“Of course, My Queen. How can I help?”

“You’re the only one I can trust with this, Blade. You’ve always been on my side, and—”

“What is it, Ara?” He stepped down so he stood beside me. “You can ask anything of me.”

“You’re good with the law, right?”

“Yeah. Why?”

“Because, it has come to my attention that I am of little value in this system—that David and Walter and everyone else are calling the shots, while I'm left to wander around thinking I'm making a difference.”

“Aw, Ara, it’s not like that. You’re—”

“No. It’s true. They’re so used to me being this inept little human, they haven’t seen me become the vampire—the Lilithian.” I stood taller, rolling my shoulders back. “I want you to tutor me. I want you teach me the laws, the ways, the things I'm missing so that I can finally step up and play the role I was born to play.”

“I thought Morgaine was teaching you.”

I paused for a second, thinking about her lessons. “I get the feeling sometimes that she’s teaching me only what she wants me to know.”

His brows moved slowly to pinch over the bridge of his nose. “Serious?”

I hesitated only for a second. “I’m serious.”

“So you. . .” He leaned closer, his hot breath brushing my hair with the scent of mint. “You don’t trust her?”

I shook my head, half checking over my shoulder.

He nodded, his lips thin. “Neither do I.”

“What?” My eyes flicked onto his.

He started walking, motioning for me to follow. “I’ve had my suspicions from the beginning about her. I’m not sure what the deal is, but I . . . I dunno. Something tells me not to trust her.”

“So. . .” I walked quickly, trying to keep up with him, feeling a little uncomfortable in this quadrant of the manor. “You’ll help me?”

He stopped walking. “Are you sure you want to do this—stepping up, I mean? It won’t be easy.”

I thrust my shoulders back. “If I wanted life to be easy, Blade, I would have left Drake on the throne.”

“Yeah!” He pumped his fist then held his hand in the air. “High five, girl.”

I slapped his palm. “So, does that mean you’ll help me?”

“When do we start?” he asked with a grin.

“Tonight. After lights-out.”

“Perfect. Where?”

“Oh, um, meet me in the library at twelve,” I said, turning to walk away.

“I’ll be there.”

Even though the table was only meters long, the separation between David I felt like miles. He sipped his wine, eyeing me the whole time, probably trying to get a grasp on my thoughts. But I had a mind blanket the size of Manhattan quilting them. He wasn’t getting in, no matter how hard he tried.

Jason looked across at me, his shoulders sinking, and offered a sympathetic smile. And I looked away. With the mood David was in right now, last thing I needed was him making an ‘example’ out of Jason too.

“I have to say, I agree with Walt,” David said, and I looked up. “If his contact says Drake hasn’t returned to Elysium, then I’m happy to go ahead with our plans this weekend.”

Walt nodded. “I believe it’s best, Your Highness, to get these prisoners sorted quickly. There are more important matters at hand.”

“Like our missing venom stores,” Margret added.

“We’re looking into that,” David said. “But we haven’t got anything to go on.”

“We could just call Drake and ask him if he took them?” Morgaine said, her tone light, joking. “I mean, I still have his number in my contacts.”

Everyone at the table laughed.

“Actually, I’ve sanctioned the help of our white canine friend,” David said, sipping his wine after. “He’s going to sniff out the trail.”

“Sniff it out, Majesty?” Walt raised a brow.

“Yes.” David held back a grin, knowing how ridiculous it sounded. But it was actually a good plan.

“Well, perhaps I may be of service then,” Walt added. “I could follow the dog, take a team with me, and hopefully recover our losses.”

David nodded. “Thank you, Walt. Although, I’m not sure we’ll find anything more than the route they took.”

“Much can be learned simply by knowing their method of entry,” Walt added.

My eyes narrowed involuntarily, and I sent a little thought to David: So we’re trusting Walt now, even though he’s only pretending to be Blood Bound to this Throne?

He looked up, answering Arthur then Margret, and thought, I’ll talk to you about that later, for me.

I shook the irritation from my head, biting my teeth together. One minute, Walt was the traitor that infiltrated our Council, the next minute he’s in charge of a very important operation, and David says he’ll talk about it later. How was it that I got left out of this loop along the way? If things had changed regarding Walt, I should have been the first to know. And this just cemented even deeper the notion that, as a wife, I could trust David with my heart but, as his queen, I couldn’t trust a goddamn thing he said.

