The man she pledges her hand to is none other than Adrian Aleksandr Vasiliev, the Blood King himself.
As Isolde learns more about Adrian she realizes that there’s much more than meets the eye about him, but the man is still a monster, and she’s agreed to become his wife.
READ: King of Battle and Blood exclusive preview
THREE
An hour later I was ready to present to my father. I let Nadia choose my dress, a rarity, and I think in her excitement, she forgot the occasion because she chose my favorite gown—a cerulean silk with pearl embellishments that ignited like fire against my darkened skin. The neckline was square and low, and my breasts pillowed at the very top.
Nadia clicked her tongue, a sign of her disapproval.
“Too much bread,” she said as she attempted—and failed—to force my neckline higher.
“If you think to deter me, you won’t.”
Nadia commented on my weight because it was another part of me that did not fit the mold. My breasts were big, my hips were wide. One of my thighs was probably the size of her waist. I didn’t really care, though. I was fit and I could fight—that was more than I could say for her, a nursemaid who had failed to turn me into a docile princess.
Nadia drew my hair over my shoulders, arranging my thick, dark waves to hide the swell of my breasts. When she was finished, I promptly slipped it back.
“Can I resign?” she asked as she reached for a pearl tiara I kept on the mantle of my fireplace. I did not own many headpieces because what I had belonged to my mother, many of which came from her native home on the Atoll of Nalani.
I laughed. “And do what with your time? Stitch cushions?”
“Read, you insolent child,” Nadia snapped, but her response was playful and not at all filled with the tension of our earlier exchange.
“I am far from a child, Nadia.”
“You are a child until you marry,” she said.
I rolled my eyes and smoothed my dress, studying myself in the mirror. All my life I’d been told that I looked like my mother. As much as I longed to hear that, the compliment also left me feeling like someone had gouged out my heart. It was a reminder of her long absence from my life and the sacrifice she had made so that I could live.
“Why must I attend my father while he entertains our enemy with talk of surrender?”
I spoke more to myself than Nadia, though she offered her opinion nevertheless.
“If you are to rule this kingdom—husband or not—it will be under vampire rule from this day forward. You must learn who you are dealing with, and tonight is your first lesson.”
Could that really be true? From this day forward, Lara would answer to the Blood King, a creature who had slaughtered thousands of my kind already.
“Just be glad, Issi, that the Blood King has not asked for a wife.”
“Are you volunteering, Nadia?”
She glared at me. “Not even I want to be married that bad.”
As much as we joked, dread had been gathering in my heart all day. Today the world would change and none of us knew if it was the better of two options. Still, I had to hope my father was right in his decision to be ruled by King Adrian. I had to hope that Adrian, despite being monstrous, still possessed some kind of humanity.
Nadia followed me from my room, down the high corridors of my wing. The walls of the castle were all intricate mason work—the brick laid in such a way that even without decor, they were aesthetically pleasing. Despite the beauty and the craftsmanship, the chill seeped through, sending shivers down my spine. Even worse, my nipples hardened, reminding me of my insatiable desire for my enemy.
At the bottom of the stairs, Nadia paused.
“Do not tremble under the gaze of the Blood King. Surrender today, live to conquer tomorrow.”
Nadia’s words were my hope that we would find a weapon that could defeat our enemy. She departed, leaving me to enter the antechamber where my father and I would wait for the arrival of the Blood King, at which point, we would move into the Great Hall. My stomach knotted as I approached the door, but I paused before knocking, hearing Commander Killian’s voice rising from within.
“This is trap,” Killian said.
“If the King of Revekka decides to slaughter us rather than negotiate, then it will say more about his countenance than ours,” my father replied, his voice was warm and resonate. It made my chest feel calm. I loved my father dearly—he was all I had from the moment I was born. I had never seen him make an impulsive decision, so I knew that he’d thought through every aspect of this surrender. Most importantly, he’d thought most about what would protect our people.
“Think of your daughter—” Killian tried.
“Know your place, Commander!”
My father’s voice sent a chill through me that straightened my back, but I was glad for his anger. I was angry too. The audacity of the commander to assume my father hadn’t thought about me. But this—it was bigger than me. Bigger than a commander whose ego suffered at the thought of being submissive to a greater power.
“It is because of Isolde that I have agreed to this truce. I do not wish for her to live in a future rife with violence.”
“And yet she will face a future far more uncertain.”
