Page 81 of The Child of Rue Royale
The words glimmer upon Winnie’s page, looking three-dimensional, goading me to read them out loud.
I place my lips to the chalice, the wine feeling warm against my mouth. I let it sit there, my mind going back to the blessing ceremony, back to when my lips were upon the same chalice that very day. I go deeper until I’m back inside Violetta’s parlor, Franklin in front of her, Rosemary standing by his side.
Pulling my lips from the chalice, pressing my head back as far as my neck will allow, I whisper the words I memorized from Winnie’s pages.
“Videam, videam. Oculis videam.”
And I’m sucked back—right where I left off, right after Franklin’s words. “That one has dreams about to come true,” Franklin says, before cheering, “Bottoms up!”
He slams the chalice on the table, and my blood grows cold. I chide myself, reminding my heart not to pull me from the vision. Stay here.
“We have our way of handling traitors,” Rosemary says. “If this gets out, you pay with your life. Simple as that.”
Franklin looks behind him because Rosemary isn’t speaking to him. She’s speaking to whoever else is in the room.
“I completely understand,” a feminine voice whispers, quiet, yet resolute.
A voice I know all too well. A voice with an English accent, and I’m pulled out of the vision before I can see her face, but my mind, my heart, everything beating inside me knows who was in the room with Franklin, who betrayed the vampires she claimed to love so much.
“Oksana.”
“No,” Bastian insists. “No way.”
“You are shitting me.” Mother covers her mouth with her hand, her eyes blinking rapidly. “No way. Why would she help Franklin?”
“She wouldn’t,” Bastian responds, standing from the chair.
“I know what I heard. I know her voice anywhere.” My defenses rise.
“Did you see her with your eyes?” His suspicion frustrates me, so my eyes shoot at him like blades.
“I heard her with my ears. I know it was her, Bastian. I’ve heard that voice talk down to me for years.”
His head shakes, hands resting on his hips. “She wouldn’t, would she? Betray my family. She promised her life to my family. She’s been a part of us for twenty years.”
Heat blooms across my face. The fact that he’s questioning me causes a deep-seated fury in my chest. “She would and she did.” My voice is stern, probably the sternest I’ve ever spoken to him. “And the fact that you don’t believe me is—”
“No,” he says, walking to me, reaching his arms out to pull me up. I don’t take them. Perhaps it’s childish, perhaps I’m overreacting, but I know what I heard. “Come on,” he moans, bending down to take my hands and pulling me to my feet swiftly. “If you say it, I believe it. I just don’t understand why, okay? Can you understand that?”
I breathe out heavily, his words making sense. “Yes,” I whisper as Mother rises to her feet.
“I just don’t get why she would do it. She loves Cassius and my mother the absolute most. I don’t know how she could turn on them so easily. Unless she was forced?”
“In my vision, Franklin said her dreams were going to come true. Do you know what that’s about?”
“No. Unless he was going to pay her off. Give her a ton of money? But she’s never cared about money. I have to tell them. She works with them every night.”
“Well, we have to confront her and get to the bottom of it.” My head pounds, but I don’t feel as weak as I did when I had the vision during the blessing ceremony. I guess Mother was right. It was magic I called upon, so it didn’t leech my energy.
With tortured eyes, Bastian looks at me, his teeth sinking into his bottom lip.
“Tonight we’ll go to Nightwalkers and squeeze every detail out of her,” Mother says, her fist tightening as if they were around Oksana’s throat.
Bastian sighs, turning his back and taking a few steps away from us.
“Delta…with all due respect. I think only Aster and I should go. This is a betrayal that will knock the wind out of my brother and mother. And, no offense…but you tend to—”
“Provoke them,” I say, knowing where Bastian is going with this and completely agreeing.
