“Let’s sit,” Athena said, gesturing at the couches. “You have to tell me everything! What’s it like being back home again?”
We sat on opposite couches, separated by a glass coffee table, and I leveled her with a hard stare. “It feels like cannonballing into a pool full of piranhas.”
“I didn’t know about the tournament,” she said and judging from the bitter twist of her lips, she was telling the truth. She hated to be left out of anything. It was a tool my father used with expert timing to drive her to the brinks. And they wondered why I wasn’t sprinting for the alter? Gee, a real puzzler. Someone should call Sherlock and Watson in for a consultation.
“There were rumors that your father was getting ready to ask you to come home. I don’t know how he found out where you were living all this time. You know that neither Gemma nor I told him.” She paused, giving me space to agree. I wanted to believe her, that she hadn’t sold me out, but I wasn’t 100 percent certain yet.
“Where is Aunt Gemma?” I asked. “She wasn’t at the gala last night, either.”
Athena sat back and huffed. “Oh, your uncle took her away on some last-minute business trip of his. She will be so upset to have missed your big party.”
I snorted. “Yeah, I imagine people will be talking about it for some time. The grand finale was to die for … quite literally.”
Athena recoiled. “Must you be so morbid?”
Matthias caught my eye as he continued to circle the room before stopping to inspect a large abstract painting.
I sighed. “You might not have known about the tournament, but you had to know that he was dragging me back to see me married off.”
She nodded, relenting the point. “It’s only natural, Lacey. You’re the—”
“Don’t say it.” I held up a finger. “I swear, if I hear anything more about legacy or heirs, I’ll explode.”
“That would be a neat trick,” Athena snapped, her warmth evaporating with each passing second. She gave a long-suffering look at Matthias. “She’s always had a flair for the dramatic.”
“Wonder where I picked that up,” I muttered.
Matthias coughed into his fist.
“Mother, please.” I leaned forward, my hands clasped together in front of me. “You have to help me convince father that this tournament is a bad idea.”
Athena’s pencil-thin eyebrows lifted. “You honestly think I have that kind of sway? He’s made up his mind, Lacey. There’s nothing that can be done to stop the tournament now. Especially following last night’s unfortunate events. The Court will be in a frenzy until this murder is solved. A game will be the ideal distraction to get their minds off it.”
My mouth opened but I was rendered speechless. We might not see eye to eye, but she’d always been my ally before. Now, it seemed she was letting me hang out to dry on my own.
Athena softened again. “I know it’s not the way you would have planned it, but it’s for the best, hummingbird.”
I frowned at the nickname. “How many times do I have to ask that you not call me that?”
“Why ever not? It’s adorable!” Athena turned in her seat, beaming at Matthias. “When she was small, she was so fast, she’d just flit from place to place, all over the mansion. So, we took to calling her hummingbird.”
Matthias chuckled.
I pointed at him. “That’s quite enough, Matty.”
That swiped his grin away.
Good.
Athena shrugged and turned back to me. “Lacey, your father and I both want you here, at home. It’s time you start learning to lead the Court.”
“Why? Is father planning on finding himself at the business end of a wooden stake in the near future?”
Athena gasped.
“Oh, please!” I scoffed. “You’d do it yourself if you thought you could get away with it!”
She glanced at Matthias with a wry look. “She doesn’t mean it.”
Uh, yeah, pretty sure I did.
“This may blow your mind, Mother, but I was happy living among the humans. And while I don’t agree with Father’s leadership style, I don’t envy him the job.”
Athena considered me for a long moment. “I don’t know what you expect me to do, Lacey. This is your duty. There aren’t provisions or work-arounds in the case that an heir refuses his or her responsibilities. It’s obviously far too late for your Father and I to produce more offspring. And even if we did, you would have to be killed to make way for them to get to the front of the line.”
The walls of the sitting room were starting to shrink in on me. The air too thin. Maybe it had been pie-in-the-sky but I’d honestly thought she would take my side and help me. I knew she’d push marriage onto me. I wasn’t that naive, but I thought she’d at least honor my plea against being forced to ride into the sunset with some blood-soaked Neanderthal fresh from a cage fight.
I regretted coming to see her. My mother and I had always had a complicated relationship, held together mostly by duty; hers as a mother and mine as a daughter. Beyond our love of high fashion, we had virtually nothing in common and my respect for her had flown out the window quite some time ago, probably around the time she’d paraded her first age-inappropriate boy toy around Court.
It suddenly hit me that not only was she incapable of doing anything to help me, she also didn’t want to.
I wasn’t sure which realization was more devastating.
I rose.
“Where are you going?” Athena protested.
“It doesn’t seem like there is anything left to say,” I told her. “I came to you for help and you’ve told me you don’t want to.”
Athena balked. “That’s not fair, Lacey.”
I shrugged. “Seems nothing about this situation is.”
“What do you want me to do?” her voice was higher and more frantic.
“All I’m asking for is some time! I just got back and all of this is happening too fast. We both know Father isn’t planning on giving up the keys to his little kingdom anytime soon, so why does it matter if I marry now or in a hundred years? We’ll all still be here, won’t we?”
“You know it can take decades to produce an heir,” Athena replied. “And that’s when actively trying. Although,” her eyes drifted back to Matthias and she added, “That shouldn’t be a problem. I’ve heard the line-up of suitors is quite appealing.”
Unbelievable.
“Mother!” I snapped, drawing her attention away from him. “Five years, ten, twenty, it shouldn’t matter! This whole idea of heirs in a vampire society is baffling. Especially nowadays with the havens. It isn’t like the old days where vampires were constantly at war or being mowed down by mages and wizards who fancied themselves vampire hunters. Stars, we don’t even go to war with the wolves anymore! What is the urgency?”
Athena’s face fell, the fine lines at her mouth becoming noticeable as she dropped her honeyed smile. “You’re right in that we’ve come a long way. Things aren’t the way there were when your father and I were young vampires. But that doesn’t mean there isn’t still danger lurking. Nothing is guaranteed. Last night should have proved that point clearly enough when Ivan Murrad’s head was found on your bedroom floor!”
The icy fear I’d been holding at bay came racing back, clenching me in its fist.
I shrank back as if I could scuttle away from the thought itself.
Realizing her misstep, Athena reached for my arm. “I only mean that the future isn’t guaranteed, Lacey. Not even for us. Your father only wants to know that his legacy is safe. That’s all. Can you really fault him for that?”
I clenched my jaw. There wasn’t a good response to that. At least, not one that would make me look like anything less than a heartless monster.
I looked away, unable to hold her gaze, and instead found Matthias’s. A strange mix of emotions played at his eyes. “We should get going,” I said, more to him that to Athena. “Thank you for the invitation. It was good to see you, Mother.”
“Lacey, please don’t do this. Stay.” She chased after me as I backtracked through the house. “We’ll have dinner together! Edison is an excellent mixologist!”
“Another time, Mother.”
Matthias followed behind, murmuring pleasantries to Athena as he passed.
Then we stepped into the night.
Chapter 10