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Leo moved closer and wrapped his arms around me. The feel of his skin on mine made me sick to my stomach. I didn’t want to be touched. I wanted to wash my body—scrub it clean until I couldn’t feel Lord Geralt anymore. “No,” I moaned.
“I’ll let you go as soon as I get you out of here. I promise. I’ll take care of you, Christine.” Leo picked me up and cradled me to his chest, his musky scent mixing with the blood staining my skin. He stepped over Lord Geralt’s body and carried me through the dark tunnel leading to the king’s bedchamber. I nuzzled against his neck, squeezing my eyes shut as he continued to walk out the door, down the hallway, and to the queen’s room.
“What are you doing?”
He stroked the middle of my back with his thumb encouragingly, the sensation sending disgust down my spine. “She can help us,” he said.
Leo looked around. All the guards were stationed at the end of the hall, out of view. Quickly, he turned the knob and slipped inside the queen’s bedroom.
I looked up to see her brushing her hair at a vanity. There was a fire roaring in the fireplace, and she let out a lazy sigh, not bothering to look at us. “What is it now?” she asked.
“Queen Isabelle, we need your help,” Leo whispered.
She spun in her chair to look at us, and her expression changed in an instant. At first, there was a cocky annoyance about her. But the moment she saw my bloody clothes and trembling body in Leo’s arms, she stood up and ran over to us, practically tripping in her slippers as she did. “What happened?” she asked before pushing my hair out of my face to inspect my cheek. “Whose blood is this?”
Leo waited for me to answer, but I couldn’t force my words to work. “She killed Lord Geralt.”
I killed him.
I saved myself.
The demon was dead.
There was a buzz in my ear as Leo quickly explained what happened. I did my best to block out the details, the memory of it still swimming through my consciousness as he held me.
Queen Isabelle pressed the tips of her fingers to her lips for a brief moment, and then her spine went rigid. Cruel eyes gazed at me, and she took on the air of authority I had known to accept and respect. “Take her to my bathroom.”
Leo traveled across the room and kicked open the bathroom door. Queen Isabelle turned on the clawfoot bathtub as he sat me down. “Take her clothes off. We must burn them.”
It felt like ants crawling over my body as Leo obeyed her order. I was a useless, mindless body with no control over my limbs. The adrenaline had faded, leaving me nothing more than a shell. Leo was extra careful not to touch my bare skin as he eased the robe off my shoulders and unclasped the nightgown around my neck.
The guard averted his eyes once I was naked, and Queen Isabelle placed her fingers on my palm before guiding me towards the bathtub.
She looked at Leo. “Collect Lord Geralt. I will send someone we can trust to help you. Clean the room so that it looks like nothing happened.”
“Where should I put the body?” Leo asked. I flinched once more.
The body.
The body.
The body.
Queen Isabelle let out a sigh. “I’ll figure something out. We’ll need to stage his death. My husband won’t be home for a week, so we have time. I’ll clear out the guards on this floor. Tell them to inspect the grounds for a threat.”
Leo nodded as I sat in the tub. “What about her?” he asked.
Queen Isabelle looked at me, a hint of pity in her expression, but there was no warmth or compassion. She was trying to solve the problem and not comfort the victim.
“We send her away.”
Her words pulled me out of my shocked state, and I turned to look at her.
Leo cleared his throat. “I’ll collect the body.”
Queen Isabelle reached for his forearm. “Find out who knew that they were meeting tonight. We will need to keep tabs on them.”
Leo nodded. And with one last look at me, he exited the bathroom.
