King of Battle and Blood

Isolde hurries to the guest room where she will spend her wedding night with Adrian. Nadia helps her to undress and reminds her to try to kill Adrian. Isolde snaps at Nadia but immediately apologizes. Nadia tells Isolde that she loves her and then leaves. 

When Adrian arrives, he appreciates the sultry sight of Isolde on the bed and touches her intimately, but when he releases her, Isolde stabs him in the side. He angrily declares that he will not touch her again until she begs him to do so. She falls asleep, and when she wakes up, Adrian has returned to the room. He can sense her arousal, and she begs for his touch. They have sex, and Isolde finds the experience pleasurable and passionate. Afterward, Adrian makes sure that Isolde was not hurt. They fall asleep together.

Isolde wakes up, feeling tired and in need of a bath. Adrian is already awake and dressed in his traveling clothes, as vampires require far less sleep than humans. He offers to help Isolde bathe, understanding that she does not want Nadia to see her in the aftermath of their lovemaking and her failed attempt to kill Adrian. He helps Isolde bathe, promising to stay with her in Revekka until she is firmly established as Queen of Revekka and knows the ways of the vampire court.

Nadia arrives to dress Isolde and scolds her for giving in to her carnal desires. She also chastises Isolde for only making a single attempt to kill Adrian. Isolde tells her that it’s hopeless, given that he immediately healed after she stabbed him. Nadia urges her to find and exploit Adrian’s weakness in order to destroy him and return home to Lara. Isolde feels conflicted between her dedication to Lara and her new attraction to Adrian.

Isolde goes to breakfast with Killian and Henri and ignores Killian’s attempts to push her to eat. When Killian leaves, Henri tells Isolde that it must be her mission to understand and destroy the magic that created the Blood King and the vampires. When it is time to leave, Adrian brings Isolde to the front of Castle Fiora and offers her a carriage, but Isolde prefers to ride, so Adrian’s general, Daroc, provides her with a horse. Isolde says a tearful goodbye to her father and Nadia and then takes her place beside Adrian as they ride toward Revekka.

As the Revekka procession leaves Lara, Isolde notices that there are no well-wishers like there would be for a typical post-wedding procession. When they reach the gates of the city, a guard mocks her for marrying the Blood King. Isolde tells him that she will ask Killian to have him dismissed.

As they continue their journey, Isolde gets to know Sorin, who rides beside her. Sorin and Daroc are in a loving and committed relationship, and Sorin hints that he chose to become a vampire so that he could be with Daroc. Isolde asks Sorin how long he has been with Adrian’s retinue, and Sorin responds cryptically, saying that he has been there since the “beginning.” Sorin fetches water for Isolde since dangerous shapeshifter creatures called alps like to lurk near bodies of water. Isolde believes that Adrian created all monsters just as he created all vampires, but he tells her that Asha, the goddess of life, created the other monsters. Isolde is shocked to hear this. Adrian asks Isolde about her mother and expresses sympathy for Isolde’s loss.

Suddenly, citizens of Lara attack the procession. The vampires fight back, killing the villagers even as Isolde begs them to be merciful. The villagers then turn on Isolde, calling her a traitor for failing to kill Adrian. She kills several villagers in self-defense, an act that fills her with intense grief. When the battle is over, Isolde begs Adrian to bury the bodies, and he promises her that he will. He tries to ameliorate her guilt by telling her that he would have killed the villagers in a much more vicious fashion than she did. Isolde is angry at him for making her a traitor to her people, but he argues that the villagers could have tried to rescue her from the vampires instead of labeling her a traitor. He takes her to his tent and gives her a bucket of water to wash with. She hopes that he will kiss her, but he does not.