Dinner With a Vampire (The Dark Heroine #1)(122)
Author: Abigail Gibbs

‘Stop.’

‘A-and we could get you someone to speak to about … about what has been done to you. You don’t have to tell me who it is if you don’t want to, but—’

‘Stop.’

Thousands of beads leapt back off the swelling surface of the water in the fountain, lapping over the stone walls. The grass was flecked with white, like a frosty morning and the sky split open with a ferocious crack, the grounds of Varnley lit up by a flash of lightning.

‘No, I’ll tell you what’s going to happen. Tomorrow night, I’m going to become a vampire. Then in two weeks time I’m going to go to Athenea and so are you. But before that, you, Lily and those other two men are going to go home and you are going to hand in your resignation from your position and the party. Eaglen will accompany you to ensure it is done. You leave early tomorrow.’

I left the window, passing his dumbfounded face, splitting into a temper like the sky.

‘Is that it? I lost my son, I almost lost my youngest and now I shall lose my daughter?’

I paused at the door, gripping each side of the frame with my fingertips. ‘Don’t you know the Prophecy? “Destined to betray her kin.” That’s how it is.’ Even I was surprised at the hollow tone of my voice. ‘Now don’t you have a letter of resignation to write?’

I didn’t hang around to hear his reaction. It was cruel, it was cold-hearted, but I needed him to resign. I couldn’t worry about my family’s safety as well as everything else. And more importantly, I wanted him and Lily away when I turned. Far away.

‘Fate truly does choose well.’ My eyes, fixed on the floor, shot upwards to see Eaglen, his tiny, frail frame leaning, quite casually, against the wall of the corridor. The impish smile of a much younger man was perched on his lips. I narrowed my eyes and glanced back at the door of my room, swinging shut and sealing my father in.

‘You heard all of that?’ He bowed his head and raised it again in reply. ‘Then will you do it? Go with him and ensure he resigns?’

He chortled. ‘I am duty bound to do whatever you tell me to do, young Heroine. If you were to order me to throw myself from a cliff, I would do so.’

I bit my lip. Right. ‘Well, that’s good. Not the cliff part though. That’s not good. Don’t do that.’

He continued to chortle, shifting his weight from one foot to the other and tugging at his beard with an amused expression of someone in on a private joke. ‘I suspect Athenea are going to find you quite … intriguing. But I will ensure that all you told your father will be done. Good afternoon, My Lady.’ He bowed and still unused to such treatment, I stood for a few more seconds before realizing now was the polite moment to move away. But I had hardly made it to the top of the staircase when I stopped, cocking my head to one side.

‘Eaglen, just one question.

‘Did you know all along? That I was a Heroine, I mean.’

‘Yes, My Lady.’ I definitely preferred Miss Lee to My Lady. ‘I had my suspicions from the moment I heard the young Prince had taken you. When I first encountered you at the dinner for the council members, those suspicions were confirmed.’ I cast my mind back to that dinner, straining to remember my first introduction to Eaglen. He had stared at me. Is that when …?

‘How did you know?’ Silence. I waited, but he did not speak. I felt my palm clench, frustrated that yet again, I was being denied answers. ‘Well, why didn’t you say anything? None of this would have happened if you had.’

‘In a game of chess, My Lady, one has to make certain moves at the right time in order to win.’

What sort of an answer is that? I had been imprisoned, almost raped, bitten and almost killed in the past few months. Somehow, it seemed there was a little more at stake than in a game of chess.

‘Then at least tell me this. What’s going to happen after these two weeks?’

‘Why, My Lady, you, along with the entire court, will go to Athenea, where further decisions will be made,’ he replied in a flat, unemotional tone. I whipped around to face him, the anger in my face and voice evident.

‘You know what I mean,’ I hissed. ‘All I want are straight answers. Why won’t you give them to me?’

He straightened up, drawing himself to his full height – he always stooped so I never realized his true size, which left me feeling considerably smaller.

‘And neither, My Lady, does one know of the next move in a game of chess. Now excuse me, I must attend to your father and I believe His Majesty wishes to speak to you.’ He pointed one of his crooked fingers towards the staircase and bowed, disappearing into my room. I scowled at the spot he had been standing in for a few seconds before someone behind me cleared their throat.

‘Your Majesty!’ I dropped into a curtsey as soon as I saw him, forgetting I didn’t need to, just as he swept a hand behind his back and bowed.

‘Lady Heroine, may we speak?’ I nodded and he gestured towards the door to Kaspar’s room, which was nearest. A little hesitant, I followed him in. He closed the door behind me and I watched as his eyes glided over the contents of the room – first the wrought-iron bed, which was untouched, not used for weeks – not since I slept in it. They moved to the closed French doors; the voiles; the drapes and the falling hail behind, hitting the balcony and producing a constant drumming. From there they slid to the grate of the fireplace and the cluttered mantle, strewn with paper and deodorant cans; and just above that, they settled, hovering on the great picture of himself in his younger days and his beautiful, kind-hearted wife, her eyes staring at the bed she would never again lie in.

How long is it since he has been in here? I wondered. His eyes did not leave the painting, his Adam’s apple rising as he swallowed hard, his hand frozen on the doorknob.

‘Your Majesty?’ I began as tentatively as I could, thinking that this was perhaps not the best place to talk.

He turned towards me, looking like he had only just realized I was there. ‘Forgive me. I would suggest my study, but it is presently in use by the Sage.’

The King released his hand from the door and returned to his usual manner, moving to the centre of the room in one brisk motion and, I noticed, turning away from the painting.

‘I thought it time that I offered you an explanation for my behaviour over the past few months.’ Damn right it’s time. ‘But first, Kaspar tells me that you wish to turn tomorrow night.’ I nodded. ‘And he asked permission to turn you. That is your wish, correct?’ Again I nodded. He nodded too, like he was absorbing that information. ‘I think it best that we do not inform the rest of the household about your chosen date. And perhaps, to also ensure your privacy, it would be best for you both to retreat into here tomorrow evening.’ He nodded to himself and almost as an afterthought, added, ‘Is this agreeable to you, My Lady?’