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Draven looked over my head at Sebastian, his frown deepening. “No.” He glanced back at me. “This must be your betrothed.”
“No.” I laughed. “We’re faking it. It’s a whole thing. I have so much to tell you, but first, I need to, um, talk to Sebastian.” I looked over my shoulder, worried about what he would do now I’d spoken of breaking our deal. I couldn’t focus on Draven as much as I wanted to if I couldn’t count on Sebastian’s help. “Give me five minutes. There are some butter cookies over there that they left me.” I pointed at my nightstand. “Help yourself. I don’t care for them anyway.”
I watched him devour one and sighed. How the tables had turned from him trying to get me to eat. He looked so thin, and his muscles were wasting away. Draven looked like a shadow of his former self. Dark circles hung under his eyes, darkening his too-pale face.
Sebastian followed me into the bathroom. I closed the door, sighing heavily. “What are you going to do?”
He gripped the vanity. “What can I do?”
I licked my lips. “We can re-strategize. There has to be a way for us all to win.”
“No.” His expression turned stony. “I’m going downstairs to find Erianna, Zach, and Anna, who should be here by now. In the meantime, I will keep up our facade, but you need to decide what your plan is because we can’t continue as if nothing happened while you scheme behind my back.”
I fell silent.
“If you want to escape, then you need to find a way to do that,” he said slowly, “because myself, Erianna, or Zach will not risk our lives for you to run away and leave us to clean up this mess. I won’t have them hurt because you changed your mind.”
I nodded gently, knowing I was truly alone in all this. Not that I could blame him. “I don’t know what other options there are.”
“You can stick to our original plan, and we can dethrone Sargon. If you don’t have it in your heart to kill him, then we can do it.”
The coldness of his tone cut through the air between us. “I can’t.”
“You could tell him the truth of who you are, but we will be punished for keeping you from him, and your list of enemies will include far more than just Kalon.”
“So my only good option is to plot to kill my father.”
“He did it to his own.” He shrugged. “He has lived for centuries, Olivia. You’re not cutting his life short. He has had far more time here than anyone else.”
“He cares for you,” I said pointedly. “You would betray him so easily.”
He shook his head. “He likes me. There’s a difference. Don’t think he wouldn’t hesitate to do the same to me if he were in my position. I would take it if there was another way out of this, but this is the cleanest way. Sanmorte needs change anyway, and being a vampire doesn’t have to be as bad as you think it is.”
“Says the man who will do anything to become mortal.”
“You’re a far better person than I am, Olivia. If anyone can keep their morality as a vampire, it’s you.”
I flushed red. “If I escape, will you tell Sargon who I am?”
He paused, looking at himself in the mirror. “No, but I won’t be able to stop Kalon from hunting you.”
“How do you know the king will punish you for hiding me? I’m sure I could talk to him. If he’s been looking for me for this long, then surely he’d welcome what I have to say.”
“Don’t be naïve. You don’t know him like I do. He hates being lied to. Disloyalty will get anyone in this castle killed faster than breaking any of the few laws we have. He’ll suspect a plot. The madness you can’t see, it’s there, mixed with a dark paranoia that bubbles just beneath the surface. Do you truly believe your mom chose to become a sangaree?”
My eyebrows knitted together. “No.”
“I’m sure he made it seem like she had a choice, but I doubt whatever other option he gave her was a thousand times worse.”
Just like the options I was facing, I pondered. I rubbed my forehead, ironing out the deep lines which formed. “I want to talk to Draven first.”
“Whatever you decide, give us the courtesy of the truth so Erianna, Zach, and I may decide how to proceed. If you escape, we need to be prepared.”
He didn’t so much as look back when he sped out of the bathroom. He grabbed a shirt from the closet, pants and shoes, and looked at Draven. “Don’t leave this room. Kalon’s looking for her, and he will kill her.”
I joined Draven on the four-legged sofa in front of an unlit fireplace at the far end of the room while Sebastian dressed, then left without so much as saying another word. Once he was gone, I inhaled sharply. “Your neck.” I leaned over, brushing a touch over the scabs. “I should have asked him to give you some of his blood to heal you.”
He winced. “I wouldn’t drink it if he offered.”
