I dropped my head into my hands, my elbows digging into the wood as I leaned heavily on them. I closed my eyes and muttered, “Harmony, who did this?”
My assistant stated calmly, “I’m one hundred percent positive it was Athena Insteia. After you killed her mother at the Blood Rite, she started private inquiries about you. She even tried to track me down. I know for a fact that she managed to find the two-hundred-year-old paper trail to your and Lord Pippin’s home. After that, it would have been just a matter of finding a vampire who lived in the same area at that time and paying them enough money to talk.”
I kept my eyes closed. “We used false names.”
We’d wanted privacy. Our privacy.
Anonymity was precious.
She chuckled quietly and patted the top of my head. “You disappeared for seven years, your majesty. Back then, it would have been near impossible to track your whereabouts, but now we live in the digital age. And you’re the daughter of an Overlord. Did you think no one would notice?”
“False. Names.” I ground my teeth together.
She snorted. “Perhaps try names that aren’t so obvious next time?”
I peeked up at her. “They were fine names.”
Lord Pippin glared right at me. “I told you we should have changed our last names too.”
“Why?” My attention turned to him. The old argument…still old. But now with a new twist. “Did either one of us foresee this happening? Oh, that’s right. You did. You knew I was nicknamed Black Widow. Maybe you should have said something about that.”
His red eyebrows lifted and his tone was droll. “I’m sure that conversation would have gone over great.”
“Coward,” I muttered.
“Do you have any idea what you’re like when you’re mad at someone? When you were pissed at me, you made me sleep outside. Outside, Gwen. Even if it was fucking raining.”
“You could have found a hovel to sleep in,” I argued. I lifted a finger. “And that only happened once. Don’t bring that shit up. Or did you forget about the time you thought I’d left our chickens out—”
Lord Xenon threw his hands up into the air, cutting off my righteous tirade. “Enough. Just…enough.”
Lord Otto snorted, sneering right at me. “Actually, let’s allow them to continue. We should all hear about the great chicken debacle while our people are going crazy believing their new Queen was crowned because she spread her legs for our resident ginger playboy.”
My mouth snapped shut. Asshole.
Harmony snickered softly, utterly tickled.
I cast a glance at her. She shut up.
Lord Pippin stiffened. “I really don’t appreciate the way you’re talking about us. Our relationship was not like that. We’ve already said as much.”
“This is going to be a PR nightmare and undermine the Queen’s authority until it’s handled—if we can even handle it,” Lord Otto shot back. “And really, do you expect me to believe you, of all people, were actually committed to someone? You’d fuck any hole if it were lubricated properly.”
My eyebrows snapped together. “You. Are. An. Asshole.”
Lord Pippin charged him, his fangs bared.
Lord Xenon slid between them, pressing his hands against Lord Pippin’s chest and shoving him back. “Not the time. Control yourself.”
I picked up a book on my desk and chucked it right at the back of Lord Otto’s head. Lord Pippin might be detained but I sure as hell wasn’t. The projectile smacked Lord Otto’s head with a satisfying thump.
The room went mute.
Oh. Oh…
Shit.
I had struck an Overlord.
It might not have been exactly legal.
Lord Otto deliberately swiveled around and bent at the knees, picking up my book from the floor. He straightened and lifted the volume in front of his face. He grunted. “It’s a lot heavier than it looks.”
The Overlord tossed it onto my desk.
I stared down at it and cleared my throat. I pushed the book back into place where it had been. “I think we need to focus.”
With a smirk gracing his lips, Lord Otto questioned, “And not throw shit like a child?”
I cleared my throat again. “Yes, that too.”
He snorted. “Apology accepted, your majesty.”
Lord Belshazzar typed on his phone, yawning as he spoke. “I’m scheduling a press conference for tonight. We’ll all need to be there backing the two ex-love bunnies, but Lord Pippin and the Queen need to speak on the facts. We want to face this head on before it gets out of control.”
“Good plan,” Lord Cato stated.
“Harmony, you need to draft a speech for me,” I stated, already pulling out a piece of paper and a pencil. “I’ll give you the details of where we lived and how long we were together.”
“And why you two ended things,” she added quietly, keeping her tone respectful, yet kind. “The press will want to know that too.”
My lips thinned, but I nodded. I tossed her my phone, muttering, “Put your contact info in there. I have other assignments I want to give you.”
She nodded, doing as I’d ordered.
I started writing the pertinent facts down.
Lord Otto coughed loudly, gaining everyone’s attention. “I know I’m the dick of the group, but I’d like to keep everyone alive. The Queen is known as the Black Widow, and, if whoever is killing off her ex-lovers doesn’t handle this news well, it would be better to be in a location where they can’t immediately reach Lord Pippin.”
The Overlord in question started pacing again.
“You want to move up the trip to Cape Argent, don’t you?” I queried. “That makes sense.”
No vampires could even enter the stronghold without an invitation from Master Niallan. The Original druid amulet wouldn’t allow it thanks to a spell he put on it years ago.
Lord Otto shrugged his shoulders. “It’s only a day early, but it would work to keep him safe.”
“Master Niallan won’t like the change of plans,” Lord Belshazzar mumbled, still working on his phone, his gaze on his screen. “So my vote is for it.”
Lord Xenon snorted. “Who’s going to tell him the news?”
I blinked. “Harmony will.”
“What?” she hissed.
I held her gaze, unflinching in my intensity. “Call it your punishment, instead of me firing you on your first day. If you had contacted us as soon as you knew about Athena’s plans, this situation could have been averted. I know you’re used to working on your own, but you fucked up. You need to know when you’re beaten and when to call in reinforcements.”
Harmony’s eyes were large behind her glasses.
“Do you understand?” I asked patiently.
The killer-spy nodded her head. Stunned.
I pointed a finger at my door. “You can go. Take care of business with Master Niallan. I’ll send you a scan of my notes as soon as I’m done with them.”
Harmony left much quieter than she’d arrived.
Absently, Lord Pippin muttered, “You handled that well.” His feet kept moving as he paced and stared down at his shoes. Though, he detoured and sat down on my desk, his back to everyone else. His troubled brown eyes captured mine. He rumbled, “This is a damn mess.”
I patted his knee. “You obviously knew what you were getting yourself into.” I wiggled my fingers at him. “Black Widow and all.”
Lord Pippin snorted. “Yeah. Yeah, I did know what I was getting in to.” He ran his fingers through his red hair. “Didn’t stop me though, did it?”
“You didn’t stand a chance.” I waved a hand up and down my body, fluttering my lashes at him like a minx. “No one can resist my charm.”
His lips trembled. “You forget I’ve seen you knee deep in shit before. You reeked for a week.”
I laughed outright, my amusement booming inside the room. “Oh, my god! I’d forgotten about that. That wanderer can come into town—”
“Are you two positive you’re not starting your relationship back up?” Lord Xenon cut me off, his voice raised. I peeked around Lord Pippin’s body to look at our questioner. His black eyes didn’t blink. “This is something we need to know.”
“No, we aren’t,” I stated immediately.
“She’s correct. We aren’t,” Lord Pippen remarked, still keeping his back to their group. His brown eyes lowered to mine, and he spoke softly, “But we’ll eventually be friends again. It’ll take time.”