Shit. Now what am I supposed to say?
“We know you killed him!” Pyleah shouts before I can form a coherent answer. “The essence of Dragon magick was all over him!”
“Yes, from my brother. The Emperor of the Dragon Realms and Underworld!” I shout out so that everyone gets that piece of information.
The crowd goes silent, rightly so, recognizing that they are now dealing with the threat of the Dragon Emperor and not just little ol’ me. Too bad Dracul isn’t actually here, though. It kind of loses the effect.
Just as the silence grows uncomfortable, I see Pyleah nudge a woman forward and to my dismay it is Delilah. The woman clearly hates me and is about to truss me up like a Christmas turkey for the Court.
“The Princess is guilty!” she shouts out. “I heard her on more than one occasion say behind his back that she wanted to kill the King!”
“What?” I exclaim in genuine astonishment as the crowd goes ballistic, baying for my head. Vito pulls me closer to him and I should just puffport us both out of there and home safely, but the blatant lie pisses me off. “I was spelled to love only him!” I bellow, my temper getting the better of me. “All I wanted was him! I could never have said those words!”
You could hear a pin drop in the ensuing silence. Not a single person dares look at me now, knowing that I was spelled up to choose Sebastian and was kept here against my will.
Pyleah’s face grows furious and she nudges Delilah again. Clearly this isn’t all she has in her bag of lies.
“She laid with the Wolf while she was wed to our King!” Delilah triumphantly screams out at the top of her voice, which was completely unnecessary as everyone would have heard her anyway. “She broke the sacred vows of her union! It is treason!”
“Arrest her!” Pyleah demands again.
The lynch mob approaches me now, ready to do business.
“Wait!” I command, holding up my hands.
Anders has completely lost control of his people and is ready to give in to their demands. My only ally has been turned and I am in serious shit. I will get me and Vito out of here, along with Cade, but first I am ready to do some damage of my own to that little wench.
“Delilah was screwing the King while we were wed. She let him feed his Vampire from her as well!” I give her a smug smile as her face pales, and she gasps as all eyes turn to her. She doesn’t know that I remember all about that. “She–”
“Whore!” someone bellows, interrupting me, from the middle of the d
ining hall.
I take offense as I am sure that was directed at me, but when the breakfast roll that was thrown, hits Delilah square in the face, I know it wasn’t for me at all.
“Disgusting harlot!” another one shouts, followed up by a piece of ripe fruit. “Gold digger!”
“Homewrecker!”
“Slut!”
“Vampire whore!”
The insults keep on coming at her and Delilah tries to hide behind Pyleah, but she is having none of it, disassociating herself from this spectacle. She is furious as her eyes find mine, but I give her a little wave and grab Vito by his shirt front and puffport us out of there as quickly as I can, back into the west wing. She will be hot on our heels, so I start kicking down doors.
“Cade?” I yell over and over.
Vito takes the doors on the opposite side of the corridor and after about five attempts, I find him, standing in the middle of his bedroom, looking perplexed.
“Vito, quick!” I shout as I grab Cade’s elbow.
Vito comes barreling through the door with half of the Light Fae Guard on his arse. Clearly my distraction has worn off and they have realized I am trying to get out of here with Pyleah’s prized possession.
Vito slips his hand into mine and I puffport us out of the Light Fae Kingdom and back home to Ponte, calling up wards as soon as we land in the Entrance Hall.
Chapter 18
Ponte, Italy, January 2015 - Aefre