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“As far as I know…” He shook his head, a haunted look settling on his face. “No, the vampires slaughtered my family. Why would we have done business with them? We were in the mountainsbecauseof them.”
Charlotte hummed. “But the fortress belongs to your family. And vampires weren’t permitted inside. Why wouldn’t your family have hidden there instead?”
“I suppose that’s something to ask my father,” Matéo reasoned, hurt inking his words. “But…”
I gripped the sheets. Hunger stung my stomach and made me shake, my head spinning all over again. Charlotte jumped from the doorway and disappeared, returning with a huge tray of food. Many of them were my comfort favorites—grilled cheese with tomato soup, Korean BBQ wings, and a bowl of Spanish rice with grilled chicken and plantains.
My mouth watered instantly. “Oh,heavens.”
Charlotte nudged Matéo. “You’ll want to step back. This is about to get messy.”
Matéo didn’t argue. He backed toward the doorway, peering around the corner to check the hallway. Nina was likely helping the others recover. It made me wonder if she was sitting dutifully with Lucius or bouncing between three rooms at once. Perhaps it was a combination.
But as soon as the tray hit the bed, I dug in, shoveling food into my mouth as fast as I could chew. Charlotte chuckled while Sasha stepped in every so often to wipe my mouth.
“You always look so put together,” she teased. “Until you’re hungry.”
“Thank the gods I know what I’m doing in the kitchen,” Charlotte joked.
Matéo huffed and crossed his arms. “Yes, thank the gods.”
“Tell me more about the fortress,” Sasha requested. “Lottie mentioned a huge painting of your ancestor. What was his name again?”
“Arnaud,” the room chimed.
I bowed my head, trying to focus on chewing. None of this made sense and it only made me hungrier to try to think it through. I nearly died. I deserved to have a buffet to myself.
“There wasn’t any information on him,” Matéo recounted. “But there were a lot of paintings. And that letter opener.”
Sasha tapped her chin. “And it’s spelled so vampires can’t get in.”
“It’s the same fortress Domingo mentioned,” I spoke around my food. “Which is suspicious.”
Sasha nodded. “Thatissuspicious. But if Domingo once occupied the fortress—”
“No, it was his uncle.” Matéo frowned. “Izan?”
I nodded.
Sasha’s concentrated frown deepened. “Then, how did the Beauchamp family get it from the vampires?”
Charlotte ran her fingers through her hair. “Do you think that’s what got the war going?”
Sasha shook her head. “Seems too recent in my opinion. These battles have been going on for much longer than that.”
Matéo nodded. “I think Sasha is right. But I wouldn’t doubt it was fuel for the fire.”
“So,” Sasha stated with a sigh as she crossed her arms over her chest. “We have to figure out what in the world your ancestor was doing in that fortress.”
I licked BBQ sauce from my lips and practically groaned with pleasure. When Sasha came in with the napkin, I plucked it gratefully from her fingers and dabbed my mouth. I was feeling more like myself now.
“Domingo said his uncle went mad in that fortress,” I recalled. “So, the vampires occupied it for some time. But who had it first? Arnaud or Izan?”
Charlotte scratched her arm. “Do you think they all lived together?”
All heads swiveled toward Lottie.
She blinked and stepped back. “What? Occam’s razor. The most obvious answeristhe answer.” She paused to chew her lower lip and then whispered meekly, “Right?”
