“That’s enough, Mother,” Sebastian growled, his voice deeper than it had been earlier. “We came here to talk, not to have you paw at my wife like one of your toys.”
Looking over my shoulder, I stared at Sebastian with wide eyes. It didn’t seem to me like the queen was someone who would take being told what to do lightly, not even by her own son. After a moment, though, she stepped back. Finally, I felt like I could breathe.
“Fine,” the queen sighed. Returning to her seat, she reclined once more. She waved a hand lazily in the air. “What is it? My Favorites are waiting, and you’re boring me.”
Sebastian walked over to the table and reached into his pocket. He withdrew his clenched fist, slamming something on the table.
The black stone.
I did not know he put it in his pocket before the earthquake. Queen Marguerite’s gaze dropped to the black rock. She stared at it, unblinking, for three seconds, before raising her gaze once more.
“Where did you get that?” she asked icily.
“In the room where my wife’s maid was murdered.”
“Is that so?” The queen’s voice was indifferent, but she stiffened.
This was important. I just didn’t quite know how.
Sebastian stepped towards his mother. “You know as well as I do that this comes from the tunnel leading to Whiterose. I confirmed it before the earthquake.”
“And?” Picking invisible dirt from beneath her fingernails, the queen looked like she wanted to be anywhere else.
Sebastian snarled, “And the People of the Night have been entombed for the last century.”
She didn’t even wait a moment before saying, “They were.”
The tone of her voice sent shivers down my back that had nothing to do with the cold air coming through the walls.
“Were?” Sebastian’s voice was as hard as steel as he moved towards the queen. “What did you do, Mother?”
“Careful, son of my blood.” She looked up, her black eyes glinting with a threat of violence. “Remember with whom you speak.”
He stopped advancing, but asked, “What did you do?”
She lifted a shoulder. “I decided their punishment had gone on long enough. A century spent in a tomb was an adequate sentence for their crimes. They are still vampires, Sebastian, even if they are a little… eccentric.”
The vampire prince’s wings snapped tightly behind his back. “Leaving a trail of drained and mutilated humans in their wake is noteccentric, Mother! The People of the Night broke the laws of the gods, and their actions created entire communities of orphans. Parents were ripped from their children far too early. Entire families, destroyed.”
I stared at them both as the meaning of their words sunk in. Visions of humans with their necks at odd angles and lifeless eyes intermingled with memories of my family, and all of them flashed before my eyes.
My heart pounded, and I clenched my fists at my side as I forced myself to remain calm. My family was safe in Ipotha. Marius was safe.
I had to remember that. Even if I hadn’t heard from them, they were safe. I needed them to be safe. I married Sebastian to save them. Queen Marguerite’s soldiers were there to protect them from the coming darkness.
Surely, my family was safe.
But apparently, no one had protected the families Sebastian spoke of. No one had helped those humans.
I was so caught up in my thoughts that I almost missed the queen’s next words. “The People of the Night have done their penance. They have been cut off from the rest of their kind for over a century. I decided to show them leniency.”
Sebastian clenched his fists at his side, and he seethed. “You didn’t think to tell me they were back? How am I supposed to—”
“Stop!” the queen yelled. “You’ve been far too busy with your human to pay attention to matters of the state. I haveindulgedyou, son of my blood, while you adapted to being Tethered. You think I don’t know that you’ve been spending days in the library? That your little wife has been pouring over books about botany and the history of the Binding? I knoweverything. There is nothing that happens in my castle that I am not aware of.”
Shadows leaked from the queen’s palms, darkening the air. Breathing became difficult as violence radiated from both vampires.
Once again, I was reminded of my mortality. What could I do against these two?