I took that as my cue to enter. It was either that or see Commander Killian pinned to the wall by my father’s sword, and as much as he annoyed me, spilling blood when vampires were on our doorstep did not seem like the best idea.
My father’s expression smoothed into a mask of calm when he saw me, a sad smile curling his thinning lips. He stood near the fire, a heavy fur-lined cloak making his slight frame look larger. My father had never been a particularly imposing man, but he had a presence, an expression that commanded attention and a voice that communicated dominance. His hair was dark, but turning gray. Most of it was concentrated in his beard which came to a point at his chin.
“Isolde,” my father said. “My gem.”
“Father,” I greeted, approaching him, taking his outstretched hand. He pressed a kiss to my cheek.
“You look beautiful, as always.”
“Thank you, Father.” I smiled, despite what we were walking into. I took comfort in the fact that this surrender still meant we would be together. In the end, that was all that mattered.
“Commander Killian was just telling me you went to the border today and left without him.”
If he was going to betray me, the least he could do was tell the whole truth, which included how I’d gotten away from him.
How is your gut feeling? I wanted to ask, but kept silent. I didn’t want this lecture to get any longer.
“Commander Killian caught up,” I said, glaring at him.
“Issi,” my father said, a note of warning in his voice. “You know the danger that lies upon our doorstep.”
“I fail to see what Commander Killian could do if we were set upon by a vampire. It takes an army to defeat one.”
My father sighed—he knew I had a point.
“There are other monsters, Princess,” Killian argued, his voice tight.
I shifted my gaze and met his stare, which dipped to my breasts. I wanted to roll my eyes, but refrained.
“Monsters I was taught to kill. Again, I fail to see why I need your escort.”
“Because I have ordered it.” My father’s voice was like a whip, cutting through the air and drawing my attention. “It is not up for discussion, Isolde. Clear?”
“Crystal,” I replied tightly, my skin flushed with frustration.
My father sighed again, but it sounded more like relief. He was probably glad I hadn’t argued. It was only for his benefit. I knew how taxing this surrender had been for him. I knew his concern for me stemmed from the invasion of the Blood King. I wasn’t going to add to that. I would, on the other hand, ensure that Killian heard—and felt—my rage.
There was a knock at the door, and Miron, the herald, entered. His uniform was a dark blue tabard with gold fringe. Usually, it complemented his burnished skin, but today, he looked sallow and as he spoke, I thought I knew why—he’d just seen the Blood King in the flesh.
He bowed.
“Your Majesty, the Blood King has arrived.”
A strange tension filled the small room. Somehow, this felt different. The Blood King wasn’t just beyond our borders, he was within them. He would rule us from this day forward.
My father looked long at me and then turned, grasping his cloak as he went so it whirled around with him. Commander Killian held out his arm. I’d have rather shoved a knife through it, but I accepted it instead.
“Why are you wearing that?” he asked, dipping his head so that his breath coated my cheek as he spoke.
I should have gone with the knife, I thought.
I did not look at him as I replied. “It is not your place to comment on my wardrobe, Commander.”
His hand tightened on mine.
“You are showing too much skin. Are you trying to tempt the vampire king?”
“Know your place,” I said, my voice just as icy as my father’s.
“That is not how I meant—I only mean to protect you.”
“From what? Hungry gazes?” I asked. We had just come through the doors of the antechamber and into the Great Hall when I turned to him, challenging, “Yours is just as threatening, Commander.”
I crossed the precipice upon which my father’s throne sat and moved to his left, my gaze sweeping the Great Hall. It was a grand room, richly decorated with gilded mirrors and elaborate candelabras. A canopy of blue silk curtained us, and throughout the room gold larks—our house emblem—adorned banners of the same color that hung from the ceiling.
The room was silent and still, though it was crowded with people—guards and lords and ladies who had come from their estates to watch the surrender. My father had spent weeks in this very room, hearing their concerns, mediating their arguments for and against surrender. By the end of it, I began to loathe many of them whose fears amounted to losing their lands, wealth, and status under the Blood King—as if that mattered when the decision wasn’t between losing status and retaining it; it was between life and death.
“His majesty King Henri de Lara welcomes King Adrian Aleksandr Vasiliev of Revekka.”
Miron’s voice was steady and strong. Holding my breath, I fixed my eyes on the doors at the other end of the hallway. The crowd, who had stood on either side of a carpeted runner, drew farther back as the guards pulled the doors open to reveal the Blood King.
