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I stared at him. “What point is that?”

“That twelve princes are no longer enough to hold the Unified Territories together.”

“We have managed for five hundred years,” I argued.

“Have we?” Renaud held up his juice-stained hand. “The Devouring established itself beneath your nose.” He smeared the red juice across his palm. “I daresay I understand why. It’s just you and Severin here. And little Adrien. Hardly enough vampires to put down that kind of threat."

“No less than any other duchy has,” I countered.

“Which is my point. Marius clings to laws designed to keep our numbers small while our enemies multiply.” He paused. “We made an oath, Yves, to protect the innocent. To prevent war. Christine has already risked more than any woman alive to give the Allard line a future, and Marius still treats our sons as an embarrassment. Now she is prepared to risk her life again.”

He lifted his chin, and in the ensuing silence, I realized what he meant. “Christine is with child?” I said. “Isn’t she?”

He nodded.

In five hundred years, the twelve of us had produced only fourteen living children. And Renaud was about to make that number fifteen.

“After my fourth son is born,” Renaud said, “Christine will have given more children to the Allard line than any mate.”

“A miracle,” I said. But in truth, I was very far away, holding a screaming baby while a white cedar coffin was carried down a gangplank in the rain.

A vampire quickening tended to burn through a mortal body like fire through old rigging. Most never took at all. The ones that did cost greatly. Emmaline had died in every one of her lives trying to bring a child into this world. She heard all of my warnings, my brilliant, laughing wife, and she had chosen to try over and over again until we finally had a baby.

“We have agreed to keep trying until our line is secure.”

“That could kill her,” I supplied.

Renaud set his jaw. “She understands the cost.”

I could hardly believe what I was hearing. If Christine were his mate, he wouldn’t be talking so callously about her death. “Why are you telling me this?”

“You know why.” He stopped short. “I should be High Prince.”

“Is that so?” I asked. I waited for him to laugh and say this was all a joke, because the alternative was that my brother had just spoken treason in my vineyard. But he did not laugh. “Marius has held the peace.”

“Held it?” Renaud spread his hands. “He has embalmed it. He has done nothing but throw parties to raise funds for Bastien’s great peace mission in the Lawless Lands that has accomplished nothing. It’s been five hundred years since the line was drawn between our peoples, and he’s still pursuing a damn treaty. This is the result.” He shook his head. “The High Prince needs to have visionary leadership, not just an abundance of tolerance and half-hearted responses,” Renaud asserted.

“Forgive me, brother, but is this about peace, or about your children and your paramour?”

“It’s about both! Marius refuses to acknowledge my children because they were not conceived from a mate bond. Caspien has our blood and our strength, but under Marius’s law he cannot inherit my seat, command my ships, or swear the oath we took to protect these territories. What good are more vampires if the law forbids them from serving?”

“The mate bond was meant to keep our numbers small on purpose,” I explained. “The elders feared exactly this. Vampires growing too powerful and becoming tyrants, not peacekeepers. Marius keeps the old ways for a reason.”

“Then the old ways have given rise to The Devouring! What’s next? Summoning demons?”

Now I understood why Renaud was here. There was only one way to unseat Marius without open war. “You want my vote to dethrone Marius,” I said. “And you want Caspien’s ball beneath my roof so every prince in attendance believes I have already chosen your side.”

He nodded. “A few of our brothers have already pledged their support.”

“Who?” I inquired.

“That is not something I’m prepared to share.”

“I know Eveningtide and Charmont would never agree,” I said. “Along with Nightfall.”

Those three were all former Dark Witches, and I knew them all well enough to know that if a new High Prince were to be chosen, they would only support one of their own. Marius was the devil they knew. And a charitable devil at that. He’d been very good to them over the years.

Renaud waved a hand. “I’m only investing time in those who I believe can see the benefit of new leadership. I need your vote to secure my victory, and through you, Bastien. Roselyn listens to no one else.”