Page 44 of Hupotasso
“Don’t look so shocked,” she laughs loudly and harshly. “You know my sister and I were meant to be killed at birth. At leastyour daughter will have her own life, a rich and full life, up until coronation.”
“What?” I stare up at her. “How can she have a ‘rich and full life’ if she knows all along that she’s going to be sacrificed? That she’s nothing more than a vessel for some creepy old vampire bitch? And how could I ever be OK with that? How couldanymother be OK with that?”
“They are, though,” she shrugs. “Some don’t ever mention the girl again. It’s like an invisible child. Families still acknowledge their daughters if they’re selected, they must. But they can’t have anything to do with them. You could think of it as just being reborn someone else.”
“I could never accept this.”
“I’ve seentraditiondestroy more than one royal wife, and many more mistresses,” she says quietly. “Why should you be any different?”
I take my hands away from my face and look at her. Really, look at her.
“You hate me. You hate me because I’m one of them.”
I can’t keep the surprise out of my voice, but she remains impassive.
“Yes.”
“Yet you work for them. You serve them day in and day out.”
“Do I?”
Her eyes glint in the firelight, and I shudder.
34
Comforting Sophie is starting to become a full-time job, and a trial. I dread having to enter her apartments and have the same conversation over again, especially since she’s become so fucking manipulative.
When I chastise her she cries and apologises, passing it off as being emotional due to her physical state. But she’s not the woman I courted before I entered The Games, unless she was like this all along and I hadn’t noticed. If I’m honest, along with her conversation, I also dread seeing her swollen stomach, knowing my enemy’s spawn rests inside. Any reminder of Spider sets my teeth on edge. But still, I comfort myself in knowing she’ll give birth soon.
I stand beside her now as she rests her head on my shoulder and croons over the necklace I’ve just given her. She’s easily mollified with jewels and presents. That, at least, hasn’t changed.
Her rooms are the best in this wing and are serviced by a dedicated team of staff. They know not to bother her when I’m visiting. So it’s doubly surprising when the door swings open tonight to reveal Angelina.
She’s wearing the soft powder-blue tracksuit she’d worn the night we had sex in the ballroom, and my body involuntarily stirs at the memory of that night.
“What are you doing in this wing?” I snap.
“So, it is her. I guessed as much,” she says as she moves into the room.
“I thought you said she wascontained,” Sophie shrieks.
Angie’s face reddens as she takes in Sophie standing beside me, one hand on my arm, one holding the black velvet box with the diamond necklace sparkling under the lights.
When she speaks her words are clipped, overly calm, and controlled.
“Contained? Is that what he told you while you were seducing him and bullshitting that you had feelings for him? When you were tellingmy husbandthat you wanted to marry him, even after you gave him up and married his enemy?”
Sophie turns wide, incredulous eyes to me.
“Are you going to allow this?”
Deep down, I can’t fault Angie’s logic. I’d thought the same myself many a time. Still, I can’t allow this disrespect from her, especially given she’s equally as guilty. And I don’t want to have to deal with any more of Sophie’s whining.
“That’s enough,” I growl, shaking my head at Angie.
“No, it’s far from enough,” she spits. “You hate my guts because you think I’m a spy. Yet you plan to marry someone you KNOW is a spy. You literally KNOW she let him bite her so she could gain immortality. You have no proof of my guilt, but she’s as guilty as sin, and you don’t care.”
I open my mouth to respond when Sophie gasps and doubles over, clutching her stomach.
