Page 50 of Alpha's Magic

She turned with a look of fear and trepidation on her face, but she came over to sit beside me.

“Of course, sir.”

I leaned back and glanced over at Leo, who had stopped what he was doing and was suddenly paying avid attention.

“I’d like you to tell me what you know about the night Leo took a potion that turned him into a monster.”

“Oh,” she cried and burst into sudden tears, pulling up her apron to cover her face. Leo made a move toward her, but I shook my head and waved him back to his chair. I waited for her tears to subside and tried again.

“Madam, I’m sorry to upset you, but I will have answers no matter how long it takes. Describe that night to me, please.”

“It was horrible, sir.” She glanced over at Leo and tears streamed down her face again. “He was just a child, a sweet little boy. We were all in shock.”

“Who was? Who was in attendance that night?”

“Lady Rowena. Her sister, Lady Rozamond, who was here for a visit. Prince Ludwig. They had been arguing. I took the boy out of the room so he wouldn’t hear it, but he sneaked back in.”

“Tell me about the potion.”

“Lady Rowena was screaming. She couldn’t seem to stop until Lady Rozamond did something to make her hush. Leo was wailing and crying and trying to hide under his father’s desk. And the prince was so angry. I’ve never seen him in such a state. Rozamond said they must have gotten the ingredients wrong. That they’d been making a kind of love potion for him. You see, Lady Rowena and the prince had been having marital problems. She was trying to rekindle his love.”

“Was she?”

“Yes, sir. So she said, but she was so upset and Rozamond had done something to her so she’d stop screaming. Oh, the prince was so angry—so furious. I’ve never seen him in such a rage. He was saying incantations over Leo, and the air was thick with them. He was trying to reverse the spell you see, but it wasn’t working. Gods, you couldn’t even think with all the screaming going on.”

She buried her face in her hands and cried for a few more minutes, and I let her, just mulling over the things she’d said in my mind.

“What happened next? How did the prince die that night?”

She looked up at me, her eyes a little wild, and I knew she was about to lie. I made a pass over her head. “Veritas,” I called out softly, and she straightened right away in her chair.

“Rozamond killed him,” she said in a low but clear voice. “She picked up a letter opener from his desk and stabbed him in the chest when he came around and struck Rowena across the face. Rozamond stabbed him again and again. There was so much blood.”

“Did Leo witness it?”

“Yes. He was at his father’s feet as she killed him. The poor child went even more crazy. He ran from the room, and we couldn’t catch him. I called for the other servants, and we all tried, but he was savage—he tried to bite us and rake us with his claws. We had to finally let him go.”

“Why did you never go after him? Why didn’t you keep looking for him? He was just a little boy.”

She began wringing her hands. “I know. I know. But Lady Rozamond said to stop. She said she’d take over the search. After a month or so had passed, she sent word to us that Leo’s body had been found and he was gone. He was dead.”

“And what about his mother, Rowena? What happened to her? How did she die?”

She looked up at me in surprise and shook her head. “But Lady Rowena isn’t dead. Whatever gave you that idea?”

It took me a moment to recover from that news, but I immediately turned to Leo, who was positively stricken by it. He tried to reel backward, but I pulled him close to me and asked the question I thought I already knew the answer to. She was still under my spell, so I knew we’d finally get the truth.

“Is the Lady Rowena the one who lives with you now? The one in the attic who started the fire?”

“Yes. She went mad the night her husband died and never recovered. Rozamond gave me money to keep her here in this house for a few years, but eventually, it became too hard. Too much. She had begun to roam the countryside, sometimes crying and sometimes raging. She was a danger to herself and others. Her magic was still inside her, you see. Still powerful at times. It was then that Rozamond came back and fixed her.”

“Fixed her? What did she do to her?”

“I don’t know. She brought her priests with her. They spent hours with her in her bedroom and when they were done, she was different. Quieter. Now she spends most of her time alone in her room, writing poetry, she says, but it’s all scribbles on a page. From time to time, she gets out and comes here, wandering up and down the halls and crying. That’s why everyone thinks the place is haunted. I’m a little afraid of Lady Rowena, sir, even now. I don’t know how much longer we can go on.”

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Leo

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