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“A guaranteed seat beside Julian, of course. I was his father’s confidant, not his. I was hoping to secure our family’s place in the hierarchy.” He looks to Julian. “According to his journal, your father had located who he thought were the human familiars.”
He was looking to leverage me and my sisters for power, which means he has no idea it’s me. Otherwise, he wouldn’t have locked me behind the wall to die. He has no idea how close he actually was to uncovering the truth. How poetic it is that he literally tried to kill his meal ticket.
“These journals you speak of, where are they?” Law demands.
Dupré shrugs. “I have no idea.”
“Then how exactly do you know so much?” Julian queries, challenging his words.
“You father shared some of what he had found with me over the years.”
“Why were you in my father’s quarters?” Julian asks, ready to get to the issue at hand. He sighs. “When your father died—”
“He was murdered,” Julian says through clenched teeth.
“When he was murdered,” Dupré corrects, “I decided to complete his work. Like I said, I wanted assurance that I’d remain at the top. I rounded up all of the information I’d gathered from him over the years, and that’s when I remembered his visit with me a week before his death. He came to me saying he had uncovered the specifics of the blood binding and it was written in a journal that he kept behind a hidden wall. He told me if something happened to him, to find it.” He digs inside his shirt, revealing the key. “He gave me this.”
“Give that to me,” Julian demands.
Dupré hesitates for a moment too long.
“Give it to me,” Julian roars, and Dupré scrambles to remove the key and hand it through the bars.
Julian fingers the key, looking at it with interest. “So you used this meeting as a way to gain access to his manor?”
“It did provide a reason for my being here,” he admits.
“Is that the only reason you agreed to help? To buy yourself time to snoop?”
He shakes his head. “I always admired your father, Julian, and he believed you were the right person to rule our world. I felt I owed it to him, to my friend, to hear you out. I agreed to call together the Council because I think you’re on to something.”
“How am I supposed to know you aren’t lying?” Julian seethes. “You could’ve told me about this from the beginning, and I would’ve given you access to the entire manor. Instead, you snuck around, and then you locked Marina behind a wall to die. Do you have any idea who she is to me?” Julian shouts, and Dupré slinks back.
“She’s human!” he exclaims. “I thought her to be disposable.”
“She’s not,” Julian says through gritted teeth.
“I am sorry, Julian. Had I known—”
“Silence!” Julian yells. He looks to Law. “He will remain behind these bars until I can bring him in for a proper trial.”
“What’s to be my crime?” Dupré asks.
“You’re a traitor to the Crown.”
He gasps. “You can’t be serious. Adèle, you have to do something. You have to believe me,” he cries, shaking the bars.
Adèle looks to Julian and then back to her father. “I don’t know what to believe. Your actions speak of ill intentions, Father.”
“You’re siding with him, then?” His voice comes out broken, the fight draining from the aging man.
“I’m siding with the truth,” she says, voice filled with pain. “Julian’s a fair man. You’ll be given a fair trial, and if at the end he decides to pardon you, then so be it. If he decides—” Her voice cuts off as she takes a deep breath. “Well, then that’s a road we’ll cross when it comes. Until then, Father, use this time to think about where your allegiance lies.” With that, she turns on her heel and stalks away from the cell.
“Julian,” Dupré pleads. “Don’t keep me down here. I can help you.”
“Were you helping my brother?” Julian’s voice is low and menacing.
“I’d never. Of course not. How could you—”
