Chapter 36

Chapter 36

AMALIA

T his time, when Vee came through the window, Amalia was ready. Despite what she’d said about there being no guards, Vee never seemed to bother with entering the palace properly, like she was a guest. No, she liked to come to Amalia’s window. Liked to surprise her.

But ever since she’d eaten her evening meal, Amalia had been waiting eagerly. And when she heard the soft click of claws on glass, she wasn’t surprised.

Amalia tried not to look too excited as she pushed the window open to let Vee in.

“Hi,” Vee greeted her, smiling.

“Hi,” Amalia whispered back.

Their faces were mere inches from one another, almost close enough to touch…

Clearing her throat politely, Amalia stepped away from the window to let her in. “I… I wasn’t sure you would be coming tonight,” she said, twisting her hands together. “I didn’t have anything planned for us, I’m sorry to say. What—what did you want to do?”

Vee shrugged, hopping down from the window. “I don’t know, really. What’s there to do in the palace, anyway? ”

“Oh.” Amalia frowned, feeling awkward. “Not much, really. Most of the palace is empty.”

They used to have visitors, she remembered. Her mother loved having visitors from all over the realm, loved being wined and dined by the aristocrats from every octant. She’d had the whole Western Wing converted to bedrooms, so there was always room for guests. Now, those bedrooms were all empty. No one bothered to visit the palace anymore.

“Why don’t you show me around?” Vee pressed. “I’m sure you and I could get up to some trouble somewhere around here…”

Something in her tone, something in the way her eyes traveled over Amalia’s face and lingered on her lips, made her pulse jump.

She nodded, quickly.

“We’ll have to be quiet,” Amalia warned her, working to keep her voice careful and calm. “There are still a few guards around the palace. I’m not sure if we’re really allowed to be wandering around, especially at night.”

“Oh, don’t worry,” Vee said, her eyes sparkling mischievously. “I can be very, very sneaky.”

She stepped closer to her as she said this, stopping right in front of Amalia. Their noses bumped.

Amalia swallowed loudly.

“Okay,” Amalia whispered, feeling dizzy as she stared at Vee’s smile.

They hit the kitchens first, giggling as they pulled snacks out of the pantry, eating whatever looked good until Amalia felt fit to burst. Then they swung through the Western Wing, creeping into long-empty bedrooms, cooing and laughing over some of the things old visitors had left behind.

Amalia found a cat-o'-nine-tails stashed under one bed, frowning in confusion over the leather pleated whip while Vee howled with laughter.

Truthfully, Amalia didn't really know much about the palace. She didn’t even know how to find the Eastern Wing, where the Queen’s Blades had once lived. Her heart had broken at how disappointed Vee had looked when she’d admitted that to her .

“I could show you the throne room?” Amalia heard herself saying, wanting to give her friend something. “That’s where it all… you know, it all happened.”

She didn’t want to talk about the night of the Blood Moon. Didn’t want to even think about it.

But Vee’s eyes had gone wide when she’d said it. “Really?” she gushed. “That would be amazing!”

She wrapped her arms around Amalia, and suddenly it was too late to back out.

Amalia didn’t want to go to the throne room. She hated that room and had only been there twice since her mother’s death. The first time was to oversee the clean-up. The second time was to take her place on the council. The idea of going back made her feel a little nauseated.

But Vee… Vee wanted to see the throne room. Vee looked so excited. Swallowing her own feelings and pushing them as deep down into her stomach as she could, Amalia managed to paint a smile on her face.

“Sure,” she said. “It’s this way.”

The smile vanished when Vee reached out to take her hand, interlocking their fingers. Amalia stood there, dumbly, looking down at their intertwined hands, her heart pounding.

“Lead the way,” Vee said, smirking.

The throne room was designed to be an entertainment space—a long singular room, made to accommodate large groups of people coming to pay homage to the Queen. There were four entrances—the main entrance leading into the palace proper, two side entrances, and the back entrance closest to where the throne had been placed. This was the entrance her mother had favored—preferring a private method of coming and going that allowed her the freedom to leave whenever she chose. It was also the entrance the council members used.

The eastern side entrance was closer, so Amalia led Vee there, holding her hand the entire time. She felt lighter than air as they raced through the halls, giggling .

This was… fun. And Amalia couldn’t remember the last time she’d had fun before Vee. If she’d ever had fun…

As they approached the throne room, all that vanished though. The room had been designed to hold large crowds of people, yes, but it had also been designed to carry voices from one end of the hall to the other—the acoustics such that anyone sitting on the throne would merely have to whisper and still they could be heard all the way at the other end of the room.

Amalia froze when she heard the voices, coming to a halt so quickly Vee almost ran into her.

“What’s wrong?” Vee asked, head cocked to the side.

Amalia shook her head. “The council,” she whispered, listening to the gentle rumble of conversation drifting out from the throne room's eastern entrance. Someone had left the door ajar slightly, and she could make out Alice’s voice.

Alice . The Dead Queen’s Blade. The one who had started all of it, everything that led to her mother’s death. The one who had stormed the palace that night with a pack of Shifters. Amalia had felt numb when she’d found out that was who the council chose to replace her, but now…

Now she felt angry. Disgusted.

Why did it have to be her, of all people? Why couldn’t the Priestesses have held her spot on the council? Until she was ready? Why hadn’t anyone even talked to her before they decided, even mentioned it to her?

