The room held its breath. Nobody mentioned mother. Nobody. My father ran a hand down the back of his head and studied the ceiling, his face pained. ‘No,’ he eventually sighed.
‘Violet won’t want to hear that,’ I muttered, leaning back in my chair.
Faunder, Charity’s father, scoffed whilst his daughter scowled. It was no secret now that his master plan was to marry his daughters off to as many royals as he could. If only I’d seen that at the time. ‘Forgive me also, Prince, but I think you are unfit to give impartial judgement on such matters. It is common knowledge that you are, how do I say it?’ He paused, turning to smile at Lamair as they formed a cosy little faction. ‘Emotionally compromised by the girl.’
I sat back up and rested my arms on the table, grasping my glass of blood to prevent them from seeing my clenched fists. ‘Do your research, Faunder. I’m tied to the girl.’
‘Yes, Eaglen did mention it to us. Is that why you slept with her? In that case, I commend you on your foresight, Your Highness, because you knew she was a Heroine long before any of us.’
I went to stand up but my father grabbed my sleeve and yanked me back down. Don’t rise to it, he growled in my mind. I pulled my sleeve out of his grasp and sank back down into my chair, watching with disgust the satisfied grins of the Faunder family.
Sitting to my left, Henry, up until now just an observer, spoke. ‘You have the promise of our best guards, who will be more than able to deal with the hunters and rogues. As to Michael Lee, I believe the best course of action would be to interrogate him by bringing him here—’
‘Bring him here?’ Lamair near screeched. ‘To the very heart of the Kingdom? How foolish!’
My father smacked the bare wood of the table and Lamair looked like he might topple off his chair as my father turned to him, eyes ablaze. ‘You will remember your betters, Lamair.’
So much for not rising to the bait, I thought. At that moment, the door opened and Eaglen appeared, followed by Arabella and, lastly, Violet. Chairs scraped against the wooden floor as they were pushed back in a hurry, everybody rushing to get to their feet. The women sank into curtseys and the men bowed, holding their positions as the trio rounded the table. Once they neared, I raised my head a fraction to watch her. Her face was beetroot red as her eyes darted from one person to another, taking it in. She was under-dressed in the same T-shirt and jeans that she had been wearing earlier, but then again, so was I. Nobody would question it. Nobody dared question it.
Girly, a Heroine. It still hadn’t sunken in. The feisty human girl who I had stolen from London; the woman I had learned to care for; the dhampir who had faced so much, now a Heroine, about to face even more. The odds seemed ridiculous. But there were no chances with fate.
Her eyes found mine and I cracked a small smile. Her lips upturned at the corners but she looked too terrified to smile: her eyes were wide and her pupils were dilated, so large that hardly any of her peculiar violet irises showed. When she sat down, the rest of the room followed. Every face turned towards her, whilst she stared into her lap.
Eaglen nodded and my father continued. ‘Henry, do carry on.’
The Sagean prince nodded and began to suck the tip of a pen. ‘As I was saying –’ he looked pointedly at Lamair – ‘it would be easy enough for us to restrain the hunters and rogues, without too much force even, if they don’t make this difficult. The rogues can await trial in either your courts or ours; the hunters, of course, we can do little about. Lee, as a human civilian, is different.’ Violet’s head, full of hope and fear, popped up. ‘Unless he directly uses force or infringes upon your boundaries, we can’t touch him because it would breach the Terra Treaties and that is something we cannot allow.’
Girly’s face lit up as the room erupted into speech. Of course she wouldn’t want him to be hurt. But she still had to betray him and he still deserved punishment.
‘You might not be able to touch him, but the Terra allows us to,’ Eaglen began, taking a long drag from the glass set in front of him. He motioned for one of the manservants to come forward, who filled it back up: one part whiskey, two parts blood. ‘I have a proposition.’ Father motioned for him to carry on. ‘Provided the Sage keep any of Lee’s accomplices away, it would not be hard to bring him here. My suggestion is that once he is here, we place the King and Crown’s Protection over him and the Lee family.’
There was a great roar of objection and I frowned, unsure of where he was going. Violet’s face fell and she went back to staring at her lap, fiddling with a loose thread on her shirt. I edged forward on my chair as near to the table as I could and reached across with my foot – the table was long, not wide – until I found her leg. I nudged it slightly. Her gaze shot up.
‘Are you all right?’ I mouthed. She nodded and smiled, but not very convincingly. ‘Really?’ She pulled a face and grimaced. No. I hooked my foot behind her leg and pulled it towards me. Not exactly gently, she kicked me as she started to slide off her seat. ‘Sorry,’ I added, hoping she would know I was apologising for a whole lot more.
How did I nearly let her go? What would I have done if they had …
‘Let me explain,’ Eaglen called over the noise. He took another mouthful from his glass, seeming unfazed. ‘The Lee family need protection. Once news of Lee’s deed reaches the wider dimension, their lives will be in danger. If we place the King and Crown’s Protection over them, it will act as a deterrent to anyone planning revenge, shall we call it.’
Faunder’s son, Adam, spoke up. ‘So what if they die? They are traitors and it fulfils the Prophecy, doesn’t it?’
Violet’s hands balled into fists and her eyes burnt with rage. She leaned forward and glared down the table at him. ‘That’s my family you’re talking about,’ she snarled in such a menacing voice she could pass for a vampire, any day. A few eyebrows were raised, but Adam said nothing.
‘Nobody beyond the innocents needs to die. Violet will fulfil that part of the Prophecy by becoming a vampire and thus denouncing her family blood,’ Eaglen continued.
‘That’s all very well,’ Henry said. ‘But I still don’t like the idea of having Lee in government. He’s dangerous to us all.’
‘Let me get to the good bit, young one,’ Eaglen chuckled. ‘We will instruct Lee to resign from his post as Secretary of Defence. If he doesn’t, we remove the King and Crown’s Protection and the Lee family … how shall I say it? Become dinner.’