I swallowed a gasp as a heady flush unraveled within my body, and I wanted to crawl out of my skin as my eyes connected with a familiar, gorgeous face. The vampire who had found me in the clearing, the one who had licked blood from my skin and sent me into a spiral of desire, was Adrian, the Blood King.
He had changed since our encounter, wearing bloodred instead of black. A gold ring gleamed upon his middle finger and pinky, and upon his head sat a spiked black crown. His status was evident in the way he carried himself—regal and confident—and yet he walked like a predator, his black boots clicking as he took lethal step after lethal step toward my father.
I should have known it was him, I thought, staring at him now, but it had not occurred to me to expect the King of Vampires to have gone in search of a strzyga. Were they not monsters born of their kind?
As he approached, his gaze slid from my father to Killian and then to me. Our eyes met, and I let out a slow, quivering breath as he assessed the length of my body. Something about him opened a chasm in my stomach, and I was again overwhelmed by the same keen hunger as before—I wanted to be devoured by this creature.
My legs began to shake, and I shifted my gaze to my father as he spoke.
“King Adrian. It is a grim welcome I extend to you,” he said, his voice resonating within the halls of the palace.
“A welcome all the same,” Adrian said. His voice drew and held my attention, and I watched his lips as he spoke, not with the voice of a monster, but the voice of a lover. “I accept.”
“You and your army have quite the reputation,” my father said.
“A reputation that has you considering surrender before bloodshed,” he said, and inclined his head slightly. “Smart.”
“Some have called me a coward,” Father said. “For considering your proposal.”
The tension in the Great Hall grew.
“Do you care what others think, King Henri?”
“I care about my people,” he said. “I want them safe. Is that your offer, King Adrian? That you will keep my people safe.”
The vampire stared at my father for a long moment, studying him with a different intensity—as if he were trying to decide if he was being truthful.
“How much freedom do you wish for your people to have?”
My father did not answer immediately. Finally, I shifted my gaze and saw him lean forward.
“Are we bargaining, King Adrian?”
He offered a small shrug.
“I have an offer.”
Father waited and when Adrian did not continue, he prompted, “What is this offer?”
“I want your daughter.”
It took a moment for me to process the enemy king’s words. Had he just asked for my hand in marriage? Or something else even worse? My legs began to shake for a very different reason now, and for a moment, I feared my knees would buckle. Instead, I curled my fingers into my palm, letting my nails pierce the skin. I would not show weakness before this creature, though I’d already managed to do that in the clearing.
“You wish to wed my—no,” my father said definitively.
I did not want to be married, least of all to this man.
Adrian stared at him. “You would choose war so quickly? I thought you cared for your people.”
“He does care,” I said, and took a step forward, angered by his accusation.
“Issi.” My father made to reach for me, but it was Commander Killian who intervened and stepped between me and the Blood King.
“King Adrian has asked for my hand,” I said. “Am I not allowed to speak?”
“These are matters are for kings,” Commander Killian said; his voice was low and grated against my ear. I wanted to push him away, but I reined myself in, offering a command instead. “Back to your post, Commander.”
He was reluctant to obey, and if we had been alone, he wouldn’t have. Still, he fell back and returned to my father’s side. When my gaze turned back to Adrian, he looked amused.
“If you wanted a wife, why did you wait until now to ask for my hand?”
“I did not know I wanted one until today,” he replied.
My frustration spiked. Had he decided when we’d met earlier in the wood? Had I had the same effect on him as he did on me?
“Attraction hardly makes a marriage, King Adrian,” I said.
“It makes a bearable one,” he said. “Wouldn’t you say, Princess?”
So you want to fuck me, I thought, narrowing my eyes. We did not even need vows for that, but somehow, offering myself to the Blood King without a marriage contract felt worse than losing my freedom.
“Unless it is marriage to a monster,” I said. “Then it is merely captivity.”
His eyes hardened at that answer, and he no longer looked amused. “If you will not agree, then we will have war,” King Adrian said simply.
“A battle I will gladly fight!” King Henri shouted, getting to his feet. My father’s words were visceral, and I knew he meant them, even if I also knew he would die—and it was that reality I could not face.
How had I suddenly become the prize to be won in battle?
“Father—” I started to speak but was silenced.
“Isolde, leave. Immediately.”
