Page 65 of Wedlock
“Loving her is not the same thing. Falling for Angie is the easiest thing in the world. You were trusted, you were mybrother, yet you betrayed me.”
“Yes,” he nods, meeting my gaze unwaveringly, “but not beforeyoubetrayed her. She had no one, and I wastrustedto be her jailer, her confidante, her emissary. Thrust together with her so often, it’s no wonder I should develop feelings for her. Yes, she was under a thrall, and I was duped into believing her feelings for me were real, but mine for her were real enough. Did I betrayyou? Yes. Did I want to tell you? Also yes. But she, you and I, we were all played by your half-brother, Falcon. Destroying our friendship is exactly what he planned, and you vowing to kill me is giving him just what he wanted.”
“YOU gave him that,” I snarl. “Enough! I want you gone. I need to try and get myself out of this mire of shit, and I need to know I’m surrounded by those loyal to me. You no longer fall under that description.”
“I fear very few do,” he says quietly. “For what it’s worth, I didn’t kill Viper, more’s the pity — Asumpta did. I hadn’t planned to reveal this, and had she done it out of loyalty to your house, I would not have. But more information has come to light.”
I stare at him through the bars. I don’t want to believe him, but I hear the ring of truth in his words. Viper was killed by someone he knew, that much had been clear given there was no sign of a struggle. The kill was quick and clean, an execution more than a murder. And Sophie had said a woman killed him.
“You need to know that Asumpta was aware all along that Angie was under Viper’s thrall. She and Viper were both working with Spider to undermine you,” Jag goes on. “She’s on the run now,” he shrugs, “if I can find her I might be able to wring out a confession and prove Spider murdered Sophie,andreveal his plot against you and yours. But I’m not lifting a finger until you revoke your vow.”
I stare at him, visions of his broad shoulders heaving over my wife, of his professions of love as he’d thrust inside her warm body swimming before my eyes.
“Never!”
49
Holding my fake baby, or, should I say, Falcon’s heir, I bounce my knee as much to soothe him as to quell my nerves as I wait for my audience with the Queen.
I’ve never been to the court before. Eleanor and Falcon had done their utmost to ensure that every time I was ordered to do so there had been an excuse for my absence. And to be fair, I hadn’t wanted to go. But today I haven’t been ordered or invited; instead, I’drequestedan audience. Me, the supposedly suicidal post-partum depressed bride of an alleged psychotic countess killer.
Apparently I’d piqued her interest, because my request had been approved, and despite Eleanor's fervent entreaties over thephone that I don’t do it, here I was. I can’t honestly think of any other way to help Falcon other than to tell everything I know about his relationship with Sophie. Hopefully the Queen will see that he had no reason to kill her and would never have done so.
But she’s kept me waiting hours now.
I look up quickly as one of her servants approaches.
“Her royal highness will see you now.”
‘About fucking time.’
Shouldering the baby, I follow the guard, or herald, or whatever he is, through to her rooms. I’m nervous to meet her, not because she’s a queen, but because she has the power of life or death over pretty much everyone. I have no regard now for royalty, especially since I’d lived as one for the past few years. Most, if not all, of the vampires I’d met were mentally deranged, power-hungry monsters. The Queen may be the top of this food chain, but she’s someone I could never respect. Nevertheless, despite having seen her photo in magazines and her image on television and on all the coins in this country, my knees start trembling the moment I see her in the flesh. Even seated as she is, she’s honestly the most dangerous, hideously beautiful thing I’ve ever seen. And I realise, instantly, that I’ve made a mistake coming here.
I know she’s a baby killer, I know she’s older than antiquity and residing in a younger body, donated unwillingly by a template. I know she’s smart and cruel and all-powerful. But all this pales into significance when I feel the aura she exudes as she meets my eyes, and I notice the woman standing beside her right shoulder. I feel like a deer in headlights, a rabbit in a snare, a chicken with its head on the block.
Every inch of my body is tensed to run, but I have to remain still.
‘Shit! Shit, shit, shiiiiiiiiiiit.’
“So, this is the little media sensation,” she snorts as I stand before her and the Princess.
Swallowing hard, I curtsy as I know I’m expected, although it galls me when Revna smirks as though I’d had to bend the knee to her too.
I keep my eyes determinedly on the monarch, not acknowledging the bitch behind her, as the Queen sneers, just a tiny edge of fang showing.
“I gather you’ve already had the pleasure of meeting Princess Revna of Denmark.”
I grit my teeth and don’t rise to the bait. I’ll bet she knows full well the nature of our meeting.
“I have.”
The Queen narrows her eyes slightly at me, and I can’t help but wonder if she’s disappointed I don’t babble to her about how the Princess tried to kill me and wants my husband. But Eleanor had, upon realising I was not going to back down from visiting the court, schooled me on keeping my mouth firmly shut and not rising to any bait. She doesn’t know me very well, I’m a pro at that.
“So, you’re here to plead your husband’s innocence, I take?” The Queen asks, her tone bored.
“Yes, Your Majesty. He didn’t kill Sophie. In fact his attachment to her was so strong that he planned to killmeafter The Games and marry her.”
I notice out of the corner of my eye that Revna’s fangs have descended, but I keep my focus on the Queen. I don’t add that I think Falcon might have moved on from Sophie to Revna, and that as far as I knew he was still planning to marry the Princess,because I’m actually not sure what’s going on with him and this woman. I’m just trying to stick to the facts about Sophie, and notbabble. But I’m glad the Princess looks pissed at the news she was not his only intended.
