“It isn’t interesting already?”
He chuckled, and with a heavy blink of both eyes, he said, “Listen.” He laced his fingers together across his lap. “The queen’s knight tucked her far away in the woods, where no one would find her and where she could give birth to her unborn child in privacy.”
“She was with child by the king?”
“Indeed.” His glassy eyes sparkled. “The child, her son and the rightful prince of Varis, was the first vampire born.”
“Oh, my stars.”
“Her son, whom she named Rodin after his father, the king, grew tall and strong. By the time he was a man, Queen Morgrid had established all of her vampire loyalists as aristocrats across the land. She’d also created her Legionnaires, her own vampire army. And she had taken her king, Grindal, as her husband. He was the one who’d encouraged her to establish laws so that her vampires didn’t savage the humans mindlessly. Grindal saw that if there weren’t laws in place to protect the humans, then there’d be no humans left to feed upon. And so the peasant class and commoners became the feeding ground, the human aristocrats helping enforce the laws to ally themselves with the vampire monarchy.”
Mina’s stomach twisted. The brutal enslavement of a people had over time become an accepted, commonplace practice. Yes, there were laws protecting humans from mindless slaughter, yet it still occurred. And the peasants were kept in the darkness of poverty to ensure their continued obedience to the vampire’s will and reliance upon them. When Mina was queen and when they’d won this war, she would ensure no one was forced to serve another being—human or vampire.
“But what happened to the son, to Rodin?”
“I’m getting to that, my dear.” Squinting as if to see the memories better, he said, “Tamora raised her child and lived in peaceful quiet until she died of frail health. Though she was vampire, she had never recovered from the loss of her husband.”
“So it’s true one can die of a broken heart?”
His sad smile said enough. “It is also true one can live too long with a broken heart.”
Mina pleaded, “Please continue, my lord.”
“The knight took the young man to the east, away from the eyes of the Glass Tower. He pretended to be the boy’s father and invented a new name. He’d had enough sovereigns to set them up as local gentry. There, young Rodin met a lovely woman of the vampire aristocracy and married. The knight went away, thinking it safer for Rodin, for if he ran into the king or queen or anyone who was there at the Massacre, they would know him on sight.”
“That’s so sad.”
“Perhaps. But necessary. And so Rodin and his wife had a son they named Christov. Rodin lived long, but he died in a battle during the Thorn Wars. Christov met a lady, a human, at a Harvest Holiday in the north while visiting friends. I’m not sure if you’re familiar with Harvest Holiday, but it is a night of revels…and passion.” His blue eyes twinkled.
“So Christov and his lady…?” Mina couldn’t quite state the obvious to the grandfatherly Lord Petrov.
“Yes.” He chuckled lightly. “She became with child and Christov loved her, despite the fact she was not vampire or even an aristocrat. It is rare for such a thing, but Christov was beloved by the King of Korinth, Stephanus Varis, and so he bestowed the gift of vampirism on Christov’s bride. Therefore, their child, a son, was born vampire.”
Mina’s heart thrummed wildly in her breast, dawning realization sinking in. “Where did you say Christov’s wife was from?”
“I didn’t, Your Highness. But if you must know, she was from Kellswater.”
A feverish wave of heat flushed through her body as she tightened her fists in her lap, her panting more pronounced. “And what was the name the queen’s knight gave Rodin?”
He grinned, seemingly satisfied she’d come to the correct conclusion. “Romanov.”
“Christov’s son is…was…Mikhail Romanov.”
“Yes, my dear. I never thought to lay eyes on him. But he couldn’t deny the genes of his great-grandmother Tamora if he tried. Same ebony hair. Same eyes.”
Her mouth had gone dry at all that had just unfolded. “My Lord. You knew Queen Tamora?”
His gaze remained on the fire, now little more than gold-red embers. “Very well.”
“You were the knight who saved her, weren’t you?”
He smiled at her, and Mina saw the young, noble knight who so many years ago saved a queen and her unborn child. And therefore, Rodin’s son, Christov, and Christov’s sons, Mikhail and Dmitri.
Leaning forward, he gripped her hands in his older ones. “It is not coincidence that you come to my house seeking aid from my own son in your quest to be queen. That Mikhail Romanov serves as your protector, your knight. The man who would have been king. Should have been king.”
Mina’s mind reeled from the revelation, her heart racing with joy. But then she wondered, “Do you think he knows of his heritage?”
“He knows.” He squeezed her hands. “Though he does not know I was the knight who saved Queen Tamora. No one does but Queen Morgrid and King Grindal.”
“And that is why you have been put on house arrest all these years, isn’t it?”
“Indeed. They recognized me here in Arkadia. They knew I had disappeared that day with the queen. I confessed, saying that she died of her injuries from the king’s bite. They believed me.”
“I am surprised they only stripped you of your title and didn’t kill you.”
He arched a brow with a haughty smile. “By then, I had many allies in the House of Arkadia, including the king, your father. He was the one who anointed me earl after my marriage to my late wife. Killing me would’ve injured diplomacy. When my son was born many years later, they allowed him to reclaim the title they’d taken from me. This was all long before you were born, and they had plans to ally their kingdom with your father’s.”
“You knew him?”
“I did. He was a good man. When you were born and your mother had died in childbirth, he held a gathering to celebrate your birth. He loved you so. When Queen Morgrid visited and declared that her son Marius would marry you one day, your father refused. Did you know that?”
A queasy sensation twisted her stomach. “No. I didn’t. But I was betrothed to Marius.”
“Hmph. After your father was killed.”
Mina leaped to her feet, pacing away and then back. “She had my father killed, didn’t she?”
“There has never been any proof. But it was shortly after your father was ambushed on the road by rogue vampires that she installed Steward Thorwald.”
“Steward Thorwald,” she spat like poison from her mouth. “The man who kept me prisoner in Briar Rose all my life, making sure I was kept in comfort but had no free will of my own.”
“That certainly sounds like the man.”
“Well, damn him. Damn them all. I will be queen. No one will have control of me ever again.”
“Only perhaps your heart,” he teased, sounding very much like his son.