The arms of the guards at the exits rattled as they hoisted their weapons, and the lords and ladies who had crowded into the hall began to scream and murmur, pressing into the walls.
This could not happen. It would mean slaughter. Commander Killian had come around my father’s throne, his hand taking my arm before I jerked away.
Why was he always touching me?
“I will not be dismissed!” I said.
“Princess—”
“Your princess wishes to speak,” Adrian said. “Let her.”
The last two words were spoken with warning. My heart was still racing, adrenaline surging through my blood. I looked to my father, whose watery blue-green eyes were desperate.
Don’t, he begged.
I have to, I mouthed. As much as he did not want to lose me, I could not lose him. I could not lose our people. I’d wanted to be their queen to protect them—and I still would, but not in the way I expected.
I turned to Adrian, taking a step toward him. I could feel everyone in the room stiffening, tightening their hold on their weapons. The tension was already a battle, and the phantom smell of blood permeated the air although none had been shed yet.
Still, I held the Blood King’s gaze, focused on him so completely, it was as if he were the only person in the room. The longer I looked, the easier it was. It helped that he was beautiful, but I also became interested in things I shouldn’t—like the bow of his lips, and the faint scar over his cheek I had not noticed earlier.
I refused to take a breath before speaking, fearing it would sound more like a shudder. “King Adrian, if you maintain you will protect my country, my people, my father, then I will agree to marry you.”
Adrian’s lips curled—but it was a smile that did not last long when Commander Killian protested. “My princess, you can’t marry this creature! I won’t let you!”
Adrian scowled. “You won’t let her?”
“Quiet, creature. You are a curse upon our lands!”
The commander drew his sword and the guards followed.
I turned, facing the commander, blocking Adrian. It was not a smart decision. I did not know Adrian, he was the enemy, and I was giving him my back, but I could not let things progress.
“Killian, lower your sword,” I seethed. He glared at me, his fingers tightening around the hilt. “Now!”
My command echoed in the hall.
“I will not see this land covered in the blood of my people. I agreed to King Adrian’s terms.”
“You forget, Princess. It is your father who rules here and rules your fate.”
I glared at Killian before shifting to look at my father, gaze softening. “I love you, Father. I would never willingly leave you, but you know this is the right decision. You know because you made it before Revekka was on our doorstep.”
I knew what he was thinking—that was before he wanted you.
“I am one person,” I said. “I am not worth a slaughtered kingdom.”
“You are worth every star in the sky, Issi,” my father said, and for a moment, my heart sank. Would his declaration of war follow? But instead, his gaze lifted to Adrian. “My daughter has a habit of ensuring everyone else’s safety before her own. I trust among those you protect, she will be one.”
I turned to face the Blood King. I wanted to look upon him as he answered my father. For the first time since he arrived, he bowed, placing a hand over his heart as he answered, “I vow it upon my life.”
His words surprised me, and I had to admit, I didn’t believe him. I narrowed my eyes—what was his motive? Why me?
“Father, I would like to speak with King Adrian alone.”
“Absolutely not.”
“Do you doubt my vow?” Adrian said.
“You are an enemy, you have slaughtered thousands of our people, and you have just asked for my daughter’s hand in marriage. You will forgive my wish to protect her for as long as possible.”
“Father,” I said quietly. “I will ultimately be alone with King Adrian many times in the coming weeks. What is a few minutes here in the walls of our home?”
He watched me, frowning, and then glared at Adrian.
“I will give you five minutes. No more.”
I looked at Adrian, and then turned, leading the way into the anteroom. I clenched my teeth and fists, feeling so violent, I shook. It did not help that when I faced him, he looked completely calm.
Of course he was calm—he would end this day with a new kingdom and a wife.
Wife.
My stomach sank at the word.
“Is this some kind of joke?” I demanded.
“Which part?” he asked, as if he could not guess.
“The part where you asked for my hand in marriage,” I spat.
“That part,” he said, his voice was deep, his words deliberate, “is very serious.”
“What need have you for a wife?” I asked. “You cannot sire children.”
Vampires were not technically living creatures and could not reproduce; they created more of their kind by turning existing humans into monsters.
Adrian narrowed his eyes, and I wondered if I had struck a chord. Still, kings married for many reasons; if not heirs, then alliances, and occasionally love. Adrian could not have children, he did not need alliances, and love was a ridiculous notion for someone like him.
“Do you wish to be a breeding mare?” he challenged.
