Chapter Nineteen #2
She let me go and I shot away from her, scrambling out of arm’s reach. She turned her face away in contempt. ‘If you’re afraid of me, you have no hope in hell of killing the Queen.’
‘I’m not afraid of you.’
‘Wrong answer.’
I glared at her. ‘I don’t want to kill the Queen,’ I intoned.
‘That’ll do.’ She almost smiled. With a jerk of her head she added, ‘Let’s go before they get impatient.’
I’d never seen this side of Moira. She was usually cold, detached, with a remarkable ability to never seem to care about anything, but tonight she felt like an echo of Raleigh’s old facade.
But while Raleigh’s cold mask was exactly that, this felt like I was seeing the true Moira for the first time.
She was terrifying. And despite the pain in my shoulders, I was grateful to have her on my side in whatever was to come.
I followed her out into the corridor, my pulse rising with every step.
Not counting Enrique, I’d never met a vampire other than Raleigh.
He never spoke of anyone else from court, but I gathered there were far worse out there than him.
Knowing how much blood was on his hands when he was trying to do good, I dreaded to discover what a less restrained vampire might be like.
I tried to rally by repeating Moira’s instructions to myself.
No deal, no queen, love Raleigh. No deal, no queen, love Raleigh.
The final command made my stomach flip. I tried to remember how I would act with Yann: the loving gazes, the casual touches. They’d felt so natural with him, but the mere thought of doing those things with Raleigh made me feel like I was about to burst out of my skin.
Moira stopped as we reached the ground floor. ‘Wait.’ She unhooked the chain around her neck and slipped it over my head instead, tucking it into my dress. The silver cross felt warm. ‘Wear this.’
‘What about you?’
‘You need it more right now. If you even suspect you might be in danger, pull it out. At the very least it will buy you some time.’
‘Is there really that much danger?’ I asked. If I’d known earlier, I could have armed myself before leaving my room.
‘There always is with their type.’
‘Even Raleigh?’
A small smile. ‘Raleigh wasn’t always so noble.’ Without elaborating, Moira spun on her heel and led me the rest of the way to the dining room.
Two men were at the table with Raleigh, goblets in hand, sprawled in their seats as though they, not he, were the masters of the castle.
Several unmarked bottles lay around the table, most empty or near enough.
Enrique stood stiffly to one side like the statue of a butler.
Apparently even he couldn’t argue his way out of this.
I had been mistaken in assuming that all of the undead took the same care in their appearance as Raleigh.
The men were both beautiful, of course, in the same ethereal way Raleigh was, but, unlike Raleigh, they didn’t seem to care.
The one closest to me had let his golden hair grow longer than mine and had it tied loosely in a careless ponytail.
The other had cropped his dark hair unfashionably short, in the style of a man who didn’t own a mirror – or, in his case, I suppose, a reflection.
Their attire was as fine as Raleigh’s, but the styles belonged to eras long forgotten.
Both had a careless elegance to them and the deep-set eyes of those who had lived for centuries.
While the guests reclined, Raleigh remained straight-backed in his chair, expression sombre, and, though a glass sat in front of him, he didn’t seem to be drinking. When he saw me he shot to his feet, then was at my side before I could finish blinking.
‘You made it, my love.’ He slipped his arm around my shoulders, something I’d normally try to evade, but he held me in a grip so tight I couldn’t have wrestled my way out of it if I’d wanted to.
As he dipped his head as though to kiss me, I closed my eyes, bracing for impact, but instead his lips brushed past my cheek.
His whisper was so low I thought I’d imagined it. ‘Play along.’ It was the first time I had ever heard English spoken aloud and it took me a moment to process. If his guests had overheard with their magnified hearing, they couldn’t understand what he said.
‘I couldn’t sleep anyway,’ I said, my voice higher than normal. ‘I was consumed with thoughts of you.’ It wasn’t technically a lie.
‘You need not suffer alone at night, my love.’ Raleigh had his back turned to his guests. Only I could see his discomfort. ‘I would love nothing more than to ease your loneliness.’
I did my best to look abashed, which wasn’t difficult. The thought of Raleigh warming my bed quickly shifted our pantomime of a conversation to something frighteningly electric. ‘Your Serene Highness,’ I said in my most proper voice, ‘you know full well we’re yet to exchange our vows.’
‘You know I’d wed you this second if I could.’
‘Patience, my love.’ I stroked his cheek. Raleigh swallowed, his muscles fluttering under my touch. ‘We have company.’
‘Yes, of course.’ He jumped, as though suddenly remembering we were not alone.
He was a remarkable actor. As he turned to the others, his dazed expression of one drunk on love was perfect.
‘Lukas, Yorik.’ He gestured to them both in turn.
‘Meet Clara, my lovely bride-to-be. Clara, Lukas and Yorik are’—he set his teeth and made it perfectly clear to everyone in the room that his next words were a lie—‘old friends.’
The one nearest me with the long hair – Lukas, I now knew – curled his lips into a grin that revealed every one of his bloodstained teeth. ‘I can see what the fuss is about.’
