Queen Natasha struck Ivan across the face and the tall, dark-haired vampire flew into a wall. She smiled at his pain.
Even better, this fool had confirmed that the curse had lifted and she could finally cross into Xandra. But merely killing Catia and Stefan wouldn’t do. She wanted to see them suffer, to lose everything they held dear. She’d make them beg to die.
“How did this happen?” Natasha roared.
Ivan shrunk toward the floor. “We were outnumbered.”
“You were supposed to be a soldier.” He was handsome and dark, but useless, and if she squinted she could almost imagine it was Stefan cowering before her. Ivan was a pathetic excuse for a vampire that she’d sent to Xandra to snatch the royals and bring them back for conversion and torture.
Sneering in disgust, Natasha backed up a few steps. Her ordinary minions had been more efficient than this team of soldiers she’d hired. At least her minions had pierced the occasional throat. At least some of them had been brought back dead, providing evidence of Xandra’s aggression. Ivan and his team had failed tonight. Not only had they turned up empty-handed, all but one had lived. And Ivan hadn’t even brought back their fallen brother as evidence of Xandran atrocities. Useless.
“My queen,” Ivan said, still crouched like a cornered animal, “at first everything was as you’d said it would be. We found the girl alone in a tower, unguarded, awake, while the rest of the kingdom was deserted, most buildings boarded up, only a few with sleeping bodies inside. But then another human arrived, then more came out of the walls, and . . .” He paused and closed his eyes, his body trembling in fear.
“What?” She strode forward to stand over him. “Tell me everything or your death will be slow and painful.”
“It was Prince Alexander.”
Natasha sucked in a sharp breath and stepped back, trying to calm herself. “What of him?”
“He was there, too.”
“And?”
“It was he who killed our team member. He killed a vampire to save a human’s life. Not only that, he attacked me as I was about to drink from the girl’s neck.”
In a fit of rage, she grabbed Ivan’s head and snapped his neck. His body crumpled to the floor. Sometimes messengers simply needed to be killed regardless of their message.
All she’d done for her son, all she’d tried to teach him, all her hopes and dreams for his future—they all burned in a fiery instant. Her own son was a traitor. She didn’t know who to kill first, her son or her sister.
Enough with depending on other people. Enough with subtlety and manipulating public opinion. It was time for a direct approach. If she couldn’t win her subjects’ adoration, she’d settle for fear.
Tonight, she’d kill a large group of Sanguinian citizens herself and dump them near the border. She’d make sure to include plenty of women and small children, and leave enough evidence around—wooden stakes, garlic—to convince whoever found the bodies that the Xandrans had been responsible for the massacre.
If that didn’t turn her people against Xandra and send them over the border to feed, nothing would. And this new plan came with insurance. Even if the increased vampire attacks didn’t provoke Stefan to act, once the generals learned of the atrocity, they’d feel justified in mounting an invasion. War was imminent. How delightful.
Lucette let the sunlight bathe her as she sat in the courtyard on a wide lounge chair with Tristan, their fingers laced together.
“I hope Alex’s okay,” she said. “I’ll be worried if he doesn’t show up tonight.”
“Hmm.” Tristan turned onto his side toward her. “Do you really think he went to see his mother after the curse lifted?”
Lucette shivered in spite of the warm day. “I hope not.” Clearly, family didn’t mean much to that horrible queen.
Plus, Lucette wanted to focus on the positive. She ran her palm over Tristan’s cheek. How had she become so fortunate? All her life she’d felt cursed, even before learning she actually was cursed, but now she felt like the absolute luckiest girl in the world. Even her parents seemed happy.
“Excuse me, Princess.”
She turned to see that Oliver, one of the palace staff, had approached. She sat upright.
“The king and queen would like to speak to you. They’re in the king’s office.”
“Thank you. Tell them I’ll be right there.” She pushed herself off the lounge chair and turned back to Tristan. “Would you like to come?”
He stood. “If you want me to, I will, but your parents summoned you, not me. And these past weeks, I’ve seen more of them than you have.” He kissed her tenderly before she left.
Lucette stepped into her father’s office, and her happiness expanded. Her parents were standing together near the window. They weren’t touching, but less than a foot separated them and the vibe wasn’t frosty for once.
She cleared her throat and they turned.
“Lucette,” her father said and she ran forward, diving into his arms and then hugging her mother, too. It felt so good to be able to hug them again.
“What is it?” Lucette asked. “Not that you need a reason to summon me. I’m so happy all this is over, I’m in love, and you two are here together . . .” She cut herself off, realizing she might be thinking wishfully. Plus, if their newfound closeness was real, her being overeager or presumptuous might stir things up. It was better if they realized, over time, how much they meant to each other. Now that the stress of her curse had lifted, certainly they’d recapture the love they must have felt before she’d been born.
