The door to my office slammed open.
Harmony entered the room, holding her phone up into the air. “I tried to stop it, but they’d put it on too many of our servers. I couldn’t catch them all.”
I laid my napkin on my desk, appraising the woman who I hadn’t seen in four hundred years. “Hello, Harmony. It’s lovely to see you again.”
The small woman waved off my greeting. “You gave me the assistant job too late, your majesty. Ten minutes faster, and I could have handled this with the full force of the Queen’s name backing me.”
This didn’t sound good.
I steepled my hands on my desk. “Talk to me.”
The once human sat on the edge of my desk, staring down at me. She had everyone’s attention. Harmony was a legend, a whisper on the wind. A spy. A soldier. Her services were coveted by all—if you could find her. All wrapped in a mousy appearance. She even wore fucking glasses. Prescription glasses. She needed the damn things to see, which was unheard of in the vampire race—even for those who had been turned into a vampire.
Harmony handed her phone to me. “It’s all over the vampire news by now.” Our news was private from human sight thanks to a spell used on the Original vampire amulet.
As one, the Overlords grabbed their phones and started tapping on their screens, their eyes rapt on their findings.
I took her phone and started reading.
My mouth turned down at the edges, and my hands started to tremble. I whispered, “Oh, my god.”
Lord Pippin stood from his chair and started pacing the room, rubbing his hands through his hair. His face was still pale and only getting whiter. The Overlord’s gaze was narrowed on the floor as he walked back and forth. Back and forth. His feet kept on moving.
It was quiet for long, tense moments as all of us continued to read the articles online. Lots and lots of articles. All on gossip sites and in forums. Plenty of speculative chatter was already starting in the comments.
Lord Cato stood slowly from his chair and placed his phone in his pocket. He turned and stared at the other man. His voice was quiet.?.?. Oh, so quiet. “You had a relationship with my daughter?”
Lord Otto snorted, still scrolling and reading on his screen. He mumbled, “For seven years, it looks like. If these are all correct.”
Lord Pippin stopped walking and turned to face my father. His jaw clenched again. He didn’t speak, only glared death daggers at my father.
Lord Cato’s lips curved up at the edges. It wasn’t a pleasant smile. “Ah. I think you did.” His head tipped to the side. “And you think I’m the reason she’s the Black Widow.”
What the hell was the Black Widow?
Didn’t matter right now. We had an issue. The articles stated Lord Pippin had given me special treatment during my Challenges because of a past relationship we’d had—many, many correct facts given on our time as a couple. Including him leaving me for the crown and my unplanned need for a Rest afterward.
But apparently, it did matter to Lord Pippin. He growled, “Who the fuck else would kill every single one of her previous lovers? You’re the only family she has left. And Adelie was too much of a marshmallow to order killings as brutal as that.”
All right. Now I cared about the Black Widow.
I tossed Harmony’s phone onto her lap and held up a hand. “Hold on a moment. Are you telling me I have a moniker? The Black Widow? And are you saying all the men I’ve had sex with didn’t die from natural accidents?”
Lord Xenon turned his dark eyes in my direction. “You cannot be that na?ve.”
I sat back and yanked the crown off my head, and placed it on my desk, thinking. “Some of their deaths were untimely, but they didn’t happen right after a breakup. Some of their deaths didn’t occur for hundreds of years afterward.”
“A true predator is patient,” Lord Xenon expounded.
Lord Pippin started pacing again.
With a sip of blood from his glass, Lord Belshazzar stated, “The articles are hearsay, at best. Neither one of you has admitted to the relationship yet.” Black brows rose, his gaze uninterested. “Did it actually occur?”
I glanced at Lord Pippin, my mouth shut tight.
His brown eyes met mine under thick lashes.
Neither one of us spoke up.
“Well?” Lord Otto asked. “We’re waiting.”
Lord Cato snorted. “Just look at them. They look guilty as sin.” My father pointed a finger straight at me. “How the hell did you manage to keep this a secret?”
“Not really a secret anymore,” Lord Otto grumbled.
“Not helping,” Lord Cato hissed. Then he marched straight up to my desk and leaned his hands on it, ignoring my silent assistant sitting next to him. His brown eyes peered hard into mine. “Are the articles true?”
“I gave her no special treatment during her Challenges,” Lord Pippin rumbled instantly behind him, his shiny shoes still tearing up the carpet. “As you didn’t either.”
My father glanced over his shoulder, watching him walk back and forth. “I wasn’t talking to you. And that is not what I’m asking about.”
“Who I’ve had relationships with is none of your business,” I snapped. I stood and faced the man who had created me. I slashed a furious hand through the air. “Quit acting like my father. You never have been, and you never will be.”
Silence. Complete silence.
Lord Cato’s mouth quirked up on one side. His voice was quiet. Patient. “You’re wrong on all those accounts, darling.” Then he pushed off the desk, and his tone changed. All business-like. “But what we need to know is if the articles are true about your relationship with Lord Pippin. If they are, we have PR and security issues to handle. Do you understand, your majesty?”
Lord Pippin’s eyes caught mine.
Reluctantly, he gave a slight nod.
I sighed and sat back down, leaning on my chair with a heavy body. I rubbed at my forehead, muttering quietly, “Yes, Lord Pippin and I were in a relationship before he was crowned king.”
Lord Xenon asked for clarification. “A sexual relationship?”
“Yes.” My teeth clenched.
“Was it serious?” Lord Belshazzar asked.
To anyone in the room, Lord Belshazzar appeared bored. Unaffected. Even I couldn’t tell if he gave a damn.
Lord Pippin tipped his head back and stared at the ceiling. Finally, he answered for both of us. “Yes, it was.”
My father’s brows scrunched. “How serious?”
Lord Pippin and I glanced at one another again.
So many memories flashed through my mind.
So many loving moments. So much happiness.
All brushed aside for the crown.
“It was just serious,” I whispered, my heart hammering inside my chest. “That’s really all you need to know.”
Lord Xenon waved his hand between the two of us. “Are you two back in this relationship now?”
Lord Otto tapped his phone on his knee. “They were both late this morning and came in together.”
Lord Belshazzar grunted, with his eyes on his glass. He gently continued to swirl the remaining blood in the flute around and around, staring down into the crimson liquid.
Lord Pippin shook his head. “We are not in a relationship right now, nor have we had any sexual relations since she woke from her Rest.”
“But you’ve had private moments.” It wasn’t a question. Lord Belshazzar glanced up at him. His ice blue eyes didn’t waver from the other Overlord. “Were any of these caught on camera and could they be used against her?”
I shook my head instantly, drawing his attention. “We only spoke privately when I first arrived at the stronghold. And once during a Challenge—but that was actually part of the Challenge, I guess. And none were outside of the royal floor.” I cleared my throat, keeping my expression blank. “Anything else after that was behind closed doors.”
Lord Belshazzar nodded his head. Slowly. “So no cameras?”
“No cameras.”
He went back to spinning the liquid in his glass.