“But I wonder,” Raul says. “Would you be here now if you were given a choice?” He shakes his head. “Never mind. We mustn’t speak of such things.”
I take his hand and turn him to me. “Yes,” I say. “I would be here. After Phillip got me out of the caves, away from The Convicted… when I first found myself Outside… I ran. But it didn’t feel right. I knew by then I would become a vampire. I knew my home could only be here. When I realized that, I knew I had to return.
“But James caught me first.”
Raul looks at me for a long time, his expression stony and serious. “You were going to come back?”
“Yes,” I say. “I didn’t know what I could do to help, but I couldn’t just leave you and Phillip to face The Convicted alone—”
I’m cut off when Raul suddenly wraps a hand around my lower back, tugs me into him, and seals my mouth with a passionate kiss.
I’m breathless when he lets go. “What…” I stifle a giggle. “What was that for?”
“For telling me the truth,” he tells me. “For showing me how much this life means to you.”
You mean how much you mean to me, I think to myself. I try—and fail—to supress another smile.
A spark of mischief lights up in his eyes. He grabs my hand. “Come,” he says. “I don’t think I ever properly showed you my rooms up in the residences.” He glances up at the treetops.
Excitement runs through me as we race to our destination. We stop in front of an enormous redwood. There’s an elevator carved into the trunk. Raul calls it down. I’m swept up by the pace of things and lose myself in the moment, excited to finally have some time alone with Raul…
Until the doors open, and the Queen steps out.
“Ah,” she smiles. “Eleira. Raul. Just the two vampires I most needed to see.”
Chapter Twenty-Eight
RAUL
Mother is seething. Her emotions, which are usually kept under such strict control, are on display at full force.
She’d called an impromptu meeting of the Royal Court. That’s where I am now: in the anointed chambers in the castle, listening to her chastise her Court for letting James escape.
Eleira, not being yet a member of the royalty, was not allowed to join us.
The Queen slams an open hand down on the marble table. The members of the Royal Court jump.
“Is this all you are capable of?” she demands. “Is this the limit of your abilities? Is this how you repay me for all the protection I’ve given you? After all the prosperity you’ve enjoyed?”
She stops talking, and takes a moment to meet each of the vampire’s eyes. Shivers run down their backs. They know the things she is capable of with her magic. To get on Mother’s bad side now would be a grave, grave mistake.
The vampire seated directly across from me—Bradley—clears his throat. “Perhaps if you’d given us reason to be more vigilant,” he says, “you would not have the current situation on your hands.”
Mother looks at him and narrows her eyes.
Bradley has always been one of the most outspoken members of the Royal Court.
“Go on,” she says dangerously.
He clears his throat and stands to full height. “It’s no secret that you’ve neglected the Royal Court for decades,” he says. “How long has it been since our last meeting? Forty years? Fifty?”
“You want to turn the table on me?” Mother asks, her voice icy. “You dare suggest I bear the brunt of the blame?”
“Nothing of the sort,” Bradley tells her. “But I am expressing concern about the way things have been run. It’s no secret you’ve relied on the council of your three sons almost exclusively for this whole time.” His eyes sweep to me, and then fall on Phillip. “It was the third who betrayed you? Perhaps if you’d turned to the Court earlier, certain mistakes could have been avoided.”
“And what mistakes, pray tell,” Mother offers sweetly, “could those have been?”
“Keeping news of the succession from us!” Bradley exclaims. Around the table, the other Court members mutter their agreement? “Did you think we would react favorably to being told of Eleira’s arrival at the same time as the rest of the rabble?” The murmurs of assent pick up. “We are, as you said, your Royal Court. Our faults lie not in our negligence, but in our disuse!”
At that, almost all the other vampires start voicing their agreement.
Mother waits for the commotion to die down. She raises her hands. “All right,” she says. “I see your point. Perhaps… some of the fault does lie with me.”