Page 34 of Happily Ever Bitten (Underworld Royals 2)

“She’s not the woman you knew a year and a half ago,” I replied. That would have been a compliment under every other circumstance, except this. “She thought he was one of the men who attacked her that night,” I added in a low voice meant for their ears alone, but a few of the surrounding guards definitely heard me.

“He helped her,” Adrik said, frowning.

“Yes, I told her that, but she clearly didn’t be

lieve me.” I looked at Yakariah and sighed. “Fuck.” It seemed to be my new favorite curse lately. “What a fucking mess.”

“Do you wish for us to dispose of the body, sir?” Saxton asked.

“Take him to the burial yards,” I said. “Have him prepared for a proper ceremony.” Because there was no point in doing a full investigation of his body when the entire murder was caught on tape. Besides, I could see plainly that he’d died from having his heart cut out.

Such a bizarre way to kill. Zaya seemed fond of slitting throats. That was always what she practiced when we sparred and also how she murdered that human a few weeks back.

My lips curled downward. No, something wasn’t right. “I really need to see those tapes,” I said, repeating my earlier request.

“Of course, Your Highness.” The male who mentioned the recording bowed his head. “If you’ll follow me.”

“I’m coming,” Adrik informed me. “And so is Valora.”

I just nodded in agreement. As the Queen and King of Nova Kingdom, they had every right to review the evidence of the death of one of their own.

Oh, Zaya.

What the fuck did you do?

“I didn’t do it,” I kept saying every step of the way down the stone stairs.

“Shut up.”

“But I didn’t do it!”

“I said, shut up!” The guard shoved me forward, causing me to trip down the last few stairs and land on the concrete floor of the dungeon below.

“Dude!” another guard snapped. “The prisoner’s marked by Grigory. Careful how you handle that.”

“Whatever,” my guard grumbled.

I whimpered as he grabbed the chains binding my wrists together and yanked me upward to stand once more. No one believed me. Not even Grigory. He wouldn’t let me say a word. Wouldn’t hear me. But I didn’t do this.

The last thing I remembered was walking into my closet to change out of my dress. Everything went fuzzy after that. Then I woke up covered in another man’s blood and surrounded by angry guards.

A tear trickled down my cheek, the treacherous droplet causing my heart to ache with fear. What would become of me down here?

“Take her to holding.”

Grigory had sent me to the dungeon.

To a jail cell.

To be alone.

For how long? What evidence did he plan to review? Why wouldn’t he talk to me? Listen to me? Hear what I had to say?

“I don’t remember doing it,” I whispered.

The guard grunted but didn’t yell at me or shove me again. Maybe he felt bad for the push down the stairs. Or maybe he’d heeded the warning by the other guy.

We ventured down another set of stairs, into the depths of hell, the ground here cool rather than hot. Every step seemed darker than the next, the candlelight sparse in this area of the dungeon.

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