I scowled. What did it matter? I did not want to be a wife, but here I was, suddenly engaged. “Will you take a wife for every House you conquer?” I countered. Perhaps he wished for a harem or bodies he could drain.
Adrian seemed amused, his brows lifted, his lips pursed. “I think you will be challenging enough. Why would I wish for more?”
“I don’t understand.”
“What isn’t there to understand?”
“Why me?”
He stared at me, and I got the impression he did not know how to answer my question.
“You assume I want a wife,” he said. “But I came for a queen.”
It was my turn to stare.
“So our marriage will be one of pageantry?”
“Oh, I think we are both too passionate for that.”
His words had an unnerving effect on me, and I could not figure out if it was because of the way he said them—his voice low and erotic, the voice I imagined he used in the dead of night as he spoke to his lovers—or the words themselves.
I stiffened, and yet heat blossomed in my chest. “You did not have to ask for my hand if all you wanted was my body. I am sure we could have come to an agreement.”
Adrian’s eyes flickered, and he took a step forward. I could not tell if the action was from frustration, or if he’d taken my comment as an invitation. Either way, it took everything in me not to step back. He must have seen my apprehension because he paused.
“You have nothing to fear in my approach.”
“I have everything to fear. The blood of the Nine Houses is on your hands.”
“Not your House,” he said, as if that made everything better.
Perhaps I should have said it differently. “Do you intend to continue your war upon Cordova, even with my father’s surrender?”
“I did not set out to conquer the House of Lara only, Princess Isolde. I set out to become King of Cordova.” His eyes dipped. “And I need a queen.”
“Are you trying to tempt me with power?”
“Eventually, as it tempts all.”
“Is that why you are doing this? For power?”
“It is not my main motivation,” he said. “But a result of it.”
“And what is your main motivation?” I asked, my eyes slipping to his lips, which lifted at my question.
“I’m afraid I cannot be tempted to reveal all my secrets, Princess.”
“Really?” I breathed. “Not even a little?”
He lifted his hand, and I took a step away. He chuckled, as if I’d proven his point.
“No, not when you flinch at my approach.”
I glared at him.
“I swore an oath to your father. I will not hurt you.”
“Do you uphold all your oaths?” I asked.
“I have never swore an oath until now,” he answered. “And I will swear no more after this.”
Once again, he held out his hand. My eyes fell to his hand—scarred, strong, graceful—and I gave him my fingers.
“See?” he whispered. “Nothing to fear.”
Though he spoke the words, I still held my breath as he turned my hand over to reveal my palm. It was bloodied from earlier when I’d clenched my fingers tight in an effort to keep standing after he’d asked to wed me. Now the blood had dried into the cracks of my skin.
He clicked his tongue.
“You should be more careful, Princess.”
Then he bent and his tongue swirled over my palm—that was twice in one day this vampire had tasted my blood and, once again, healed my wounds. This time, I let him, even as guilt crept over me.
When his gaze lifted to mine, there was something deadly within his eyes—a darkness that seemed endless. He licked his lips.
“Your blood is truly a homecoming,” he said.
I pulled my hand away, disgusted and suddenly afraid he would want more.
Adrian chuckled, as if he knew my thoughts. “Not to worry, my sweet, I will not feed from you—not until you ask.”
“I will never ask.”
The Blood King’s lips twitched, and when he spoke, his voice was reverent. “You will—you will beg for it.”
I could not imagine begging for anything from this…creature. I took a deep breath and let it out slowly. The rise of my chest drew his gaze.
“Are you threatening me?”
“No—I am offering the promise of pleasure.”
I thought my throat would close up, because as much as I hated what he was, as much as I hated him, he spoke a language I wanted to learn.
Still, he could never know that.
“Believe me, King Adrian,” I said, and was proud of how steady my voice sounded. “Nothing that comes from you will ever be a pleasure.”
His lips lifted higher. “I accept your challenge, Princess.”
The doors opened then, and my father’s voice beckoned. “Isolde. Come.”
Why, when given a reprieve, did I not move? I stayed, standing before Adrian, rooted to the spot, feeling as if I’d been dragged to the edge of a cliff, body on edge, completely wound.
I wanted to fall, and I could tell by the hungry look in Adrian’s eyes he was ready to catch me.
“Run along, Princess,” he said. “I’ll see you soon enough.”
King of Battle and Blood is available for pre-order now. The book arrives in stores on November 30, 2021.
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