Her father smiled, but then his expression turned stern. “I hate to tell you this, but it’s not over.”
Of course it was over. “Dad, I’m fine. We won.”
“No,” her mother said. “Natasha will never consider this over. Not until she’s crushed Xandra—or she’s dead.”
Lucette gasped. “You’d have your own sister killed?” Her mother had always been strong-minded, but this?
The king shook his head. “I hope it won’t come to that—but she must be removed from power.”
“How?” Lucette asked.
“Your mother has finally convinced me.” He turned toward his wife and smiled softly. “Xandra must declare war.”
“No!” Lucette shouted. “It’s over, let it be over!”
“Lucette,” her father said,“I know you went through a lot, which is why we wanted to tell you about this together.” He nodded at the queen.“Your mother and I have agreed that it’s best if you leave Xandra for a while. I’ll ask your young man to take you to Judra.”
Lucette’s mind spun. On the one hand, going away with Tristan sounded wonderful, plus, her parents were actually in agreement for once. Those two things combined to fulfill her greatest fantasies.
But—her parents were wrong. Lucette stood straight and looked her father in the eye. “Declaring war is exactly what she wants you to do, Dad. She doesn’t want to be the aggressor because many of her people aren’t on her side. She’s hoping you’ll invade.” And did he really think they’d stand a chance in a war with Sanguinia? Sure, the vampire army only fought at night, but they were faster, stronger, and more bloodthirsty—literally.
Her father frowned, and his tone turned patronizing. “How could you possibly know her motives?”
It was time to come clean, and Lucette took a deep breath. “Because of my cousin, Prince Alexander. He’s my friend.”
Her father staggered back a few steps and her mother’s face paled. “That’s impossible,” she said.
Lucette shook her head. “When I told you I hadn’t been out of the glass cell before Tristan got here . . . I was lying.”
Her father’s jaw stiffened.
“Alex showed up the first night you put me in that display case. He helped me figure out how to get out. He helped me keep you both safe. He told me about the rose allergy. I wouldn’t have survived without Alex.”
“Lucette.” Looking exasperated, her father ran his hand through his thick, dark hair. “We’ll talk about your lying later—not to mention how you put yourself in so much danger.” He shook his head. “But how do you know you can trust this Alex? He’s a vampire.”
She stepped forward and grasped at the fabric of her skirt in frustration. “Because he helped me so much. Plus, I’m a good judge of character, and I like him. You can trust him because I trust him.”
Her father rubbed his chin. “I was on good terms with his father, the late King Vladimir, but the boy barely met his dad.” He tipped his head to the side and pressed a finger to his lips. “How often was he here?”
“Almost every night.”
“And he helped you?” her father asked. “He never tried to drink from you?”
“No, Dad. Alex doesn’t drink human blood. He never has. He finds the whole idea repulsive, and all he wants is peace between our kingdoms.”
“How can you two be so naive?” her mother snapped.
“Naive?” Lucette tried to remain calm, to prevent a fight. “Why do you say that?”
Her mother grabbed Lucette’s arm. “Whether or not he’s your cousin, he’s a vampire, Lucette. Whatever he said was a lie. They use mind control to sway human behavior.” She shivered. “If you ever had any doubts about the brutality of these creatures”—she ran her hand over her throat where she’d been bitten—“surely you see the truth now.”
“No,” Lucette said, terrified that her mother’s negative attitude toward vampires would shatter the parental truce. “Vampires don’t use mind control, and they aren’t repelled by garlic and they are no more murderous than we are.”
“If you’d ever met my sister—” Her mother shuddered.
“They aren’t all like her, Mom. In fact, none are like her. And she paid the ones who came over here to bite people.”
“Why would she do that?” her father asked.
“First,” Lucette started, “she paid them to harass us, because she was angry that she couldn’t cross the border and had to wait sixteen years for her curse to work. Then later she realized she could use the vampire attacks to lure Dad into a war. War is what she wants, Dad.”
Her mother wrinkled her forehead as if she were thinking about this, but her father broke in.
“Lucette, what you say ties in with what the Sanguinian ambassador has claimed, but with all that’s happened, I think your mother is right. Vampires can’t be trusted.” He turned to his wife and they smiled softly at each other. “Besides, Alex is the crown prince—her son. Logic suggests he’s loyal to her.” Her father crossed his arms over his chest. “If he told you Xandra shouldn’t invade Sanguinia, I say that’s all the more reason we should.”
Lucette was breathing so quickly she was nearly hyperventilating. The temptation to cave and simply agree with her parents was huge. It was so rare that they agreed about anything, so she wanted to let this go, but she couldn’t.
“Dad, promise me you’ll wait. Promise me you’ll give me a chance to prove that I’m right. If our armies invade Sanguinia, we’ll be crushed and Queen Natasha will win.”
Her father waited a few moments before answering. “I’ll give it twenty-four hours. No more.”