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“Wait,” I protested softly. I couldn’t leave Jacinda and Scarlett again.
Reyes continued towards the exit, commanding one of my guards just as reached it. “Wesley, escort Lady Faud back to her room.”
Lady Faud?
It was strange hearing Jacinda’s full title when it was so rarely spoken.
“What about—”
He swiftly cut me off. “She and Cassimere feed together.”
That shut me up. I’d misread her reaction as being the same as mine when she was trying to avoid my eye.
I frowned, trying not to visualize how that worked. I’d never seen Reyes feed, but I assumed his brother fed the same way as him.
Scarlett told me everything, though. Did she think I’d have judged her for this?
“You would have.”
“Stop doing that! I would not.”
“Duvessa, you just judged everyone in that room,” he retorted coolly, adding, “You judged them for being what they were.”
That had me drawing up short. I pulled my hand free of his and turned to face him. The halls now mostly empty, we stood in the middle of the staircase alone, dancing flames from candles adding shadows to our faces.
“I judged them for devouring their partners so hedonistically. I judged them for discussing things that had no business being discussed at a dinner table. And you…you should have known better.”
He tilted his head to the side and regarded me silently for a moment.
“You think you can tell me how to rule my court? What I can and can’t do?”
“I can, actually,” I retorted calmly—not an easy task when I wanted to rage at him for all he’d done.
“Is that right?” he smirked.
“When you decided to bend fate to your will, there was a power exchange. You may have half my region, but I also have half of yours. I’m a regent, not a goddamn consort.”
His face fell back into its usual impassivity, but his eyes conveyed he wasn’t unbothered by my words. I may not have been the best at reading emotions, but that evil glint had me mentally bracing for whatever he was about to say.
“You’re right,” he began quietly. “I suppose you do have power. Maybe you should use it on finding the rest of the half-breeds that scattered because every other one of your subjects is dead, their corpses feasted on by the crows and maggots. I made sure of that.”
Dead? Is this what he’d meant all those times he had claimed to be ‘handling’ it?
He took a step forward, bringing us nearly chest to chest, raising a hand to cup the side of my face. “They begged for mercy so beautifully. Some prayed their queen would save them. It’s almost as if she’d abandoned them in her abdication.”
“Abdication?” My posture turned rigid, a sudden coldness lancing my core.
“I would never abdicate to you or anyone else. Not ever. The only way to truly dethrone me is to remove my head from my shoulders.” I knocked his palm away from me, thoroughly disgusted with him and myself.
Not even the demon inside me could look beyond what he’d done, but I was wise enough not to attack him openly.
“You’re going to regret this.”
“Are you threatening me?” He grinned as if I’d made a joke.
“I promise you that you’re going to wish you never stole my crown with your filthy fucking hands.” I turned on my heel and walked away from him. He didn’t follow for once, and I was all the more grateful.
I reached the third level, and Dylan appeared like a mirage, falling in step beside me.
“That was commendable. There’s hope for you yet,” he chirped.
“You were there?” I tried to picture where’d he have been standing.
“I’m always near. I must protect and watch over you.”
An annoyed sighed expelled from my lungs.
“He weaves a web with careful words and dark seduction.”
What? Glancing at the vampire from the corner of my eye, I began to wonder if he’d had a bit too much wine.
“You’re not completely caught yet. Be careful about how you move. He has something coming.”
“Ugh,” I growled in frustration. “I’m not in the mood to decipher riddles.”
“My words are meant to keep you safe. It will make sense soon. Here, this is a spare.”
He grabbed my hand and pressed an object into my palm, folding my fingers back so that it didn’t fall when he let go.
Not giving me an opportunity to question his ominous words, he pulled open the door to my bedroom and gestured for me to enter. I brushed past him, closing the door behind me.
Resting my forehead against the cool wood, I unfurled my fingers and revealed a silver skeleton key.
I eyed the keyhole right in front of me and attempted to insert it with no luck. It didn’t remotely fit.
Dylan said this was a spare, but to what?
Unsure what I was supposed to do with it now, I decided to hide it in the bottom drawer of my dresser beneath some of the bras Edna had brought in that morning.
