Chapter 107 Queen’s Gambit
❀ Maeve ❀
Dark figures shadowed me as I walked through the halls of Veilmoor’s castle. My castle.
It was hard to get used to.
Just days ago, I was coronated. And just this morning, I’d made a bloody mess by taking off my crown.
My maids would have to wash pieces of my skin off the barbs.
My heart thudded for two different reasons.
Nikolai hadn’t returned from his mission at the border for two days. I was laden with worry.
What if Bastian had killed him? I hadn’t had the opportunity to talk to him about our peculiar arrangement the way I had with Nikolai.
I didn’t know how to feel. What to do.
The guards sent to the site had come back with disturbing news.
There hadn’t been a dead wolf among the casualties, but Nikolai was nowhere to be found either.
The other reason was the fact that I was on my way to meet my uncle. Vladis.
Following my coronation, I’d quickly become bored. Drusilla was busy with preparations for her birthing. Nikolai was missing.
There hadn’t been any political or royal missions to undertake as queen. Even Lilith was scarce. Tammy was still being monitored.
I sighed. Being queen was as underwhelming as it was overwhelming.
I stepped out into the cold night. My skin registered the chill, but my body remained unaffected.
Vladis had arranged a meeting on the grounds after the stables for a training session.
My senses prickled at the feeling of being watched, but I knew it was just my guards.
After the wolf sighting at the border, Drusilla—the regent turned advisor—had sicced the guards on me, even insisting on handmaidens so I was never in solitude.
My pants stuck to my legs in the damp air, my hair pinned up in a protective style.
I had no idea what mode of training Vladis had in store for me. Whether physical or psychological, I was ready.
Just before I reached the agreed location, I picked up his scent.
A mixture of dark moss and fern. As sly as him, and equally deadly.
“You’re late.”
I jumped, snarling in the direction of the voice. But it was only Vladis.
He’d materialized beside me.
My chest burned with how badly I coveted the ability to trace.
“I was busy,” I muttered. “I’m queen now, you know.”
He cocked his dark brows. “And I’m enough of a participant in the royal court to know your schedule.”
“Are you also aware of my personal schedule?” I challenged.
“Of course,” he deadpanned.
My skin crawled.
All my life, I’d preferred a private existence. Now I had half a dozen guards, a dozen maids, and a psycho uncle keeping tabs on me.
“Have you heard anything about Nikolai?” I held my breath.
Vladis regarded me with thinly veiled annoyance. “You’re the first queen I know to dwell on the whereabouts of a male. You do know he answers to you, not the other way around?”
I slowed my steps to look at him. “Why wouldn’t I be worried? He’s my mate.”
“And you can take any other if he is destroyed.”
A flare of contempt rose in my chest. “Just because no other Crimson females loved their mates doesn’t mean I’m like them. I care about him and would rather he not be destroyed,” I sneered.
Vladis said nothing.
Then we reached a cleared plot with minimal snow.
“You said you’d help me. How?”
He stopped a few paces in front of me, then turned around. “You’re bent on avoiding the obvious course to truth, so I’ll put you through the hard way.”
My whole life has been in hard mode.
I folded my arms. “Fine. What’s this hard way?”
Vladis smiled. His fangs glinted, gaze suddenly darkening like a predator scenting prey.
Taking an instinctive step back, I reevaluated my decision to meet with him. Earlier, it had seemed a good choice. To learn whatever he had to offer in my desperate quest for knowledge.
But if he planned to hurt me, could my half dozen guards do anything before the lethal blow?
Vladis raised both hands. His claws lengthened.
His scent grew stronger. More aggressive.
“Defend yourself. Or die.”
What?
He spared me no time to think. He attacked.
I lunged to the side, avoiding a particularly savage strike that almost broke the sound barrier.
My heart slammed in my chest, my limbs spurring me into fight or flight.
“What are you doing?” I demanded, even as he stalked toward me again.
