I lock the combination door from the outside as I leave. This time there’ll be no mistakes.
Making my way back to the living room I catch what Revna’s telling Falcon.
“The lore says she must stay with you,” she spits. “If The Families learn of her blood she’ll be bound to you for all eternity.That’swhy you should let me end her now. You’ve destroyed anyone who saw your son’s ability tonight — no one knows. End her now before it’s too late.”
“You’re wrong,” Yin snorts, “Eleanor knows.”
I nod. I can’t say too much with the Princess here, but Falcon needs to know all that we do if he’s to help protect his son and I now. He also needs to know that I was selected because of my blood to participate in The Games.
‘At least he knows partly why I wouldn’t be with him. Perhaps he’ll acknowledge everything was a set-up from woe to go now, and stop insisting we be together.’
“This is more convoluted than you know, Falcon,” I sigh. “I don’t know anything about The Families. But one thing’s for sure. This bitch is so far up the Queen’s ass, she’s a hernia,” I ignore Revna’s hiss. “If she knows about my blood then you can bet your bottom dollar your queen knows too.”
“If Falcon’s queen knows, she’s also sanctioned this murder attempt,” Yin mutters. “And she sanctioned the Princess poisoning his heir. Isn’t that so,Princess?”
Revna says nothing, but her expression says it all. She won’t implicate the Queen in anything that The Families would decry.
“No,” Falcon shakes his head. “Even the Queen wouldn’t go this far. If she’d sanctioned something like this Angie would have been dead a long time ago. The Queen also wouldn’t have sent her royal physicians to care for Tiger if she knew he was being poisoned. Perhaps Revna’s own mother, the Queen of Denmark, knew, but not my queen.”
“What makes you think this?” I frown. “After attending Court I think your queen is capable of literally anything.”
Falcon shakes his head slowly.
“I believe Revna came to me while I was in jail to seek my agreement to True Punishment as a way of getting around her aunt’s decision that Angie be left alive. Isn’t that right, Revna? You couldn’t get her explicit agreement after you told her what you suspected? After you told her you thought Angie was part fae. It stands to reason that after I was freed you decided to take it upon yourself to ensure Angie was killed and Tiger was murdered before his third birthday, to cover your tracks just in case hecouldfly and confirm Angie’s blood. But you never had agreement from my queen, because if you had, you wouldn’t have to sneak around and try to kill her yourself — you could have used the royal secret service.”
Revna snorts.
“Keep guessing, Falco. Even the blind squirrel gets a nut sometimes. But know this; I saved your life tonight. Yourwifeplanned to murder you with help from The Free Men. If you can’t see that you are truly blind.”
“She didn’t know anything about it,” Yin snarls.
“Could we dob The Princess in and have her punished?” I ask, meeting Revna’s hateful stare and not looking away.
“She’s protected,” Falcon sighs, “royal immunity. As one of The Families she’s virtually untouchable. My queen would be pissed, there’d be some social ramifications, perhaps, but eventually this whole mess would be swept under the carpet.”
“And the threat still there,” Yin growls.
“What I want to know,” Falcon scowls at Revna, “is justwhenyou began to believe Angie was special?”
“When she bit me,” I answer for her. “When she tasted me, she was appalled; apparently I’m disgusting.”
“Not disgusting,” Falcon shakes his head, “forbidden.”
“Either way,” Yin snaps, “she can’t be allowed to go running her mouth off. If she tells The Families about Angie, or the fact you havetwosons, we’ll never be free.”
“Two sons,” Revna laughs. “One who flies and one who doesn’t?”
‘Oh, shit. I need to change the subject, and fast.’
“Who might she tell?” I squeak.
“More to the point, if she tells, she won’t be able to kill you. If she doesn’t tell anyone she’ll continue to hunt you,” Falcon murmurs, ignoring Revna’s outburst.
“Not if she’s dead,” Yin murmurs.
“That’s no solution,” I sigh. “We’ll just have even more vampires hunting us. We’ve just agreed that the Queen already knows about my blood, perhaps two queens. And they’re not the only ones. Your mother knows, Falcon. Or at the very least, she suspects.”
“That can’t be true,” he frowns. “When Mother returned from her exile we cleared the air. She has no more secrets from me.”