“Call it… motherly compassion.” The queen chuckled, her heels clicking on the stone floor. “I know the two of you were in the tunnels when they collapsed.”
“She’s fine,” Sebastian growled. “No need to concern yourself over her welfare.”
“Come now, son of my blood,” she said. “Are you afraid I’ll hurt your little wife?”
Sebastian’s shoulders tightened, but he didn’t reply.
“I thought you had forgiven me for what happened to that poor girl,” Queen Marguerite said. “What was her name?”
The prince ground out through clenched teeth, “Athena.”
My brows raised. I wondered who this Athena was.
“Yes, that’s right.” The queen sighed, and the sound was contrived. “It was an accident, my son. I’m not perfect, you know. Besides, it’s been over two centuries. The mortal would have died by now, anyway. You know as well as I do that humans have ridiculously short life spans.”
I shuddered, but the queen ignored me as she continued.
“Really, Sebastian, if you think about it, you’ll see that I did you a favor. You didn’t want to Bind to her or Make her, and this way I spared you the pain of watching her grow old and die of mortal illness. You should be thanking me.”
A guttural growl ripped out of Sebastian’s chest as shadows slipped from his clenched fists, darkening the room.
“Mother,” he snarled, his tone filled with warning. “Enough.”
Before the vampire prince could do something stupid like attack the queen and endanger both our lives, I ducked out from behind his wing. He went to grab me, but I avoided his grip.
“Here I am, Your Majesty.” I bowed, given my current clothing choices, and kept my head low.
The queen’s gaze felt like ice as it fell upon me. Her heels clicked as she stepped towards me, and I stared at the floor, the gray stones beneath my slippered feet suddenly immensely captivating.
“There now,” the queen said, clucking her tongue. “That wasn’t so hard, was it?”
She might have worded it as a question, but there was no doubt in my mind that this was not something to be answered.
Focusing on the grooves in the stones beneath my feet, I tried to ignore the sensation of being watched. In spite of my best efforts, it wasn’t working. Every tick of the clock in the corner felt like an hour as I wilted beneath the queen’s icy stare.
Just when I thought I couldn’t take another moment of her scrutiny, a bitter laugh came from the ruling vampire. The sound crawled over my skin like slick oil, and beside me, Sebastian sucked in a long breath.
“Look at me, girl,” Queen Marguerite commanded.
Gritting my teeth, I bit back the remark that rose to my tongue. I might have been a mortal, but I was still her daughter-in-law. One would think that my position should have afforded me a modicum of cordiality. Apparently not.
Standing straight once more, I raised my eyes until I met the queen’s black gaze. My skin prickled beneath her perusal. I knew the moment she saw the bite mark on my neck because she smirked.
“Ah. Now I understand your attitude, my son.” Queen Marguerite laughed, and the sound sent shivers down my spine. “A touch possessive now that you’ve truly had a taste of your Bound Partner’s blood, are you?”
Sebastian snarled, angling his body in front of me once more as he tried to tuck me behind his wings. His mother was faster. Easily stepping around the vampire prince, Queen Marguerite came to a stop a few inches from me.
My lungs tightened and my heart refused to beat properly as I stared at the vampire queen. Danger radiated from her every pore. I was staring death in its face and it was not kind or merciful or gentle. Death was dark and frightening and though it looked beautiful, I understood the horrors that lay underneath.
Her hand left her side, and I drew in a breath as her nail ran down my skin. An intense feeling of wrongness and danger flooded through me as her fingers grazed the bite marks on my neck. Every single part of me wanted to bat her hand away. She stared at me as though I was an animal on display at the market—one that she wanted to kill. My skin crawled and my palms grew slick beneath her black gaze.
Queen Marguerite raised a black brow. “You know, Liza—”
“My wife’s name is Luna, Mother,” Sebastian interjected.
“Luna.” In an action that seemed quite unbecoming for a female of her age, Queen Marguerite rolled her eyes. “You know, Luna, I am surprised to see you standing here in such good health. Not that I don’t love my son, but his appetite has always been quite… hearty, if you know what I mean.”
I did not know what she meant, nor did I intend to find out.