I sat back in my chair and aimed my gaze at Blade, hoping he’d catch it, but his eyes were small and smiling, lost on Emily’s face as she talked with him across the table. Even Morg was watching them.

“What’s the deal?” I leaned closer to Morgaine.

She sat up, looking away from them. “What do you mean?”

“Oh, come on, Morg. You know what I mean.” I presented Em and Blade.

“Nothing.” She smiled in their direction. “Emily just told a funny joke.”

“Oh.” I sat lower in my chair. “Guess I missed it.”

“That’s because you weren't paying attention,” she said casually, scooping some food onto her fork. “Nothing new there.”

I rolled my eyes and slumped lazily on the arm of the chair.

***

A fire burned bright between the windows, making the brown spines of old books glow orange. The tables were all bare again, the librarian having finished her cataloguing, and the room once again looked like a place of sanctuary. Even Arthur had taken up a seat by the long table facing the flames, instead of reading in his room like he had done lately.

I wandered across and peered over his shoulder. “What you readin’?”

He looked up quickly, flipping the book closed. “My Queen.”

“Human anatomy?” I frowned, plonking my butt on the chair beside him.

“Yes.” He spun in his seat to face me, resting his jaw on his hand. “I’ve decided to study human medicine again.”

“Why?”

“Well, we’re a society made up greatly of both vampires and Lilithians,” he explained. “And with Lilithian bodies retaining much of their human makeup, I figured a doctor who is versed in both vampire and human biology might be of some use.”

I nodded. “So, you planning to deliver a baby sometime soon?”

“You saw that,” he stated to himself, nodding.

“Yeah. Why are you reading up on reproductive systems?”

“I was just comparing the differences in knowledge from the days when I was the most educated man in medicine to what they know now.” He laughed, making a pile of his books as he stood. “Quite a few advances.”

“Yeah, just a few.” I stood too. “Why’s the fire burning? It’s only just September.”

“It makes me feel more…human to sit here and read with the glow of firelight.”

I looked at the chair by the fire, the pipe on the arm, and the copy The Hunchback of Notre Dame on the footstool. “You used to sit here with Arietta.”

He smiled at the scene. “Yes.”

“I'm sorry. I wish I could bring her back to life.”

“Well,” he said, picking up his reading material. “Let’s just focus on making sure I never have to say those words to you.”

I smiled as Arthur walked away. “Night, Arthur.”

“Night, my dear,” he said, then tipped his head at the dark-haired knight who entered as he exited. “Blade.”

“Arthur,” Blade said casually, turning once to watch him leave. “I think we scared him off.”

“Probably for the best anyway.” I leaned on the tabletop. “Not sure I want everyone knowing what we’re up to.”

“I thought you trusted Arthur.”

“I do. But I’m starting to see why people around here place more distance on friends than they do enemies.”

“Oh?” He leaned on the table beside me, crossing his ankles. “And why is that?”

“Because friends betray you in your best interests, Blade. And there is nothing more dangerous than a person who is trying to protect you from the truth for your own good.”

The corners of his lips turned down with thought, his head bowing once in a nod of approval. “You sure you need me to teach you anything?”

I laughed. “You sure you need to ask that question?”

He stood from his lean and wandered over to the whiteboard—stuffed neatly into a crevice behind a desk—and lifted it onto its stand. “Right, before we learn anything about the law or the ins and outs of queenly duties, let’s start with where you’re going wrong and why you may have the respect of your people but not of your peers.”

I looked into my lap for a second, digesting that. “Straight to the nitty-gritty, huh?”

“I see no need to waste time on small talk, My Queen.”

“Okay.” I nodded. “Let’s get started then.”

“Sit.” He pointed to the chair.

I sat down.

“Now, first of all—” He paced the floor, his hands closed around a whiteboard marker behind his back, that English accent of his more prominent in Teacher Mode, “—most unlikeable thing you do: tantrums.”

“Tantrums?”

“Yes.” He grinned, making an overly dramatic point of stomping his foot.

“Oh. That.”

“Yes, that. A queen does not need to stomp her foot to get her own way. You’re on the right track, Ara—” He stuffed the marker in his back pocket, “—standing up for what you believe, making decisions and seeing that people follow them. It’s what you need to do. But you don’t need to stomp your foot to do it.”

“I never even realised I was.”

“I know.” He squatted in front of me and delicately took my hand until I looked at him. “And, this isn’t a pick-on-Ara session, either. I just want to point out a few things that need to change if you’re to earn the respect you actually deserve.”