They hadn’t even thought about her, had they? Hadn’t even considered how it might feel for her to be replaced on the council by the woman who had ruined her whole life...

“Amalia?” Vee prompted. “What’s going on? What’s wrong?”

She was hyperventilating, Amalia realized. She inhaled slowly, trying to calm her breathing to a normal level.

“The council is meeting right now,” she explained in a quiet voice. “We can’t go in there.”

She’d expected disappointment. Maybe even anger, since she couldn’t show Vee the Eastern Wing either. She hadn’t expected Vee to get even more excited .

“You’re serious?” she asked, releasing Amalia’s hand to clap her own together excitedly. “They’re meeting now? At night?”

Amalia nodded. “They always meet at night now,” she explained. “For the Demon and Vampire Factions. It’s easier for them…”

She trailed off. Vee wasn’t listening anymore, she was tiptoeing closer to the door and pushing it further ajar.

“Vee,” Amalia hissed. “Vee, stop, we can’t go in there!”

“Why not?” Vee asked, turning to look at her over her shoulder. “We can just watch, right? It’s not like they’re hiding anything, are they?”

Amalia blinked.

“I guess…” she answered, considering. Why couldn’t they just watch, after all? No one had ever said she wasn’t allowed to watch the meetings… no one had ever forbidden her from coming, either. Wasn’t she, of all people, allowed to see what they were doing?

Wasn’t she supposed to be on the council?

Vee shot her a grin and turned back, nudging the door open a little more so they could peak inside.

“We don’t even need to go inside, see?” Vee whispered to her. “We can just watch from here. They’ll never even know we were here, trust me.”

Something felt off. Wrong. But Amalia shook the feeling off, moving closer to the door with Vee. Vee took her hand again, smiling at her, and despite everything, despite the feeling in her gut, despite being right outside the last room she ever wanted to see again, Amalia found herself smiling back at her.

Her hands were so different from Amalia’s. Calloused, where Amalia’s were soft. Scarred, where Amalia’s were flawless and perfectly groomed. Vee’s fingernails were rough and jagged, and a little dirty. She liked that. Liked the contrast. Liked the way their hands looked with their fingers laced together. She liked the darker tan of Vivian’s skin against her golden hues.

“Shhh,” Vee whispered to her, even though Amalia wasn’t talking. “I want to hear what they’re saying.”

“—send someone to request a meeting,” Alice was saying. “ Request , Cassiel. Not demand. Repeat that back to me, so I know you understand. ”

The Vampire’s reply was so full of venom, Amalia felt herself shrinking away from him, instinctively.

“I’m not in the habit of making requests,” the deSanguine said. His voice held so much menace, so much violence, Amalia wanted to turn and run. But Alice… Alice didn’t flinch. She didn’t cower away from him even a little. From their vantage point in the doorway, they had a perfect view of her as she turned to the deSanguine and raised a single eyebrow.

“Repeat it back to me, Cassiel,” she said, slowly, as though talking to a child. A child, and not a deadly blood sucker who could snap her in two in an instant.

And to Amalia’s shock, the Fallen King—one of the worst of the bogeymen from the stories told to her when she was a kid—laughed. He didn’t cackle, didn’t snicker villainously. He simply… laughed.

Holding his hand up as though swearing an oath, he spoke. “I, Cassiel Salvatore deSanguine, will request a meeting with l’enfant de sang . Not demand,” he said in a clear, amused tone.

“Excellent,” Alice said.

They weren’t scared of him, Amalia realized. None of them were scared of him… and he didn’t seem scared of Alice. He wasn’t terrified of the ex-assassin at the table. The Blades had been her mother’s greatest weapon, the strongest and most deadly Witches in the realm. They should be terrified of her.

They were all peers, Amalia thought suddenly. That’s why they weren’t scared of each other. And that’s why she hadn’t fit in among them. She wasn’t their peer, was she? Wasn’t strong like they were, wasn’t powerful… The realization left an uncomfortable lump in her throat.

“How is our wheat farm in the fourth octant fairing?” Alice asked, looking down the table at an attractive man in his twenties.

“Good!” he answered. “Two families have settled onto each farm, and it sounds like the vast majority of the crop from this year can be salvaged. By next year, the Elk are confident they can have the realm’s wheat supply back to expected levels.”

“Who’s that?” Vee asked Amalia, frowning at the man at the table .

“I don’t know. I don’t recognize him,” Amalia answered. “He’s sitting in Kellos’s seat, so I guess he’s representing the Shifters tonight?”

Vee’s head jerked sideways to look at her.

“Kellos?” she asked, and something in her eyes made Amalia uncomfortable.

“Yeah,” she said. “He’s, uh, he’s a Lion Shifter. He’s usually the Shifter representative. Do you… do you know him?”

“I know him,” Vee answered, looking back into the room. Her voice was strangely quiet, strained. “I just didn’t know he was our Faction’s representative, is all.”

“Oh,” Amalia answered, not sure what to say. Were the council members supposed to be a secret? Had she broken some rule by bringing her friend here, by showing her this?

Vee stepped back from the door, and for a moment her face was hidden in shadow, so much so that Amalia couldn’t make out her expression at all.

Then it was gone, and Vee smiled at her.

“Come on, let’s go back to your room. This is boring anyway, isn’t it?”

Amalia smiled back, relieved.

“Yeah, okay,” she said, reaching out to take Vee’s hand again. This time, when they walked through the halls together, she let her thumb caress Vee’s. And Vee didn’t stop her.