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“Atticus!?” I yelled, my ears ringing from the explosion and my bones weak from landing on the ground. Smoke quickly filled the room as he yanked me up off the marble floor, which was covered in ash. You could hear the timbers of the room creaking and groaning.
“We have to get out of here!” Atticus’s words could barely be heard over the commotion. Blurs of bodies moved quickly around us. Shouting members of the guard bellowed directions, but no one was following them.
The selfish people of the court were in survival mode. It was every elite for themselves.
“What about August?!” My throat felt like it was closing up. With watery eyes, I scanned the room, terrified that something bad had happened to him.
“We don’t have time to get August. I have to get you out of here!” Atticus yelled.
A screaming woman with her arms on fire sprinted past us, wailing in pain. The smell of burning flesh singed my nose. I looked at the ground and gasped when I saw black hair in a puddle of blood.
A royal gown soaked crimson.
Nimble, lifeless fingers.
“Isabelle…” I whimpered.
Tears and soot dragged down my face as Atticus lifted me up. I sobbed hard, as no amount of numbness could save me from the turmoil and fear. I felt helpless and limp.
“I’ll get you out of here, Little Monster.”
My mind faded in and out. Every breath hurt. Inhaling was like dragging blades along my windpipe.
Atticus placed me in a car.
We drove away.
The last thing I saw was the castle burning before my world went black.
Epilogue
ATTICUS
THREE HOURS EARLIER
“Is a meeting right now truly necessary, Atticus? I don’t like being summoned.” Isabelle glared at me, and perhaps a normal man would have flinched under her scrutiny, but I wasn’t normal. I was a king in my own right. “It’s August’s engagement party.”
I poured myself a drink and eyed the former queen. There were cracks in her image. Fear in her eyes. Lipstick on her teeth. She wasn’t as prim and proper as she liked everyone to believe.
And I knew all her secrets.
“Yes. Your son’s engagement. I’m still not happy about that,” I said. Admittedly, this farce of a wedding was of no consequence to me. For some fucking reason, Christine was happy whenever August was around, and she needed time to acclimate to being back in Aldrich. I’d been working on a plan in my head, but I struggled with the reality of it.
Isabelle sneered. “I promised you that I would bring Christine back once Frederick was dead and find a way for her to stay without raising her suspicions. If you don’t like my methods—”
“I don’t,” I snapped. “We both know you saw an opportunity when I told you about her skills. You wanted someone to protect your son from the many enemies coming his way. You wanted a publicity stunt. And although it angered me, your methods were effective. I’m sure Christine wouldn’t have liked getting abducted at the airport by my men. And I didn’t want her running back to Harvington when she’s meant to be here.”
Isabelle licked her pink lips and crossed her arms over her chest. “So why the meeting? As you can imagine, I’m very busy.”
“Lord Nathan is a problem. I need to know what he knows. You told me you’d have someone investigate his little rebellion, but so far it’s my men that have found intel of use. I’m starting to wonder what you even have to offer anymore.”
She scoffed. “These things take time.”
“Killing a king takes time. But when you came to me, worried that he’d find out about your dirty little secret and August’s real father, you gave me twenty-four hours to clean up your mess. You came to me with a problem, and I fixed it. There were terms to my agreement, and you keep finding ways to defy me.”
She took a step toward me and hissed. “We swore never to speak of that.”
I lifted my glass of bourbon to my lips and took a sip. “We swore many things to one another. Tell me who else knows about August’s real father? About his illegitimacy.”