“I’m going to kill you if you don’t fight. Channel your powers. They’re in you. Wolf or vampire—your pick.”
He kicked my knee. The bone popped.
I dropped with a loud shriek.
“Guards!” I screamed.
The dark shadows in the background remained frozen. Had he forbidden them from intervening?
Vladis advanced again, so fast I narrowly rolled away from another kick—this time to the head.
How could he attack me like this? I am the queen!
Fury surged in me.
Was he using the excuse of training to hurt me? To bully me?
I sank my consciousness into my beast, willing my wolf to burst forth.
Nothing.
I struck out with a claw, but Vladis caught me by the arm.
I staggered from shock. He’d drawn blood.
My eyes burned, my breaths came ragged and fast.
I’d always known he didn’t like me!
“You dared lay a hand on me?” I shrieked. “I am your queen!”
A flash of something crossed his eyes. He covered it with a wicked smirk.
“A broken queen with a broken heart. How can you carry the crown?”
He flew at me.
My eyes widened.
“Enough!” My voice broke at the end of the word.
My uncle froze with his claws just inches from the skin of my throat.
My chest heaved. Tears trickled down the sides of my eyes.
I pressed my lips together to dampen a whimper.
Our faces were so close together, I could see him struggling to rein in his killer instincts. His eyes were darker than an abyss.
How far would he have gone?
Then he stepped back, rubbing his chin. “Most peculiar.”
“What is?” I forced out. My eyes burned from streaming tears.
“Life-or-death situations usually awaken powers. It seems you have only one option left.”
I straightened to a standing position, my failure this night dawning on me.
Nothing screamed doom like dwindling options. Desperate options.
I wrapped my arms around myself. Where was Nikolai?
Where was Bastian?
Somehow, I felt both of their presences, surrounding me, soothing me.
I gritted my teeth as I realized—desperation was making me sense things that weren’t there.
I was on my own.
I turned to Vladis. “Drusilla said if I activated the rage and infected Nikolai with it, we’d both have to die.”
“True.”
I sank my fingers into my hair. The crown came to mind.
My voice small, I asked him, “And you would have me take this risk?”
As we stood staring at each other, I wished he was an uncle I could trust. A family member who’d proven loyalty and love.
Not a strange vampire in a strange land who so often looked at me with thinly veiled malice.
Face blank, eyes intense, Vladis said, “I know for a fact that you would not be affected by the curse of wrath.”
“Nikolai won’t let me. When I marked Bastian, I just got lucky. He was distracted and in shock. But Nikolai definitely wouldn’t want to risk the curse. He’ll fight it.”
He gave me that annoyed look again.
“You’re the queen,” he said, tone as if I were slow.
“I don’t want to betray him like that. What if we’re wrong?”
Vladis took a single step toward me, and I felt like it was the closest thing to comfort I would ever get from him.
“As opposed to living your immortal life powerless and incomplete?” he said, voice vehement. “You need to get this behind you. You still have Maverick Graves and the Crimson amulet to destroy—or they will destroy you first.”
The hairs on my nape stood on end.
Even though I’d already planned to mark Nikolai without his permission, I still had misgivings.
We were at a sensitive point in our relationship, and I didn’t want to set us back.
But if he truly loved me, he would want to take the risk.
What if he just needed that little nudge?
I glanced at Vladis. He smiled.
He knew he had me.
My mind wandered to the bowl of teeth on Vladis’s office table. The wooden stakes and inscribed wards from other civilizations.
“When I was in your office, you struck me as a collector.”
He inclined his head. “That I am.”
Voice low, I said, “Do you have anything I could use to restrain a Crimson vampire?”
His grin rivaled that of a Cheshire Cat, and I had to wonder…
What was I getting myself into?
“I have just the thing,” he said. “And it just so happens that I need something of equal value in return.”
I jerked my gaze to his.
The smile had vanished. In its place—a challenge.
What favor would he ask of me?
As queen, what would it cost to grant it?