Chapter 144 MY LIST OF DIRTY DEEDS

Chapter 144 MY LIST OF DIRTY DEEDS
NARRATOR
“So how’s the prince’s cure coming along?” Leonardo heard the Queen ask from behind him.
He’d clocked it already. Didn’t matter how he tried to steer the conversation, she always dragged it right back to the same damn question.
“It’s just... the King hasn’t been talking to me about it lately, and I’m scared he’s hiding something, so I won’t worry.” Her tone tightened. “You’re still giving him the medicine, right? Because it feels like your formula is off...”
“It is off,” Leonardo said at last, eyes on the steaming cup he kept stirring.
With his back to her, he sprinkled a pale powder into her tea, mixed it with the sugar, and stirred like he’d done it a thousand times.
“What do you mean, it’s off? The formula was almost complete. I thought with your knowledge you’d be able to perfect it,” the Queen snapped.
What had cost her a fortune wasn’t the book that concealed the spell, it was what she’d paid one of those grimy mages to only half decode the tonic formula that old witch had given her.
Leonardo turned with a soft smile and carried both cups to the little round table.
And of course, in her mind, he was already under her thumb. As if he’d never hurt her.
“Well...” Leonardo sat across from her. “It’s been complicated. But I do have a question.”
He waited, watching her blow on the tea, then sip again... and again.
“Which question?”
“How do you know so much about that specific spell? Maybe the person who created it could tell you more...”
He saw it immediately. The tension. The way her green eyes slid away, just a fraction.
“Well, I bought the book for a high price because of that spell. To help Kaden. I don’t know where the person who sold it to me is now, and besides...” Her voice sharpened. “What does that have to do with your incompetence?”
There it was. That razor edge she couldn’t always hide.
“The problem is... I found an old witch,” Leonardo said, as he was remembering. “What did she call herself? Mmm. The translation was something like... Agata.”
The color drained from the Queen’s face.
Leonardo didn’t need her to admit anything. He’d known.
“And she told me some very interesting things about you,” he went on, calm. “Like how you bought that spell to save Esteban’s life... and how you were warned it couldn’t be used on a Lycan in transition. So why are you pushing me to give it to Kaden? Wouldn’t that make him worse?”
“Lies!” Alondra shot up so fast the table jolted.
She didn’t even seem to understand what was happening to her.
She just... couldn’t control it. The fake words wouldn’t come. All that came up was this wild urge to spill the truth.
“That’s not true!” She held on as best she could.
“Yes, it is, and you know it!” Leonardo snapped, standing too. The fine porcelain rattled.
“You used me to poison the prince. You knew I hated him. You knew I’d figure out what that spell was really for and use it against him!”
Leonardo moved into the small antechamber, driving her back until she slammed into a console table against the wall.
“Tell me, dear aunt,” he said through his teeth, hate dripping off every syllable, “were you the one who drove the Lycan prince insane so he’d murder Isolde? An innocent girl, dead because of your selfishness? TELL ME!”
“YES!” Alondra screamed, like she couldn’t stop herself.
“Yes, I did it. I wanted him out of the way. But that idiot King covered for him, even after the murder. No matter how many potions I shove down that man’s throat, he always puts that whore’s son above mine, and you...!”
She stabbed a finger at Leonardo, staring at him like she couldn’t stop herself... like she couldn’t believe she was saying any of it.
“You’re useless, just like your mother. I should’ve killed you right along with that harpy who stole my father from me! You can’t even crack a simple spell, and you couldn’t even get rid of that arrogant bastard who stole little Miss Innocent Isolde right out from under you!”
When she finished screaming out all her secrets, her mind finally caught up.
This wasn’t normal.
She would’ve never lost control like that. She slapped a hand over her mouth, horrified, and her eyes went straight to the tea spilled across the tablecloth.
“You bewitched me... I trusted you and you...!”
SLAP!
The hit cracked across the Queen’s cheek, brutal enough to split her lip and draw blood immediately.
She pressed her hand to her face and stared at Leonardo with a hatred she hadn’t felt in years.
And just like that, they despised each other with the same intensity.
“You know what’s really stupid?” His smile turned nasty. “You think you’re untouchable, and Kaden has already found a path through the mountains to the Fae on his own....It doesn’t matter how hard you try to screw him over, dear aunt. He hates you. He knows what you’ve done, and he’s going to ruin you.”
Alondra processed it in a heartbeat, her mind snapping out of the little trance the truth powder had put her in.
No. It couldn’t be. Kaden couldn’t win!
She had to wreck his plan... but first... first she’d get rid of this parasite.
She’d have him thrown in a cell. Make him disappear in those same dungeons.
“You’re going to regret this, filthy orphan. My charity ends here. Guard...!”
But before she could call the men who were supposed to be nearby, Leonardo lunged at her like a man possessed.