The hand on my shoulder stiffened.
‘I can’t see any scars,’ the other one, who must have been Yorik, said, eyes raking over me in a way that made me want to run back to my room and throw on another four layers. ‘Feeding from somewhere more exciting, are you?’
My breath hitched, which made both guests erupt into laughter.
Raleigh didn’t join them. The casual hand draped on my shoulder became more than just a familial gesture.
His grip tightened again, pulling me into him in a gesture that toed the fine line between possessive and protective.
The peril of being at the mercy of a room full of vampires suddenly hit me.
My body began to tremble against my will.
‘I’ve never so much as tasted her,’ Raleigh said, his words clipped. ‘And when I do, it will only be on our wedding night.’
Lukas snorted. ‘That’s not the Raleigh I know.’
‘Things change.’
‘You know’—Yorik’s smirk was something from a nightmare—‘I think we’d better check. Make sure you’re not lying.’
I felt like I’d stepped out of my body. In part, I wished I could.
The men in Orlfen were far from gentlemen, but they never used their words as violence like this, gaining strength from my every tremor.
Eyes trained upon me, Yorik began to stand and make good on his word, but Raleigh pushed me back and stood between us.
‘That’s enough. The next syllable of filth you utter around my bride will be the last you ever speak.’
Yorik stopped for a moment, exchanged a glance with Lukas, then burst into a renewed frenzy of laughter. He stepped slowly around the table, unfazed by Raleigh’s threat. ‘Raleigh, Raleigh. You couldn’t kill us if you tried.’
‘Are you willing to take that risk?’
‘There’s two of us and one of you – unless you count the halfbreed and your two pets.’
Raleigh’s hand clenched into a fist.
‘Or are you jealous that our attention is no longer on you?’
Raleigh stiffened. He stumbled back from Yorik, nearly stepping on me, but suddenly Lukas was between them. I never saw him move.
‘Easy now, Yorik,’ Lukas said. ‘We are guests in the prince’s court, and we must respect our host. Even if he so selfishly guards his sweets.
’ His gaze skimmed over me, then he removed himself, at a human pace this time.
Everyone peeled off, returning to their previous seats. The air felt soupy with tension.
Raleigh dragged an extra chair around to the head of the table and positioned it so that we’d have to sit uncomfortably close. There was no place setting for me, not so much as a glass of wine. I felt like a lap dog, only allowed to sit at the table as an amusing ornament.
‘There,’ Raleigh said once we were all seated. Yorik poured himself another glass from Raleigh’s supplies, draining the bottle. ‘You’ve met my bride. Now tell me why you’re here.’
‘You really ought to read our letters,’ Lukas said.
‘I never received any letters.’
‘Ah, but we know that’s a lie, don’t we, Yorik? We delivered the last one ourselves. Your lovely maid never noticed the courier was entranced. If she didn’t deliver it to you, then maybe we ought to have a word with her.’
‘Fine,’ Raleigh snapped. ‘I burnt them. Is that what you want to hear?’
Yorik put a hand over his heart. ‘Is this how you treat family?’
‘My family is here.’ Raleigh put his hand over mine, making me jump.
‘So quick to forget.’ The expression with which both men regarded me made me shiver. Raleigh’s fingers tightened around mine. ‘Our queen is interested in your new bride. She would like very much to meet the woman who has stolen your heart.’
Raleigh folded his arms over his chest and leant back in his chair. ‘I’m not due back at court until the new year.’
The new year? I snapped to attention.
‘She said you’d say that.’ Lukas leant forward, smiling widely. ‘She said to tell you fifteen years ended last month. Said you’d know what that meant.’
Raleigh blanched. ‘The year isn’t over yet.’
Lukas hummed to himself, tracing the rim of his glass. ‘See here, Raleigh. We were given one other instruction. The two of you are to come with us to attend Her Majesty’s order, or we bring just you, bound in silver, and kill every human left behind.’
Raleigh held his gaze; he didn’t move, didn’t breathe.
‘Now,’ Lukas continued, ‘I know which I’d prefer, but Her Majesty made it clear she’d prefer to meet the bride alive. So which will it be? Bring your bride to meet your queen or leave her to rot?’
‘That isn’t a choice.’
‘What do you have to hide?’ Yorik joined in. ‘Surely you’ve already won your little deal.’
Deal? I looked to Raleigh for some explanation, but he wouldn’t look back.
‘I have nothing to hide.’
‘Then why the hesitation?’
‘I’ll come,’ I interrupted. They seemed shocked by that, as though they hadn’t expected Raleigh’s ornamental bride to have any sort of autonomy. ‘I would be honoured to meet Raleigh’s sire.’
Raleigh stiffened. ‘Clara—’
‘I’m not dying for the sake of your stubbornness,’ I hissed under my breath.
Raleigh gritted his teeth. Even backed into a corner he still thought there was a secret passage through the wall. ‘We’ll stay one night,’ he conceded. ‘No longer. And Clara will not leave my sight.’
‘Then it is arranged.’ Lukas raised his glass high. ‘She will be so glad to have you home.’