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“What?” I gaped at her.
“You smelled like dessert last time I was with you, love. Now you smell like stale candy. ” She patted my face fondly.
“I’m fine. ”
“Don’t let those wolves bowl you over, Secret. You’re the prize, not the property. ” She grasped the curtain and moved to step out, but I grabbed her wrist to stop her.
“What are you doing here, Genevieve?”
She smiled at me and held both hands in the air, her fingers dancing like the light in her eyes. “Fingers in pies, Miss McQueen. Fingers in pies. ” She winked at her paramour and then was gone, leaving me alone with the mysterious French vampire.
I sipped my drink again, gulping in spite of myself, and stood in the doorway, waiting for Rebecca to speak.
“Well then, belle, asseyez-vous. ” She nodded to the plush couch that wrapped in a U shape around the entirety of the booth.
I sat a little farther away than I normally might, but she was still black-eyed and I’d forced her playmate to leave for the night. I was playing it safe. I finished off my drink and placed the empty glass on the small table, its film of blood glinting in the candlelight. I stared at the glass so I didn’t have to look at her.
“I may have all night, Mademoiselle McQueen, but I’d prefer we pretend I do not and let us get on with it, shall we?”
“Are you with the council?” I asked.
“Oui. I am a council elder. ” She inspected her manicure and radiated perfect vampiric boredom.
“Then you know about Holden Chancery’s warrant. ”
She smiled, although I wasn’t sure I liked it, given the context. “Oh you clever little girl. Did Sig send you?”
“No. ” My voice wavered slightly. He hadn’t, really. I’d decided to come here when I left Bramley, before my run-in with Sig in Central Park. But I was beginning to wonder how much of what I was doing was my idea and what was suggestions from others being put in to action.
For my entire adult life I’d been doing the bidding of others. My whole life in this city I’d been the puppet on the end of Sig’s strings, and I was only now becoming truly aware of that.
Rebecca kept smiling, running her fingers over the back of the couch behind her. “Of course not. Non. That would be against the rules, wouldn’t it? Sig would be smarter than to send his beloved pet to her death. ”
Okay, seriously, did everyone know about Sig’s peculiar attachment to me? What did it mean that the entire council believed I was Sig’s pet?
“Ask me your questions,” she urged.
“Do you know what Holden is accused of?”
“Oui,” Rebecca answered without hesitation. I was stunned into muteness. It couldn’t be this easy, could it?
“Can you tell me?”
“I don’t see why not. The warrant is issued. It cannot be undone now, and I am not bound to keep it a secret like the Tribunal is. ” She kicked her shoes off, and each fell to the floor with a hollow thud, then tucked her feet under herself. Outside, music was humming, but I couldn’t have told you what was playing if you paid me a million dollars. I was sitting forward on the edge of my seat, staring at her expectantly.
“What did he do?”
“Holden Chancery stands accused of being a traitor to the council. ”
“But that’s crazy. Holden has devoted his life to the council. ”
“Certainly. But did we not also ignore his right for advancement? Did we not give him reasons to loathe us, all because of—”
“Me. ”
“Oui. ” She was watching me for a reaction, and I was doing my best not to give her one. Everything she was telling me was something I’d thought already. I knew Holden’s supposed betrayal could be traced back to me. I couldn’t let the guilt overwhelm me, because it was more important I prove Holden’s innocence than focus on the part I’d played to make him look guilty.
“You know he didn’t do it, don’t you?”
